“What did he look like?” Cordelia asked.
“Marvelous,” Rosalind said with a sigh. “He is the most magnificent man I have ever seen—quite perfect.”
“I wonder who he is,” Miss Mayton said.
Rosalind wondered too, but she was certain that she should not wonder long. The fates were in her corner and would see to it that her magnificent gentleman was put in her view in all haste. The fates could not make her feel as she did just now if they meant anything other than he was to be her gentleman.
She must just be prepared for whatever courageous act he was determined to do for her.
“Until we meet, good sir,” she murmured.
*
Balthazar Reardon, theDuke of Conbatten, took a chilled glass of champagne from his valet. He had very particular habits and the champagne had been run up from the cellars at precisely twenty-six minutes into a bath that was heated to precisely ninety-eight degrees.
His valet, Henri, kept a close eye on the thermometer and poured in a judicious amount of hot water to keep the temperature up.
It was well he favored such habits. Henri had detailed them to a number of other valets and, as those persons had no ability to keep a thing to themselves, now all thetonknew of them. These, and other ideas about him, had turned him into some sort of mythical creature and he often found it amusing. He had recently been informed that the members of Lord Darden’sYoung Bucks Clubcontinually debated inviting him in. The difficulty appeared to be the idea that he would refuse, or worse, accept.
All of this was an excellent mask for his real activities. Let them keep him at a distance, let them not know what to do with him.
His father had been one of the founders of the Queen’s Knights—a select group of five heads of families who worked toward Queen Charlotte’s primary aim. She wished England to be the envy of Europe, and London was to be the shining city, the lighthouse to all the world.
These aims had been continually stymied by how likely it was that one might be robbed on a lonely road, or robbed just by walking down the street in broad daylight.
Punishments, including hangings, had not had much effect. The queen was of the opinion that the worst offenders, the masterminds who directed their own armies of thieves, must be plucked out one by one like weeds from a garden.
So his father had sought to do, and so did he seek to do too. While thetonremained blissfully unaware of the Knights’ activities, those with something to fear did not.
When five gentlemen masked and wearing black cloaks strode down a dirty street in the Rats’ Castle, all who saw them knew that a powerful criminal was being hunted down. Shutters were closed and candles blown out.
Nobody dared fire at them, they had trained their eyes to spot the barrel of a gun poking out a window and the sot who tried it would find his one shot was countered by fifteen, as they all carried three pistols. Nobody dared approach them and stop their progress, as they would shortly find themselves sliced to ribbons.
Even the most depraved and daring rogue would prefer not to be the bull’s eye when they came calling.
The Knights did not concern themselves with anybody other than the top of the ladder. They did not meddle with boys who stole out of necessity, nor did they tamper with a man only trying to feed his family or bother a woman picking pockets as an alternative to prostitution.
They were not unaware that people must eat and be housed and warm themselves in winter. Neither was the queen. She’d tried setting up schools, and bettering workhouse conditions, and paying for apprenticeships.
The efforts were worthwhile, but they were only a light finger on a scale with a very heavy weight on the other side of it.
The problem the Knights concerned themselves with were those who had satisfied their daily needs and would seek to build an empire. They sought out those who could increase the amount of crime exponentially through recruiting young men to work for them.
Every so often there was one of these men creating a deal of trouble for the queen’s plans. There was one such now, who had grown so bold as to be training a legion of boys to be housebreakers.
Balthazar’s information so far was that the efforts were highly organized and detailed.
Boys were not just trained on how to spot a vulnerable house and how to get in and out. They were also trained on the niceties—how to separate the paste from gem and the cheap metal from silver. How to bypass the jewelry box displayed and find the one that was hidden. Where to look for concealed compartments. How to understand which kinds of papers were valuable and which were not. Apparently, they were so bold as to take personal correspondence and he assumed they hoped to uncover a scandal they could use in a blackmail.
Their accents were worked on and references forged, as one of the strategies was to get into a house through employment.
That was all the information the Knights had so far, but there would be more coming.
Now, the London season had commenced and Balthazar’s door was to be battered with invitations. He would venture out and play his part in society until he received the summons.
One day, and he could not know when, he would receive a note from a certain marquess that read:Our quarry is identified and within reach.
Until then, champagne, warm baths, and lovely ladies at balls and dinners would do very well.
