A Fine Caprice - A Regency Romance Read Online Free Page B

change in the amiable Anthony Fenshaw. Gone was the cheerful good-hum or, replaced by something implacable. This glimpse of steel explained a great deal about his current position in government.
    ‘The Grand Duchess?’
    ‘Unfor tunately not. She is an obvious choice for observa tion. No… I am referring to Sir Darryl Hughenden.’
    His lordship frowned at this. ‘ Hughenden?’
    ‘Indeed.’
    ‘But… surely you don’t suspect Hughenden of… what the devil are we discussing here, anyway? Spying? Englishmen spying for the French? I would be far more inclined to believe it of my cousin than of a man like Hughenden.’
    ‘I know. It does seem extraordinary does it not?’
    ‘But he is not a particular crony of Raveners. Is he?’ Cass demanded, more disconcerted by this than he had been by the prospect of his cousin being a traitor . He knew Darryl Hughenden, had done since they were at Harrow, and then Oxford together. It would never have occurred to him that the man was anything but sound.
    ‘More like a crony of the von Kassel woman ,’ Fenshaw said gravely, ‘although I could be mistaken in this. That is one of the many things I hope to discover by sending you down to Dorset.’
    ‘You want me to discover if Hughenden is a spy? Because I’ll tell you right now,’ Cass said, a little irritably, ‘that I don’t believe it for a moment.’
    ‘Good. I need somebody with that kind of attitude.’
    His lordship stared at his host, frustrated. ‘Why me? Good God Fenshaw, I am hardly the type of fellow a man like you is likely to recruit.’
    ‘Why?’ Fenshaw demanded , his former good humor apparently restored. ‘Don’t you think you’re up to it?’
    ‘Up to what , exactly?’
    ‘Discovering what it is Ravener - or Maria von Kassel – is so eager to get their hands on in the house of Abel Merridew. Illuminating the real relationship between the Grand Duchess and your cousin. Or unmasking the man who, I am growing more uncomfortably certain of all the time, is one of the most cunning spies that this country has ever produced?’ Summarized in such a fashion, Lord Merridew could only stare at his companion. Fenshaw smiled. ‘I think you’re exactly what we need.’
    ‘Good God!’
    ‘So you will go to Dorset tomorrow?’
    ‘I will?’
    ‘Certainly. The sooner we start, the sooner we will be able to identify what must be done. Just poke around the place. They say it’s riddled with priest holes and God only knows what else. The coastline around those parts has an interesting repu tation as well you know and Abel Merridew has always had a reputation for aiding and abetting smugglers. God only knows who else he’s been aiding.’
    ‘Dear Uncle Abel has always been most enterprising ,’ his nephew agreed. ‘The family don’t like to talk about just how enterprising .’
    Fenshaw grinned. ‘ Damn glad I ran into you this morning ,’ he said cheerfully, draining his glass of claret and dabbing at his lips with the napkin he had tucked into his neckcloth. ‘It saved me having to hunt you down.’
    ‘I can hard ly believe my luck either .’
    Fenshaw chuckled . ‘You like to pretend you’re a feckless lay about but I know better.’
    ‘On the contrary,’ Cass assured him earnestly, ‘I am a feckless lay about. Just ask anybody. My relatives will all attest to it.’
    Fenshaw laughed and deposited his napkin onto his plate . ‘There is more to you than you like to pretend, Merridew. I have always thought as much.’
    ‘Yes, but there is no need to share it with the world,’ Cass pointed out, aggrieved. ‘This is all damned inconvenient. I was supposed to be going down to Tattersalls tomorrow. More th an that, my sister expects me to host her ghastly rout on Friday evening. She’s borrowing the townhouse because the guests won’t all fit in to her place in Berkley Square .’
    ‘What the devil has she got on?’
    ‘My niece has come out. Apparently all of London must now meet