Chapter Six
Edwin had finallyheard from Dalton in response to his note to put a halt to digging up gossip against Miss Knightsbridge. He could not say it was a satisfactory response, as it had only said, “You had best come and see me.”
He supposed his friend would argue for going on with the scheme to cause talk about the lady, but Edwin was more determined than ever to put a stop to it.
Regardless of his opinions of Miss Knightsbridge, and those opinions had undergone a fairly radical transformation, it was not acceptable to toy with another’s reputation in such a manner. He need only think of explaining the scheme to his grandmother to acknowledge the ungentlemanliness of it, the very lowness of it. The dowager had ever been his moral compass and while he could not always predict what she would say to a thing, he could very well predict it in this instance.
He had arrived at Dalton’s house in all haste, in case the man was set on taking himself off to Surrey sometime soon. As he had dismounted his horse, he had surreptitiously glanced at Lady Marksworth’s house across the street, looking for any flutter of curtains to say that his arrival had been noted. He saw nothing and forced himself not to ponder the notion that any in that house would ever understand what his current errand was about.
Bellamy admitted him and showed him into Dalton’s library. One of the footmen came in with brandy, though it was well before noon. Edwin was beginning to think nobody in the house was acquainted with anything else. He could not remember ever being offered tea.
Hampton waved the fellow off just as Dalton entered the room.
“What now, Hampton,” Dalton asked, “your feet turning cold?”
Edwin could only assume this was in reference to his request that they forgo the idea of damaging Miss Knightsbridge. “I should never have allowed the idea to go forward,” he said. “In any case, it is fortunate that you decided to take yourself off to your father, rather than enact the scheme.”
“My father?” Dalton asked. “Why would I visit that old rotter just now?”
“I do not claim to know… wait, you did not go to your father?”
“Not a bit of it,” Dalton said, laughing.
“But Bellamy said—”
“Bellamy never says where I go. What sort of butler would he be?”
Edwin felt as if a block of lead was slowly settling in his stomach. “So then, you went to Surrey?”
“I did, and Tuttle has got a marvelous little document claiming Miss Knightsbridge was engaged to a local tradesman, but he broke it off. Can you guess why? It’s too amusing, really. The tradesman, and two other fellows, all turned up to apply to the Viscount at the same time. They discovered one another and they all broke it off with Miss Knightsbridge.”
Miss Knightsbridge involved in three engagements? One to a tradesman, no less? It could not be true. Aside from the unlikelihood of any lady engaging herself to three different gentlemen, the elements of the story itself were too convenient.
“Come now, Dalton,” Edwin said. “You know that’s a bit of fiction. Three gentlemen? Then they all conveniently turn up to see her father at the exact same moment? It’s absurd. That sort of contrivance belongs on the stage.”
“Possibly,” Dalton said. “But the fellow swore an oath on it.”
“Never mind what the fellow did,” he said. “I am certain he was well paid for his story and itisa story. We must put an end to this nonsense at once.”
“I am afraid it is too late for that,” Dalton said. “It would be rather like closing the barn door after the horse has been out for hours. Tuttle was given his orders two days ago in Surrey.”
“Good Lord, what have we done?” Edwin muttered.
Dalton clapped him on the arm. “All we’ve done is give the wags something to talk about. We don’t do real damage to the lady. She will be known as having too many suitors, I suppose that is not any real crime.”
“This is going to end badly,” he said.
Dalton shrugged. “It was you, Grayson and Lockwood that came up with the idea. You know me well—once I am given a mission, I carry it out. If you did not want it accomplished so quickly, you should have asked Burke—he’d still be in his library making jokes and telling stories about his ridiculous cook.”
“Come now, Dalton, you can recall Tuttle from his work, I am certain of it.”
Lord Dalton picked up a sheet of paper from his desk. “I do not claim to understand Mr. Tuttle’s methods, but he is all efficiency. Along with a shocking bill, he writes that the story has taken flight and no more need be done by him.”
“Blast,” Edwin said.
Dalton crossed his arms and surveyed his friend. “You seem to take an inordinate amount of interest in Miss Knightsbridge’s reputation. Asuspiciousamount of interest.”
“There is nothing suspicious in it, I assure you,” Edwin said hurriedly. “I simply do not like that we act in a less than gentlemanly manner.”
