David worried that he’d not find Mist in the crowded market, but it was easy. He turned to her like a needle to a lodestone, recognising her by her walk, though she was enveloped in a cloak and hampered by a large basket. He waited for her to send the maid with her off with a full basket of packages, and fell into step beside her.
“Here, let me carry that.” She relinquished her basket.
“You are working for Lady Georgiana,” she commented.
“And you for Tolliver. So who is the spy?” he countered. “The courtesan? One of her admirers?”
“Your client perhaps?”
“She has commissioned me to find a blackmailer who is threatening her friend.” A secret shared, though not one that would threaten his client or his investigation, since Mist knew he had been meeting Lady Georgiana and could easily guess the rest. It would make no difference, unless Mist was inclined to block his investigation out of spite.
“Miss Diamond is being blackmailed?” Prue asked.
“Yes. And Lord Jonathan Grenford. But I expect you knew that, since his brother Aldridge was Tolliver’s informant.”
No. He had caught the startled widening of the eyes before she controlled her face. Tolliver was keeping secrets again. “He didn’t tell you, did he?”
Mist changed the subject. “I need to run the last of my errands. I sent the maid home with the meat and vegetables.”
“I will carry your basket. We can both progress more quickly if we share information, but if you wish, I will merely be your pack-horse.”
Some thought quirked her mouth in a smile, but she said only, “I need to buy spices, sugar, tea, and chocolate.”
High-value items, trusted to the housekeeper but not to lesser members of the household. David nodded.
“I don’t have much to report yet,” he said. “Lady Georgiana gave me the names of several possible victims, and I followed Lord Selby for most of last night. He has unpleasant taste in pleasures, that man. I’ve met with Aldridge and heard how his brother became involved. Aldridge has told the boy to stay clear of Lily Diamond until this is all cleared up.”
“Then Lord Jonathan didn’t listen. He took Miss Diamond driving yesterday afternoon, attended her party last night, and then went up to bed with her. He’s there yet, I imagine.”
“The devil he is!” David opened the door to the tea emporium, and the fragrance enfolded them. They stopped just inside the door to savour it for a moment, and exchanged smiles when each realised what the other was doing.
This was the way back. To treat her as a partner and friend: to be careful and respectful. If he wanted her back, that is. His heart said yes, but it was a foolish organ and he couldn’t bear the pain of another rejection. He’d played the scene over and over in his mind in the months since. She had said nothing. Just left without looking back, still rosy from the bed they’d shared. His feelings still raw, he’d let her go. A thousand times since, he’d wished he could go back and just calmly ask her what was wrong, instead of shouting at her.
David drew on a lifetime reserve of discipline to conceal his thoughts. He didn’t need her or any woman. He would not pant after her like a fool.
“So Grenford is ignoring his brother. Why? Because he is a silly young cub who doesn’t like being told what to do? Because he’s in the courtesan’s thrall? Or for a more sinister reason?”
“My guess would be the first,” Mist said. “He is certainly intrigued by Miss Diamond, but no more, I think, than by her friends. He visited the first floor with Miss Fraser during the evening, and looked very pleased with himself afterwards. Not the sign of a man in thrall. And I don’t see him as sinister, somehow.” She shot him a sharp glance, which he ignored.
They’d argued in the past about her dependence on intuition. David had to admit, though, she was right more often than not. And today, he was not going to lose ground by being drawn into an argument.
“I’m meeting him tomorrow,” he told her, “and today I am to be introduced to Captain Talbot.”
Mist nodded. “The naval captain. Works at the Admiralty, in the Supply Office.”
So he was on Tolliver’s list, too, which did not surprise David. Such a man would have access to information about ship movements—dangerous in the hands of the wrong people.
She broke off to haggle with the shop assistant, then tucked the wrapped package into her basket and led the way out of the shop.
“So what happened at Miss Diamond’s party?” David prompted.
Mist told him about the baron’s behaviour at the dinner, the conversation between Miss Diamond and Lady Georgiana, and what the baron had said after Miss Diamond had abandoned him in the hall.
“Miss Diamond is playing them against one another? Dangerous, that.” David frowned.
“There was something different about the way she spoke with Lady Georgiana. More depth. With the men, it was all an act. But with the lady… I think she really cares, David.”
“Lady Georgiana has a pristine reputation. Never any scandal. Suitors years ago, when she was young, but nothing came of it. She has a name for helping out women in need, and not just by giving money. She funds several houses of refuge, and has even taken people into her own home. What were your impressions of her, Mist?”
“Shadow, she is your client!”
“Tolliver is your employer, but if you are never suspicious of his motives, you are not doing your job, Mist.”
By the time they’d finished discussing the party and its participants, Mist had finished all her errands, and the gloomy sky had begun to disgorge a few reluctant flakes of slushy snow.
“Something hot to drink?” David asked.
“I need to get back. Another time, Shadow.”
That was hopeful. “I’ll walk you home.”
She smiled, with a sideways look from under her bonnet brim. “Not all the way. But you can walk me to the corner if you wish.”
Yes. He was definitely making progress. “I’ll meet you here again?”
“The morning after next,” Mist said decisively. “I’ll need to shop again then.”
“Is there somewhere near the house we could meet? Can you get out at night if you have to?”
“Not through either of the doors. Two of the maids sleep in the kitchen, and the bolts on the front door make an awful noise. Besides, Madame Dupont locks both doors at night and keeps the key.”
“Unusual for a dresser.” David commented.
“She has an unusual range of duties for a dresser. If I must leave at night, I can get out of the dining room window and into the garden via the roof of the scullery. I’m pretty sure I can get back the same way, if you were there to give me a boost.”
“And you know where to reach me if you need to?”
They had reached the corner of the street where Miss Diamond lived. David was reluctant to let Mist go, and she, too, seemed ready to linger.
“We are not on the same side, Shadow. You do not need to fret about me.”
“I do not think we are on different sides. You will be careful, won’t you, Mist? And I will help if I can.”
She shivered, despite her heavy cloak.
“You’re cold. Better get inside,” he said, itching to reach out and warm her with his body and the imaginings of his overheated mind.
Another smile and she was gone, hurrying down the street ahead of the driving wind, with the basket bumping against one leg.
David was early for his appointment. “Mr. Milford told us to expect you, sir,” the servant told him, and showed him to a table. He chose the chair that gave him a wall at his back and a good view of the room, and sent the servant for a glass of wine.
While he waited for his host, he thought about the conversations Mist had heard. Lord Jonathan was going to be a nuisance, by the looks of it. Why couldn’t he stay home as he’d been told? But Baron Hurley’s nasty predictions about Lord Jonathan’s coming fall gave weight to Aldridge’s claims about the trouble his brother was in, which made him a more likely victim than blackmailer.
Hurley, on the other hand, bore watching. He could have heard about the boy’s troubles from the great gossip mill that enveloped both the demi-monde and the beau monde. Or he might know because he set the plan in motion.
The exchange between the courtesan and the duke’s daughter implied that Lady Georgiana was innocent of both blackmail and treachery, but left the question of the courtesan’s role wide open. What was it she needed to finish, and how was it going to help her and Lady Georgiana to the future Lady Georgiana clearly craved?
Milford arrived, with the naval captain in tow.
“Davey, lad, I hope you don’t mind. I bumped into Captain Talbot in the lobby and asked him to join us. Talbot, David Walker. Dave, Captain Talbot is with the Admiralty.”
David shook hands with the captain. Like many sailors, Talbot was short, shorter than David, who was of average height. David catalogued the thinning hair, slender build, dark piercing eyes, and gruff bark of a voice, surprisingly large for such a small man.
The soft hands and slight paunch suggested Talbot had held a desk job for some time.
The servant brought them soup, fresh bread rolls, a large dish of fragrant stew, and another of braised vegetables.
“Your uncle tells me you’ve come to work, eh, Walker?” Talbot said, as they served themselves.
“I hope to make myself useful, Sir,” David said. Noncommittal answers would do until Milford revealed what he’d told the captain.
“As I told you, Talbot, he’s been working in York for the last ten years, and now he wants to try his luck here in town.”
Talbot made a sound between a snort and a grunt. “London has altogether too many counting-house clerks, if you ask me? No offence intended, Walker, eh?”
“None taken, Sir. It’s a common view. But I trust room can be found for an ambitious man.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t help you. At the Admiralty we use men in the service, eh? That’s what I told your uncle.”
David let surprise show on his face. “But Uncle Milly,” he said. “Didn’t you say you would find me a place in your office?”
“Ah, I didn’t understand that,” Talbot said. “That’s just the thing for an ambitious young man. Something in the city, Milford, eh? Land? Or finance? Or trade?”
Close enough. Milford was a financial and administrative genius who could work magic with numbers and whose mind filed every fact, no matter how insignificant, for instant retrieval when it was needed to fit into patterns drawn out of the chaos others saw.
“Indeed,” Milford replied, dryly. “Davey will fit right in. I can’t pay the kind of salary that will let you wed your Rosie, mind!”
Payment, that, for the Uncle Milly jab. David looked mournful. “Not mine, Uncle. Rosie has decided she doesn’t want to wait. She is to wed the curate this Sunday next. Still,” he grinned at Captain Talbot, “not a bad thing to be fancy-free in London, is it, Sir? I’ve heard so much about the ladies here. Well, not ladies, precisely. If you know what I mean.”
Captain Talbot grinned back, but Milford frowned, repressively. “Remember, you were raised to be a good Christian, Davey Walker.”
“Of course, Uncle,” David replied, letting the colour leach out of his voice. But inwardly, he smiled at the broad wink Talbot offered from behind Milford’s head.
David bided his time, following Milford’s conversational lead through the rest of the meal. Eventually, Captain Talbot said his farewells. Milford gave a small, tight smile and an approving nod as David stood to follow.
He caught up with Talbot just inside the door. “Captain, Sir.” Talbot turned and favoured David with another of his grins. “I know what you want, Walker, eh?”
“It’s London, Sir,” David tried his best to sound both apologetic and eager. “I’m so excited to be in London.”
“Looking forward to it, I imagine. London? City of Sin? Fast women?”
David said, humbly, “Uncle Milly doesn’t understand, Sir.”
“Milford is a dry old stick. Iced water in his veins. Tell you what. I could show you some places, eh?”
David expressed sincere gratitude. Going out with Talbot would give him an excellent opportunity to find out about the man.
“Not now. Have to put in an appearance at the Admiralty, eh? Meet me here at half past seven o’clock. I’ll show you some fun, eh?”
Talbot strutted off, and David returned inside.
Milford had moved through to one of the sitting rooms and taken seats near the fire. David lowered himself into the facing chair.
Milford frowned at him. “Uncle Milly?” he asked.
“I can’t wed my Rosie?” David retorted.
“Hmmph. Did it work?”
“He’s taking me out tonight. You might have warned me I was about to change professions and names, and acquire an uncle.”
Milford smirked.
“I must go. I have an appointment with an old school friend.”
“The Earl of Chirbury,” Milford stated. “New to his title and newly returned to England.”
Perfectly true, but how did Milford know?
“His solicitor recently advertised for a thief taker. You are the best in England and, as you say, an old school friend of his.”
“I am an enquiry agent,” David corrected. “Thief-takers are so… unpleasant.” And he would need to leave to be on time. Bedford Square, where the Earls of Chirbury had their town house, was at least a fifteen-minute walk in this drizzle.
“I must go. Thank you for your help, Milford.”
The news-sheets were reporting all the doings of the new Earl—the Wild Trapper Earl, they called him, as if he had grown up on the Canadian trap lines he built into a successful trading business, rather than in the country mansion of the earl, his uncle, and the halls of Eton.
When David and Rede had met last month, it had been the first time since Rede left for Canada more than twelve years before. And of his half-dozen current investigations, his commission for Rede was the most important to him. Though the results so far were all negative, David was determined to find what his oldest friend so earnestly sought.