Charlotte Featherstone - Pride & Passion

“Once more, Alynwick. What was it you discovered?”

With a sigh, the marquis shoved away his irreverence, and fortified himself with another large gulp of hot coffee. Wincing at the bitterness, he set it down. “False bosom aside, Lady Larabie has a surprisingly naughty nature. Between heated kisses in the hall, she invited me to join her at a special Wednesday nightclub. Any guesses what it might be?”

Black pressed forward. “The hell she did!”

Alynwick grinned. “I keep telling you, Black, it’s the sweet, innocent-looking ones that are really hellcats in the bedroom. Yes. It’s true. The new Lady Larabie slips out on Wednesday evenings when her husband is gambling with his cronies. She’s been going to the House of Orpheus for weeks, and she’s offered to drag me along.”

“In exchange for what?” Sussex demanded.

Alynwick looked at him as though he were sporting two heads. “Dear me, your grace, has it really been that long?”

Sussex felt his face flame. “You do not need to sell your soul for this, Alynwick—we can get information about Orpheus in other ways.”

“Kind of you to think of my soul, Sussex, but I assure you, I sold the thing years ago. It was of no use to me. I gave it to the devil in a two-for-one bargain, my soul and conscience for a tidy little abode in his realm when I expire.”

To hear him say such things in such a cavalier tone chilled him to the core. Was there nothing Alynwick held sacred?

“So, you will carry on an affair with Lady Larabie in order to gain entrance into this mysterious House of Orpheus?”

“A little more than just an entrée, my friends. I intend to be introduced to this shadowy Orpheus, thanks to the lady’s generosity.”

Black sat back and studied the marquis. “And if Larabie takes it into his head to pursue his wife’s activities?”

Alynwick shrugged. “He won’t. We’re going to settle it tonight in a duel. I’ll need a second, of course, and then it will be all over and done, and his lordship can have his peace of mind that he has fought for his lady’s virtue. His honor will be placated, and he’ll be too arrogant to believe that the lady would continue to carry on with me behind his back. And then, every Wednesday night thereafter we will meet and I will try my damnedest to find out what I can about Orpheus, and how the devil he discovered anything about the Brethren Guardians.”

“You’re insane. A duel with Larabie? You’ll get yourself shot—and most likely killed,” he snapped. “Especially since you cannot seem to pass away a night without getting roaring drunk.”

“I do not need a cataloguing of my sins, Sussex. Believe me, I’m well aware of them all. Trust me. I know what I’m doing, and this plan will work. Lady Larabie is entirely indiscreet. I’ll have her spilling what she knows about the club and about Orpheus himself within a week. There is nothing else to be done. Wendell Knighton did not act alone in his attempt to steal the artifacts—there was someone else pulling the strings, feeding him information. We cannot just let it rest now the relics are safe and Knighton is dead.”

“You’re right, of course. We need to follow the leads we have, and every single one of them return to this Orpheus fellow.”

“I trust neither one of you have a better plan to find him?”

“No,” Sussex grumbled.

Alynwick was many things, a dissolute roué, an amoral, unfeeling clod, but he was on their side, and he always, always kept his word. His oath to the Brethren Guardians would never be broken, Sussex knew that much. He also could not fathom a guess of what price this mad scheme was going to cost Alynwick.

“This is most dangerous,” Black murmured, “but the fact is, we really have no other recourse. Orpheus has withdrawn into the ethers of London since Knighton’s murder, and we can’t afford to have any more lost time. We need to find him. What really matters is, this Orpheus knows about us, and we can’t have that—we must ascertain how he discovered our existence, and those of the artifacts.”

True. Sussex hated to admit it, but at this moment Orpheus had the upper hand. There was no telling what he might do with the knowledge he had gained of their order, or when he might decide to strike again and attempt to steal the relics—or worse, expose them and what they hid to the world. Orpheus needed to be stopped, and they had no other way, or information.

“All right. It’s settled then. Tonight, you and Black will go to the Masonic meeting, I’ll get ripping drunk and meet you at Grantham Farm, where one of you will be my second. I’ll say that I ran into one of you, and that my usual set was too drunk to be of any assistance. It shouldn’t raise too many questions, especially with one of you doing the honors. Everyone knows you won’t gossip about it. Should be all right, I’d think.”

Black shook his head. “I don’t like this. Anything could happen, especially with Larabie. The man is a fool, and with a woman’s involvement, he’s likely to be even more foolhardy than usual.”

“We’re all fools in love, aren’t we?” Alynwick drawled, and Sussex glared at his friend as the marquis’s amused grin focused on him.

Yes, he was a fool in love. He’d already tried to wrangle his way out of it, but Lucy Ashton had an unholy grip on his heart. She would not let go, and he didn’t think he could let her, even knowing that she loved another. That was the damnable thing. If it were only lust he felt for her, this entire debacle would be behind him. But it wasn’t simply a case of desire, but love. Or at the very least the stirrings of a true and abiding love. How he wished he could get her alone and discover her, the true woman she was. Not the society miss she pretended to be, but the woman she hid from the world. But there was little chance for that now. She’d made it perfectly clear that she loathed the very sight of him.

“Well, then, I think I’ll be off. I need a new waistcoat. Something dashing and debonair, something befitting the field of honor.”

“Wait, I have news. We have a new ally.”

“Do we?” Alynwick drawled. “How did this come about?”

“Elizabeth.”

Alynwick frowned. “I don’t see how your sister can be of any use to us.”

“She is going to discover what Lucy knows about Orpheus and the club.”

“And how would Lady Lucy know anything about such matters?” Alynwick asked through narrowed eyes. “Damn it, Sussex, you’re a liability around that girl.”

“It’s a private matter, Alynwick. All you need know is that Lucy Ashton does indeed have some involvement that goes beyond her knowledge of the pendant. The particulars of which are of no concern to you.”

“Bah,” he grunted with a wave of his hand. “Elizabeth would never betray a friend. Whatever Lucy Ashton tells her will remain with Elizabeth until her dying day. I would not wait about with bated breath to discover what Elizabeth learns from Lucy.”

“Lizzy is concerned enough about Lucy to share what she discovers. Even now they are at Sussex House discussing matters. I have no doubt that Elizabeth will be able to discover what we need to know.”

“No doubt. Your sister has the unnatural ability to discover one’s most carefully hidden secret, doesn’t she? I wonder how she’ll accomplish it, making Lucy part with her secrets?”

“The way females always do,” he answered. “By telling her one of her own secrets.”

The loss of color in Alynwick’s face was comical, and puzzling. So was the way he jumped up from the chair and left as though the devil were on his heels.

“Secrets,” Black murmured as he reached for his hat. “Damnable things aren’t they?”