Chapter Three
Lady Emma lightlyknocked on Theodora’s door before entering. “Marjory said your Winston mentioned you had had a rough night. I thought you might require a friend.”
Theodora had thought herself prepared to face the day, but Emma’s sympathy had Dora tearing up again. “I feel like such a fool,” she murmured as she rushed into Emma’s waiting arms.
“You are assuredly not a fool,” Emma declared as she cupped Dora’s face with both hands. “You love Lord Marksman, and Richard swears his brother is equally fond of you.”
“‘Fond’ is not love,” Theodora argued.
“Men have difficulty saying the words,” Emma proclaimed. “Sometimes they require a nudge. We must simply remind Lord Marksman that he is not the only one who finds you attractive.”
“I have never been seen in public on the arm of someone not connected with the family,” Theodora admitted.
“Not even Mr. Hartley?” Emma asked.
“I do not believe Alexander would consider Justin Hartley as a true suitor,” Dora objected.
“I do not see why,” Emma challenged. “Your father treats the man as an ‘unadopted’ son. According to Richard, Lord Duncan has groomed Mr. Hartley, very much as he did with each ofthose his lordship brought under his roof. The only difference is Hartley was not abandoned, as were Richard and the others. Even if Mr. Hartley does not serve as a potential gentleman caller, he might put a flicker of doubt in Marksman’s mind while we find another to make him realize how very valuable and precious you are to him,” Emma insisted. “I shall also ask Richard of eligible young lords in Parliament.”
“And what if such proves fruitless?” Dora asked while feeling a bit better just knowing Lady Emma was determined to assist her.
“Then we shall call upon the Black Widow of Whitehall,” Emma declared boldly.
Dora pulled her friend down beside her on the edge of Dora’s bed. “What do you know of the Lyon’s Den?”
Emma confided, “Richard says the reason for your father’s most recent call upon the Lyon’s Den, with Richard and Alexander in tow, is that some woman wished a match with Lord Duncan.”
“With my father?” Theodora questioned. “Who was she? Surely, Papa refused.”
“He refused. Moreover, Richard said the woman could no longer be found at her boarding house.”
“Boarding house?” Theodora inquired.
“I shall again ask Richard the woman’s name, if you like. It sounded like a name my father might mention when discussing those with whom he holds negotiations on a regular basis,” Lady Emma explained. “The things to remember from my story are your father refused the woman’s offer and the Widow of Whitehall arranges marriages at a woman’s request, not a gentleman’s. So, you and I are going to create a list of possible young suitors who might interest you, and, if any prove more than interesting, we shall call upon the Widow, together.”
“I adore that Richard carried a sister into this house and changed both our worlds.”
“Where be wegoin’?” Lionel Carter asked Alexander.
“I want to examine Lord Amgen’s house before the Marquis of Honfleur takes possession of it at the beginning of next week. I want to know where the various rooms are located. Easiest access. That type of information.”
“Just as in the old days, huh?” Lionel remarked as he was quick on Alexander’s heels.
“We are not stealing something we could sell to purchase a few potatoes,” Alexander said as an image of Lionel Carter and him together, shoulder-to-shoulder and back-to-back in a test of survival in London’s slews and rookeries flashed before his eyes.
“I not be leavin’ without me friend,” he had told Lord Macdonald Duncan when the earl had come for Robert Dutton and Alexander.
Surprisingly, the man had said, “I have heard of your loyalty to the boy. My men have found him, but, like you, he will not leave without you. I admire a young man who can inspire such loyalty in others. Now, follow your father, and we will also claim young Mr. Carter. We can teach him a useful trade.”
“What’s to become of me?” Alexander had demanded. “Whilst I learn a trade also?”
“You will learn a noble trade,” Lord Duncan had promised. “Now, come along, boy. Follow your father into the carriage.”
Alexander had held out his hand to shake Duncan’s, and, surprisingly, the man had taken Alexander’s grubby hand in his and led him into a new life. Keeping his promise to assist Lionel won Alexander’s loyalty to the stranger, while the financialmeans and the hope of finding his mother and sister had become Alexander’s life’s work.
Lionel said, “We should also learn who lives in each of the houses along the street and if’n there are other empty homes we might use to watch this marquis’s comings and goings.”
“You have become not only an expert on horseflesh, you are very adept as an agent of the Crown.”
