Leslie Lafoy Read Online Free Page A

matter of fact, two of them have. Or at least so he says.”
    He’s beside himself to help them. Two suggests that there’s a problem in the training. Poor animals.
    Carrie lowered her chin. “Fiona, don’t you dare.”
    She would dare and they all knew it. But she wasn’t stupid or foolish; she knew what people thought of Randolph. They were wrong, but they thought it anyway. “I’ll just make sure he’s nowhere around when I have a look at them.”
    “Make sure you take Alvin with you when you go,” Drayton instructed as their carriage rolled to a stop in front of the townhouse.
    “Ralph, too,” Caroline added as the footman opened the door. “And Jim for good measure.”
    Fiona reined in her smile and followed them out of the carriage, up the walk, and into the house. Declining to join them for a sherry, she left them and went upstairs to her room. It really was amazing, she mused as she went, how everyone thought of her as thoroughly naive. For heaven’s sake, she knew far more about the people around them than they did. Not that she shared the information unless there was a pressing need to do so. People were generally entitled to privacy, to keep their secrets secret. Up to the point where those secrets might endanger someone, of course.
    Take Jim along to Randolph’s stables. Oh, please. Randolph preferred young men and Jim was in Drayton’s employ in the hope that one of his friends would be old, generous, and looking for companionship. If she took Jim along, he was likely to latch on to Randolph and stay for as long as the old man’s pockets had money in them. Or until Randolph put him in his will and then happily and conveniently died.
    Fiona dropped her cloak on the end of the bed and then stopped as realization struck home. There was the familiar indentation in the feather comforter, but there wasn’t a black-and-white cat in it. She leaned down and laid the palm of her hand in the spot where Beeps spent three-quarters of his daily existence. The cold shuddered up her arm and down the length of her back.
    “Beeps?” she called, turning about, scanning the room. “Beeps, where are you?” Nothing. Not a sound, not a telltale movement. Her heart chilling, she opened the door and wandered down the upstairs hall, opening each of the guest room doors and calling for him.
    Her stomach was leaden by the time she reached the kitchen. Polly looked up from her preparations for breakfast and arched a brow. “Is something amiss, Lady Fiona?”
    She could barely nod, barely get her voice pushed past her sense of dread. “Have you seen Beeps this evening?”
    “He was down here a hour or so ago, Lady Fiona. Cook gave him a bit of leftover fish and a saucer of milk before she went out to get a ham for tomorrow. I don’t know where he went after that.”
    Went out … Fiona looked at the door leading into the rear yard. Beeps could have slipped out for an adventure. He could be sitting on the back step patiently waiting to be let back in. But he wasn’t and she knew it. As her stomach heaved and then dropped, she took the lantern from the hearth mantel and went to look for him.
    *   *   *
    Ian checked the arrangement of his clothing one last time and climbed down out of the carriage. It was amazing, he decided as he made his way toward his front door, how a man could be both physically spent and invigorated at the same time. Lady Baltrip’s husbands had, without a doubt, died happy men. Just as doubtlessly, she’d killed them.
    Ian grinned. God Almighty, the woman didn’t have a single inhibition or the slightest aversion to risk. Between the garden tryst, the cloakroom escapade, and the carriage ride to her townhouse, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had such a wonderful time at a Society event.
    The prospects for the balance of the Season were considerably brighter now. Tomorrow night was Lady Miller-Sands’ ball and Lady Baltrip—with a wink and a slow caress as she’d climbed