Gentlemen Prefer Mischief Read Online Free

new enemy? I wager it will be more difficult than you think to catch a villain in a dark wood at night.”
    “I’ll take that wager. Let us say that I’ll unmask the Fiend within, oh, two weeks, or you shall have my new hunter.”
    “That is confident!” John said. “Very well. If you succeed, I shall order you ten cases of sherry from our cousin James’s Spanish sherry vineyard.”
    “I must insist,” the Earl of Ivorwood said, “on joining this adventure.”
    Roxham turned to Lily. “There, you see, Miss Teagarden. Two gentlemen pledged to solve the mystery. We shall make an attempt this very night.”
    Mrs. Whyte laughed giddily and clapped her hands. “It sounds like a game! Can we all bring blankets and watch?”
    “Perhaps that wouldn’t be a good idea,” Roxham said with indulgent amusement.
    Lily gnashed her teeth at the way her problem had been turned into an entertainment, but she wouldn’t dwell on that since they were committed to helping. Though now if Roxham did succeed, he would be rewarded with a prize, a thought that annoyed her deeply.
    “Thank you.”
    She was about to take her leave when he said, “And I’ll take a look around for that little book of yours as well, Miss Teagarden.”
    She froze. Unwanted memories pressed in on her, a remembrance of that old sickness .
    “I’m sure I have no interest in it,” she said as casually as she could.
    “What book is this?” Roxham’s sister-in-law asked.
    Lily tried surreptitiously to read his face. Did he truly have it?
    “Oh,” he said, “just a book Miss Teagarden left here some years ago.”
    “A journal, wasn’t it?” said Eloise, squinting her eyes as if trying to see into the past. Eloise would have been perhaps twelve at the time. “Wasn’t there some incident…”
    Lily was certain she couldn’t stand there while these elegant people probed her for a second longer. She thanked them for their hospitality and commended the gentlemen for their pledge to try to apprehend the ghost that night.
    She set off across the lawn with Buck at her side, almost certain that she heard Lord Perfect chuckling. Blast the man.
    ***
    Hal watched Lily’s departing figure, disappointed that she was leaving.
    “What do you say to a swim in the river, Ivorwood? John?” he asked.
    “Oh,” Diana said, “not a good idea. Freddy and I were down there earlier, racing leaf boats, and with all the recent rain, it’s running very fast. You’d much better swim in the lake.”
    “Sorry, can’t,” Colin said. “I’ve a few letters that must be sent off to my secretary.”
    “And I’ve some affairs to attend to myself,” John said.
    There were things Hal was meant to be doing as well, but they could wait. Mayfield was, as far as he could see, in fairly good shape, even if Prescott was not in top form.
    “I’ll just have a look round,” Hal said. “Assess the state of things.”
    Diana frowned as he turned to go, but he merely winked. He was fond of his sister-in-law and relieved that the birth of his nephews had eliminated the need for him to set up a nursery himself.
    The river was high, he saw when he reached it, perhaps thirty feet across at the point where he stood assessing the water. Its rough swirls indicated strong currents. Just the sort of thing he wanted.
    He tugged off his boots and stripped off his coat and shirt and dove in.
    The rushing water pounded him instantly, driving against him. Fear and courage rushed up in that battle he’d missed, and his furious thrashing through the current was the cannon he shot into the void.
    If he surrendered, he’d be carried away, with no one the wiser for some time. The thought gave him an unexpected, pure sense of connection to men hundreds of miles away striving on battlefields, to others on fighting ships submitting to the surgeon’s knife.
    Pushing through the water with all his might, his mind tightly focused, he welcomed the struggle. When he finally reached the opposite bank, he