The Viscount's Unconventional Bride. Mary Nichols
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them soon afterwards. A newcomer was Alexander Carstairs, one-time cavalry captain and an expert on weaponry. And lastly, at the foot of the table was Sam Roker, who, though not ranked a gentleman, was admitted to the company on account of being James’s devoted servant and friend and very useful to have with you in a tight spot. Besides, he knew his way round the rookeries of the capital where thieves and cutthroats were wont to hole up.
They were all very different men, both in background and temperament, but they worked well as a team and Jonathan was pleased to be counted one of their number. Sometimes they were joined by Sir John Fielding, London’s Chief Magistrate. Blind as he was, he had a fearsome reputation and it was said he could recognise any number of thieves by the sound of their voices. Today he had other duties, probably to do with Earl Ferrers.
‘I am sorry I am late,’ Jonathan said. ‘But there’s no getting through the traffic today. I never saw such a sight. Ferrers has the whole capital in a ferment. You would never think he was riding to his death.’
‘At least that is one more criminal who has received his just deserts,’ Ash said. ‘And I, for one, am glad to see the law deal even-handedly, no matter what rank the accused holds. There should not be one law for the rich and another for the poor…’
‘We all concur in that,’ James said. ‘But can we get on? I intend to set off for Blackfen Manor tonight. Amy will soon be brought to bed with our fourth and I wish to be there when it happens, even if it is only pacing the corridors. Now, Ash, what have you to report?’
‘The City is quiet again after the latest onslaught of the mob, intent on pulling down the dwellings of the Irish labourers,’ Sir Ashley told them. ‘It was all stirred up by a building labourer who had been discharged as a troublemaker. He roused them to fury, but once I had him in custody and talked to his followers they dispersed and no real harm done, except a few bloody noses. But I will keep an eye on things.’
‘Good. What about you, Harry?’ James queried.
Harry stopped examining his beautifully manicured nails to answer him. ‘Jed Black has escaped from Newgate again. That man is as slippery as an eel and should have been hanged long ago.’
‘What’s his crime?’ Alex asked. Being new to the group, he did not know the story behind some of their operations.
‘He’s a notorious coiner and murderer,’ Harry explained. ‘Head of a gang. I had a hand in his arrest some weeks ago. He has a crafty lawyer who keeps finding reasons to delay his trial and he is not prepared to languish in prison when he has a lucrative operation waiting for him to return to it. He escaped once before and a devil of a job it was to track him down and have him taken up again. Now it’s all to do again.’
‘Do what you can,’ James said. ‘The man is dangerous and must be brought to book.’
‘Ten to one he had accomplices on the outside and bribed the guard,’ Harry went on. ‘I plan to go to the gaol and question the warders and the man’s fellow prisoners.’
‘He’s too fly to go to ground in his usual haunts,’ Sam put in. ‘Do you want me to help?’
‘Yes, if it’s agreeable to you, James.’
‘By all means.’ James turned to Jonathan. ‘Jonathan, what about you?’
‘Acting on information received, I recovered most of Lord Besthorpe’s property and returned it to him and no harm done,’ Jonathan reported.
‘By that I suppose you mean you did not arrest the perpetrator?’
‘No. He was a skinny little urchin. Couldn’t bring myself to hand him in.’
James laughed, remembering how he had done the same thing himself years ago and saved Joseph Potton from a life of crime. The lad had grown into a fine upstanding young man who now worked for Jonathan.
‘The nipper was used by others to climb into a tiny window at his lordship’s house,’ Jonathan went on. ‘I came up with them while they were dividing the spoils and the men made good their escape, leaving the bratling to carry the can, but I will unearth them. The boy gave me their names in exchange for his freedom…’
It was then Luke Vail interrupted the meeting, having begged the man on the door to let him in. He doffed his hat, bowed to everyone, then addressed himself to Jonathan. ‘My lord, I need your help urgently. My sister, Louise, has disappeared. We, that is the family, are beside ourselves with worry. I heard you were a member of the Gentleman’s Club that likes to solve mysteries and it seemed to me you might consent to help find her.’
Jonathan studied him carefully. The young man was dressed in the sombre clothes of a cleric, which sat ill on his broad, athletic figure and youthful good looks. ‘I know you, do I not?’
‘Yes, my lord, I am Luke Vail. We were at the same school, though not in the same year. My father is the vicar of Chipping Barnet, hard by your father’s estate. I am to take up a curacy in Bedfordshire in two weeks.’
‘Louise, you say,’ Jonathan said. ‘I seem to remember seeing her once when I attended your father’s church. We go to St Saviour’s as a rule. She was a pretty little thing.’
‘She is not a little thing now, my lord, she is twenty and the apple of my father’s eye, being the only girl in the family.’
‘When did she disappear?’ James asked. ‘Under what circumstances?’
‘Yesterday afternoon when everyone was out of the house. My mother came home from shopping to find her missing. Her gardening apron and gloves and the little fork she used for weeding had been flung down on the flower bed and abandoned. It is not like her to be so untidy; she usually puts them away in the potting shed before she goes indoors. I questioned all the servants and our young gardener told me he had seen her running down the garden path as if the hounds of hell were after her—his words, not mine. He said she sat in the arbour at the bottom of the garden for some time, then suddenly got up and ran back into the house. Later he saw her leaving with a small portmanteau…’
‘She has run away with a lover, perhaps?’ Ash put in.
‘Certainly not!’ Luke was indignant. ‘She would not, even if such a person existed, which he does not.’
‘Did the gardener speak to her?’ Jonathan asked.
‘No, he said it was not his place to question the young mistress and she frequently went into the village carrying a basket of provisions or a bag of clothes and such like to be given to the poor families. She is well known for it and he thought nothing of it.’
‘Then has she gone visiting friends?’ James asked. ‘Have you enquired?’
‘Certainly I have. No one has seen her.’
‘Did you enquire if she had boarded a coach?’ James asked.
‘Yes, it was one of the first things I did. No one saw her and everyone knows her in the village, so if she had done such a thing it would have been noted. Her horse is still in the stable. I rode to my brother Matthew’s house about three miles distant, in case she had taken it into her head to visit him. She was not there nor had been. No one had seen her. I searched the roadside in both directions in case she had met with an accident, but to no avail. She had not been to Mark’s either. He is another brother and has a living near Rickmansworth, though how she would have gone to him I have no idea. Someone would have had to take her. He had seen nothing of her. We do not know what to do next. My mother is distraught.’
‘I can understand that,’ James said. ‘And she left no clue as to her intentions?’
‘No, though she did leave a note telling our parents not to worry and she would soon be back…’
‘There! I said she had run away with a lover,’ Ash said.
‘No, she has not. I wish you would treat the matter seriously.’
‘We are treating it seriously,’ James assured