How To School Your Scoundrel by Juliana Gray Read Free Book Online

detected the presence of a group of anarchists, members of the Revolutionary Brigade of the Free Blood, a damned filthy pan-European organization, quite sophisticated in its structure and methods, and which as you know is responsible for countless attempts at coup and regicide, not to mention that dreadful ferry bombing in the North Sea last year, and . . .”
    “And
I
say to you now, just as I said to you in your study when you first explained: If we know all this, why aren’t we back in Holstein-Schweinwald-Huhnhof, bringing them to justice?” A sharp pain dug into her palms. Luisa looked down. The fingers were curled into angry black balls of leather.
    Olympia spoke calmly. “Because you would be assassinated within the day. They have already set up a puppet government, for which Free Blood’s members act as a secret police. They’re led by a ruthless chap, a local Holstein chap with some sort of chip on his shoulder, probably slighted by your father at one time or another, and even Dingleby couldn’t discover his identity. There are agents here in England, looking for you. It’s quite impossible. No, you’re much better off here. Somerton has his faults, the old devil, but he looks after his own. Dingleby and I have a plan, never fear. When the time comes, we’ll bring you in. But not before, my dear. You are the prize queen in this most valuable game, and we can’t risk you.” His breath struck out in a large cloud of white. “Yet.”
    “Oh, indeed. I’ll be much safer as I poke about the Earl of Somerton’s private affairs.” The hackney lurched around the corner of Westminster Bridge, and Luisa grabbed for the leather strap an instant too late. She crashed into Mrs. Duke’s immense false bosom, cushioned in purple feathers, and imagined Somerton’s hard black gaze penetrating her skull, to seek out the guilty thoughts within.
    “Mind yourself.” Olympia plucked her free with an affectionate pat. His silk-skirted bulk had hardly shifted an inch; he was like the Dover cliffs, impervious to time and tide and lurching hackneys. “In any case, you won’t be poking. Nothing of the kind. Simply keep your ears open and your wits about you, as you go about your . . . er . . . secretarial duties. Report anything of particular interest to me.”
    “Report to you? When? How?”
    The hackney crested the gentle rise of Westminster Bridge, and for an instant all London spread out around them, coated in gray: the winding rows of houses, the steeples thrusting heavenward, the milky Thames below, speckled with shipping. The bright-colored air of a German October seemed like another world. Another life.
    And it was only a month ago.
    “My dear boy.” Olympia adjusted his gloves with a frightful wiggle of thick fingers. “You’re in London now. A member of the professional classes, an ambitious and upstanding young chap. And every dutiful nephew goes to visit his dear auntie in Battersea on his weekly half day, doesn’t he?”

THREE

    T he Earl of Somerton’s butler was aghast.
    “A dog, sir?” he gasped, eyebrows straining toward the ceiling. An ambitious goal, for the entrance hall of Somerton House soared upward some twenty feet to meet a trompe l’oeil sky trimmed in intricate creamy plasterwork.
    Quincy wiggled himself more deeply into the crook of Luisa’s elbow and voiced a single disapproving bark. “A corgi,” Luisa said. “His name is Quincy. I shall care for him myself, of course, but I will require the assistance of the kitchen for his meals. He’s rather particular.”
    “The kitchen!” sputtered the butler.
    “Yes. The staff at the Holstein-Schweinwald-Huhnhof consulate were quite up to the challenge. I hope your establishment is equally efficient?” She raised her voice doubtfully on the last syllable.
    “I assure you, my staff are more than capable of . . .”
    “Good, then. I believe my portmanteau and my books were delivered this morning, according to his