Mrs. Huffson’s brow wrinkled and she sipped her brandy.
“You see where I am going, Mrs. Huffson.”
The housekeeper nodded sadly. “Aye, if they buy a hair clip or a sheet of paper, they describe it in detail to the earl. It has always been so.”
“All I know,” he said, “is that up until now, they have only been interested in those dreadful books Miss Mayton finds somewhere. Now, they have secret books and a correspondence nobody knows anything about.”
“Miss Mayton knows about it, at least,” Mrs. Huffson said hopefully.
Tattleton sighed. The housekeeper really was so dreadfully naïve.
Chapter Fifteen
Though Percival hadordered Makepeace to find him both an investigator and a sporting tutor, he had rethought the sporting idea.
It was not that he’d rethought his aim, but how to go about it.
An investigator could come from any walk of life, as long as he knew his business. A sportsman would be a different matter. He needed a man who could coach him on the pursuits of thetonand that would require that he be a gentleman.
Once that notion had settled in his mind, it was easy enough to determine who he ought to seek out—Hamill.
He would not go to Jeffries. That fellow had loose lips and a propensity to turn everything into a joke. He would not go to the duke, as he was married to Lady Cordelia’s sister. He did not wish for word of what he was doing to get round. He did not wish for anyone to know anything about it.
He’d much prefer that Lady Cordelia simply discovered he was very sporting as if he’d always been so—he just did not show off.
In any case, how difficult could it be? Simply master the various pursuits as he probably should have done long ago. He would not care for them, nor would he live his life dreaming of his next boxing match or carriage race, but there was no harm in mastering such things.
The drawing room doors swung open. “Lord Hamill,” Makepeace said.
“Excellent,” Percival said. “Hamill, do you care for a brandy, port, claret?”
“Coffee if it is not too much trouble,” Hamill said. “I am driving in a race to Brighton tomorrow morning and wish to keep my head clear, the bets are steep.”
Of course he would be racing to Brighton on the morrow. What else would he be doing?
They spoke of pleasantries until Makepeace had brought in the coffee and departed the room.
Now, he must get to it. Though, he was finding it hard to actually get started.
“Now what’s the lay of the land?” Hamill asked. “You seem dead serious, as if you are a second to a duel I know nothing about.”
“A duel? Certainly not, I would never involve myself in such nonsense.”
“Not like Baderston, eh? Three duels on the same morning? Well, it all came off in the end.”
Percival nodded, as of course he and everybody else in England had heard of that situation. Baderston had wedded another of the Benningtons after she’d stopped the duels in their tracks.
“Hamill,” he began, “it has occurred to me that a gentleman has a duty to be well rounded. Naturally, a gentleman will have his own proclivities—those things he is naturally good at and wishes to pursue. But can that really be enough? Is it not a responsibility to push oneself into gaining expertise on those things that the gentleman is perhaps not as interested in?”
Hamill’s expression grew dark. “Have you somehow talked to my sister?” he asked. “Has she convinced you I should read all the books she keeps piling on my desk?”
“Your sister? No, I do not know the lady. I did not even think she was out.”
“She is not. Who then? Who is complaining about me spending all my time out of doors rather than locked in a library? Who put you up to being a tutor I do not want or need?”
“No, it is entirely the opposite. It is I who require a tutor.”
Hamill laughed. “Gad, man, why on earth would you come to me?”
