*
When Jasper returnedto the house, he asked Perry to send coffee into the library. He intended to write various of his far-flung contacts in some vague and questioning way to discover any news of the Stuart. He thought it might be safe enough to send a general letter with news, and in the middle of it casually insert the story of the Stuart, the Tsarina, the scandal, the failed banker and the fact that the Stuart had fled Russia. He would then end the tale with a humorous warning along the lines of:He could be anywhere, lock your daughters up and let me know if you spot him!
After all, it was the sort of gossip onewouldpass on. He hoped he might hear something back about it, or even some mention of a gentleman new to a neighborhood that nobody seemed to know anything about. If there was one thing a person could count on when receiving a letter from the countryside, it was that it would document the smallest change in it. Whether it be that one of the gentry had daringly gone from cows to sheep, or that the quality of a certain farmer’s eggs was on the decline, or that a neighboring estate had been newly rented by an as yet unknown occupant. Were that mysterious occupant discovered to be a single gentleman, and Jasper did think the Stuart would travel alone, the news would be the constant topic of every dinner table in the neighborhood that happened to have an unmarried daughter on hand.
As he approached his desk, he stopped in his tracks. The letter he’d left as a ruse to determine if Miss Wilcox was some sort of infiltrator was gone. Good God, had she had the nerve to take it? Would it be printed in the newspaper verbatim?
He hurried to the desk and opened it. No, she had not taken it. It had been put in the drawer. She’d forgotten where she’d discovered it in the first place. That, though, was extremely clumsy. It certainly did not speak of a seasoned spy. Anybody wishing to rifle through another’s belongings, be they spy or otherwise, would take careful note of where the item was placed to begin.
Jasper paused. He had not yet any direct evidence that Miss Wilcox was the culprit. Perry might have put it away for some reason. Or a new maid who did not understand not to go near his desk—his mother was forever hiring new maids who had not the first idea of their duties. She often explained that everybody had to start somewhere, though his father did not understand why the somewhere was always their own house.
Perry came in with the coffee tray and set it down on the desk.
“Perry,” Jasper said casually, “did you happen to move a paper from my desk to a drawer?”
Perry seemed rather astounded by the question. “Certainly not, my lord. I would never touch one of your papers.”
Jasper nodded. “Did you happen to notice anybody in the library this morning?”
“Only Miss Wilcox coming out of it with a book,” he said in a disdainful tone. “A rather lurid tome, if I saw the title rightly. Very strange choice, I thought.”
Jasper did not know if it would be a strange choice or not. As far as he could tell, young ladies adored lurid tales that kept them up at night. But then, Perry was a traditional stickler and probably would not have been satisfied with anything more daring than an insipid book of poetry. “Thank you,” he said with a sigh, “that is all.”
That would have been Perry’s cue to make his exit from the room, but the butler hesitated, staring down at the coffee tray.
Jasper looked at it too and said, “Have you forgotten something?”
“No, my lord,” Perry said. “I only hope nobody in this house forgets who they are!”
With that, he practically fled, slamming the door behind him.
Jasper might have wondered if Perry were in the midst of some mental crisis, had he not more pressing things to consider. It had been Miss Wilcox who had moved the paper. Who hadreadthe paper before she moved it. Now, all he had to do was wait. Would it show up in the newspaper or not? If it did, he had his answer and he would tell his mother that Miss Wilcox must depart the house. If it did not, then he supposed it would give him a different answer—Miss Wilcox was only a rather nosy meddler.
He dearly hoped she was only a nosy meddler. Based on his experiences with his mother, he did not think it an uncommon trait in women. While he was waiting for his answer as to who Miss Wilcox really was, he thought he might as well discover what Perry considered to be a lurid tome. While he was doing that, he might press the lady into revealing something.
He certainly had reasons to seek her out that had nothing to do with admiring her hair or enjoying any conversation they might have.Thatwould not drive him thither. It was only duty that called him.
Satisfied that he had entirely rational reasons for going, Jasper took his cup of coffee and headed to the drawing room.
*
Georgiana was surprisedto see Lord Langley come into the drawing room; she had not heard him come into the house. A rather jittery surprise, she noted. She was always struck by the look of him, and now she was also shaken. If he’d come in a half hour sooner, she might have been caught rifling his desk.
Now, Lord Langley left the doors to the drawing room open for propriety’s sake and made his way to a nearby chair.
Perry had brought in a tea tray some minutes ago and she thought she would offer it to him, but he already carried a cup of coffee in his hand.
“Lord Langley,” she said.
“Miss Wilcox, how do you get on?”
“Very well,” she said, “Lady Mendleton has been most kind.”
She noticed he was eyeing her book and she said, “It isZastrozzi, the book Lord Bertridge recommended at Lord Ryland’s ball.”
“I see,” he said, still seeming intent on the book. “I would ask how you find it but based on the bookmark I presume you have just recently begun it.”
“Yes,” Georgiana said, not preferring to mention she had been in the library not very long ago.
