La Petite Four by Regina Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

them. The creature hit Daphne in the chest, tearing her away from Emily as Daphne careened backward to land on her rump in the dirt of the path.
    Emily rushed to her rescue, but it was too late. Daphne surrendered herself to a very wet kiss.
    “Down!” she commanded, and the Airedale obediently climbed off her and lay down at her side. An elderly footman who had obviously been taking the dog for a walk hurried up, red-faced.
    “I’m so sorry, miss. He slipped the leash. Are you all right?”
    “Fine,” Daphne said, accepting his hand to allow her to rise. “Dogs love me. A shame I can’t say the same about the gentlemen.”
    Emily shook her head. Her hand was on her chest, and she felt her heart still pounding its wild beat. Glancing around, she saw no sign of the mysterious Mr. Cropper.
    But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t catch him, or Lord Robert, the next time. It seemed they needed more cunning to catch the fox in the eight short days left to them.
    The next step in their investigation, according to Ariadne, was to interview Lord Robert’s servants. Emily didn’t have much hope there, as she hadn’t even been let into the Townsend town house. Besides, there was a question of loyalty.
    No, it would be better to question someone well-versed in the ways of society, someone who had the ear of servants and aristocracy alike, someone she trusted.
    In a word, Warburton.

7
    Sinful Gossip
    “Have you heard any rumors about the Townsends?” Emily asked her butler that evening as Warburton served her dinner on a silver tray in the quiet of her room. His Grace had been called to dine with the prime minister, and Emily abhorred sitting alone in the elegant dining room, eating at one end of the big empty damask-draped table.
    Warburton seemed to sense her discomfort, for he went out of his way to place a tasseled pillow at her back where she sat on a black-and-white-striped satin chair near the cozy fire and to set a black satin footstool with gold fringe at her feet. His brows drew together as he straightened from placing a damask napkin across her lap.
    “Rumors about the Townsends?” he responded at last, picking up the book she had been reading before he entered and gazing at the spine as if he was fascinated by the topic of a young lady’s adventure in a cursed castle. “I’m sure I couldn’t say, your ladyship.”
    She took the book from his hands and laid it aside, refusing to let him get away so easily. “Couldn’t say or won’t? If you will not tell me, Mr. Warburton, I will imagine the worst.” Her silver fork flashed as she picked it up. “Does Lord Robert beat his servants?”
    Warburton drew himself up. “Certainly not. You must remember—they serve his brother, and the present Lord Wakenoak would not countenance such behavior toward the staff, even though he has been a bit lax in paying them.”
    Emily selected a piece of choice lamb and chewed slowly. So Lord Robert’s brother stiffed the staff. Reprehensible, but nothing she could lay at Robert’s door. Unless their lack of funds had something to do with his behavior. She swallowed and cocked her head. “I fear Lord Robert gambles.”
    “Likely less than his father before him.”
    That was most unhelpful. She had no idea how much the former Lord Wakenoak had enjoyed the cards.
    “Did his father gamble a great deal?”
    “Perhaps more than is generally considered wise.”
    Interesting , she thought, using her fork to toy with her dilled carrots. Too bad Warburton’s tidbit offered her nothing in her quest to discredit Lord Robert. She eyed her butler as he towered over her. “Does Lord Robert keep a mistress?”
    Warburton met her gaze by looking down his impressive nose. “That is not a conversation His Grace would want me to have with you.”
    Her cheeks heated. He was quite right; it was a bold question. “But it is a conversation I must have,” she protested, wiggling on the satin seat, “if I am to understand Lord