“There is that, I suppose.”
“She has a nose for the truth, that’s for sure. If anyone can find your mother, Your Grace, it’ll be the Sentinel.” Dalton winked then went back to massaging his leg.
“On the subject of your mother, Giles, the more I think about sending you alone back to Shropshire, the more unsettled I feel.”
“It cannot be helped.”
“But it can, Giles. If I come with you.”
Hope bloomed eternal. Hope and something else. Something that transcended the ruthless bolt of futile lust her offer conjured, brought a lump to his throat, and made his heart swell with joy.
“I wouldn’t ask you to do that.”
“I know but I shan’t sleep if I don’t come, and I’d never forgive myself if the worst happens and I could have done something to prevent it. You have to admit, I do have a knack for uncovering the truth. Knowing where to find it seems to be instinctive to me, and surely that is a talent you could use in Shropshire?”
“Even though Hugh will definitely kill me if he finds out?” As much as he wanted her help and her presence in the darkest days of his life, he couldn’t and wouldn’t expect her sacrifice. “Or risk ruination if the world does? Your reputation and your career in tatters?”
“Even though.” The ghost of a smile played on her lips. “Some risks are worth taking no matter what the consequences.” Something odd swirled in her eyes before she glanced at her dirty hands, then rummaged in her pocket for a handkerchief to clean them with. “If we leave after my family departs for Hampshire, we have three uninterrupted weeks to dig into your background and nobody bar us will be the wiser. I’ll have to think of a good excuse for Charlie, of course, because he won’t be happy that I am deserting him again, but he’ll forgive me because I am his best bloodhound. Can I whet his appetite by telling him that I believe the infamous Gervais Sinclair has sneaked back into the country?”
He smiled. “The infamous Gervais Sinclair has sneaked back into the country.”
“Good—because something he said to you jars with what Olivia told me, so I want to set Charlie on it as a contingency.”
“We have a contingency? That is reassuring when we barely have a plan. Care to share it?”
“Gervais seems to think that it is safe to be here in England again because all the witnesses to his crime are gone? But from my research Lady Caroline Derbyshire disappeared into the ether after the abduction and nobody has heard hide nor hair of her since. So how does he know she is dead when he is the last person who would be entrusted with her whereabouts?”
“Perhaps he has a connection still or as it’s been thirty years and nobody has seen her, it is not an unreasonable assumption to make. The duke might well have been the last credible witness.”
“Not if Olivia is correct and Lady Caroline took Holy Orders in Kent it isn’t.” She huffed at the absurdity of that theory before he could pour scorn on it. “As I said, it’s a contingency if Gervais looks likely to beat us to the truth. That is still our first plan. We find it and we destroy it.”
“Even though that is breaking the law?”
“Even though.”
She spent the rest of their short journey to Berkeley Square outlining her plan of attack. When the hackney finally came to a stop she pulled her dark shawl over her head and tried to stop him from getting out and assisting her.
“This isn’t the docks, Giles.” She laughed at his frown and pointed to Hugh’s gate. “This is Mayfair and that is home. I am perfectly safe from all threats of opium smugglers and ruffians with pistols.”
“Yet I will see you to the door, harridan, because that is what a gentleman does, andeven thoughI am unlikely to remain a gentleman much longer and will probably shortly swap my ducal erminefor Newgate’s shackles, the manners are too ingrained to ignore—even thoughI am dressed like a guttersnipe and smell like the ponging Fleet.”
She rolled her eyes but for once did not argue as he helped her out, even handed him the key so he could unlock the gate. “Do you really think you could go to jail?”
He shrugged. “I have no idea what the legal ramifications of my exposure will be.”
“Have you taken legal counsel to find out?”
“What? And risk immediate arrest when my solicitor has to turn me in?”
She shook her head as if he were daft. “Any good lawyer works within the guiding principles of oath and honor set down in common law. Basically, in a nutshell, if you are his client and you confess anything to him, that information and any legal advice he gives you on the back of it are privileged. No court in the land can make him tell them because he has sworn an oath and his first duty must always be to you.”
“And how do you know that?”
“Any journalist worth their salt has to know the law because we skirt around the edges of it often enough. I thought you admired Mr. Cribbage. Saw him as an ally to your cause.”
“I do but…”
She touched his arm as they approached the terrace. “Talk to him first thing, Giles. Find out exactly where you stand before we leave for Shropshire. You never know, seeing as his family have served the Dukes of Harpenden for decades, he might know something pertinent that will help us. Trust him as you trust me.”
