Confessions of a Little Black Gown by Elizabeth Boyle Read Free Book Online Page B

his doorstep—she probably has no more idea what her sister and cousin have done than the duke. And she’s unlikely to notice, for she’s got a house party about to commence and knowing the chit, she’s got eyes only for the details of making her first big social foray a stunning success.”
    “So what has this to do with me?” Larken glanced over at Pymm and then Temple. “This seems more your sort of venture, house parties and the lot.” He didn’t mean this as a compliment, for he’d spent his years on the Continent in some of the harshest conditions, most dangerous spots, while Temple always seemed to be gadding about luxurious salons and palatial courts. “Trot on down to Sussex and search the place,” he told the duke, walking over to the door. His hand went to the latch. “Use your infamous charm, Temple, and leave me to get some sleep.”
    “Under normal circumstances that is exactly what I’d do,” the duke agreed. “But I cannot.”
    The shiver running down Larken’s spine turned into a warning tremble. “Why not?” he asked, against his better judgment.
    “If I set one foot in that house, Tally and Lady Philippa will know we suspect them,” Temple replied.
    “They know?”
    Temple nodded. “Far too much. The night they broke Jack out of jail, those girls also saved my neck—’tis how Lady Philippa met Dashwell, as a matter of fact. Unfortunately, that leaves only you.”
    Larken looked up at him and saw the regret and caution in his eyes. So Temple thought him as mad as the rest of the Foreign Office. He shook his head, telling himself yet again that he no longer cared what the world what thought of him. “Send Clifton, send anyone. I have no intention of leaving London. Not now. Besides, I’m retired, might I remind you.”
    “You’ll go,” Pymm said. “That’s an order.”
    Larken opened his mouth to argue, but knew better and pressed his lips together in a tight line. The dark, dangerous gleam in Pymm’s eyes suggested it was no matter that one was deemed “a danger to himself and others.” When King and Country called, there was no choice.
    Yet there was a small wrinkle in their plan. The sort of impasse that might save him from their plans.
    “This will never work,” he said, leaning against the door. “I can’t simply show up uninvited and not arouse some sort of suspicion.” He took a deep breath and tried to sound every bit as convincing that he’d need to be to extricate himself from this folly. “Especially if these chits are as smart as you say.”
    Pymm glanced over at Temple, nodding at him in a none-so-subtle cue to get on with it.
    “We’ve been able to identify one of the guests,and well, Elton has been dispatched to detain the fellow,” Temple said, mentioning his resourceful batman. “In the meantime,” he began, slowly pulling an envelope from his coat pocket. He held it out, and the last thing Larken wanted to do was take the damned thing. For, once he did…well, he’d be trapped into their mad scheme.
    And madness was exactly what it was. A man didn’t need instincts to know that.
    Heaving a resigned sigh, Larken took the folded paper and glanced down at the name and directions written in a woman’s perfectly elegant script.
     
    The Reverend M. Ryder
    Eveling House
    Bindley by Way, Lincolnshire
     
    He shook his head and went to hand the invitation back to Temple. “This isn’t for me. This is for some vicar.”
    And then he saw what they wanted only too clearly when Pymm said with a rare bit of humor, “How is your recollection of Fordyce’s Sermons ?”
     
    Temple waited for Pymm outside Larken’s town house. It wasn’t long before Pymm concluded whatever private matters there were to seeing Larken on his way to Sussex, but he was suspicious nonetheless.
    Pymm had insisted on sending Larken, a notion Temple was dead set against.
    And he repeated as much the moment he turnedin step with Pymm as they walked down the quiet street. “I