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did he think about his Jennifer being the king s mistress, or wasn t that mentioned? Charlie Cochrane Oh, it was. Mr. Stewart s eyes twinkled. He d been most put out about it, but then he let his thoughts brew a while his words again, Jonty and decided she d probably had little choice in the matter. So he d forgiven her indiscretion and renewed his chivalrous love. Indiscretion? They carried on for years, didn t they? Jonty shook his head, truly unable to understand the situation. You know, I do wonder why she did it. Plenty of women have been in the same position, if you ll excuse the expression. I m going to find Miss Jordan today and that s one of the questions I ll ask her, along with the list of things Orlando has for me to tackle. Hard taskmaster, that boy. I saw him as I came in and he seemed like a particularly keen beagle on the scent. Only he s too rangy for a beagle and greyhounds don t make good trackers. I m sure he ll appreciate the canine analogies. Anyway, back to Mr. Mustard. Anything of use emerge? I m not sure. When he was slipping into his cups he did divulge he d been in a bit of a tight corner financially, but that was at least ten years ago and he is now on a nice even keel. So he wouldn t have been killing his light of love for her money and it wasn t left to him anyway. Not even a nice little gratuity. Perhaps he has designs on Miss Jordan. They will elope to Gretna Green as soon as the money is in her little paw. Is he good-looking? For his age? Jonty grinned and hid his face over his cup. For his age? Mr. Stewart roared. For his age? He s my age, you tinker. He s pretty trim, taken good care of himself by the looks of him, and I dare say those few lean years prevented him running to corpulence as many of our group did. If I were a young gal& I don t think early thirties, or whatever Miss Jordan is, counts as a young girl. It does to me. Were I in her position I might think him not bad at all. But aren t we getting a bit speculative here? Orlando isn t going to approve of this cavalier attitude. Orlando isn t going to know. I don t have to report every word back to him. That s mutiny. He ll have you hung. Jonty laughed, rose and set off in search of Miss Jordan. He can t. He s not the captain of my ship, much as he may think he is. Jonty found his quarry and her friend sitting on the terrace, enjoying the sunshine and watching two children playing with boats in the small pond which graced the lawn. He raised his hat and bowed in the exceedingly polite manner his mother had taught him. Ladies, may I join you for a moment or two? Miss Jordan indicated a seat and gestured gracefully towards the other woman. This is Miss Robinson. Geraldine, this is Dr. Stewart. He s the son of that very dashing man I pointed out to you last night. 84 www.samhainpublishing.com Lessons in Seduction The one who s so remarkably handsome for his age? Miss Robinson turned her attention to Jonty, eyeing him as if she were disappointed he didn t come up to the standard of his father. Pleased to meet you. The pleasure is mine entirely. Hark at him. You do know what he s come for, don t you? He wants to interrogate us about Lady Jennifer s death. We d better prepare for the application of the thumb screws. Miss Jordan nudged her friend. Am I that bad? Jonty grinned in what he hoped was a winning manner. Miss Jordan launched her deep laugh, her companion following suit with a more tinkling giggle. No, you re not. In fact, for a man, you re really quite acceptable. I know you have a job to do and you re just trying to find out the truth. My grandfather was a St. Bride s man, you know. The sudden change of conversational direction earned Miss Robinson surprised looks from her hearers. Like your father and yourself. And old Sir Laurence and that nice Mr. Mustard. I didn t realise you knew him. I wish I d asked you before and saved Papa days of wracking his brains trying to dredge the name up from the past. Ah, yes please. A waiter had sidled up to the table, offering tea and biscuits; Jonty would never turn down either of those, especially when sleuthing. It was hungry and thirsty work. At least he got a nice dinner out of it when he did remember Mr. Mustard has been having the thumb screws applied, too. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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