A Lady Never Surrenders Read Free Page A

room.”
    In his lordship’s bed, to be precise. Although the entire family now knew of Mrs. Rawdon’s seduction of the sixteen-year-old heir on the day of his parents’ deaths, it wasn’t something they liked to dwell on, least of all Stoneville.
    “I’m aware of that,” Jackson said. “Which is why I’ve been trying to confirm it through another source.”
    “What source?” Mrs. Masters asked.
    “Mrs. Rawdon’s former lady’s maid, Elsie. The valet wouldn’t have been the only servant with private information. If your father and Mrs. Rawdon were involved, her lady’s maid probably knew of it, too.” He sucked in a breath. “Unfortunately, I haven’t yet located Elsie.”
    “Then why are we here?” Jarret asked, always right to the point.
    “Because while searching for her, I discovered a curious circumstance. It seems that her last place of employ was with a rich gentleman in Manchester.”
    Although the others took a moment to catch the significance of that, Jarret and Gabe realized it at once. They’d been with Jackson at the inquest of Halstead Hall’s former head groom, Benny May, whose body had been found after he’d traveled to visit a “friend” in Manchester.
    “Surely you don’t think that Elsie might have had something to do with Benny’s death,” Mrs. Plumtree exclaimed, horror showing in her aging features.
    “I have no idea,” Jackson said. “But it seems quite the coincidence that Benny would travel to where Elsie had been, only to end up dead shortly after he left that city.”
    “ Had been?” Gabe asked. “Elsie left Manchester?”
    “She did. I find that suspicious. According to her family, she sent them a quick note saying she was leaving her post and heading to London to look for a new one. Apparently, she’d always refused to tell them the identity of her employer. They suspected she was involved with the man romantically. Whatever the case, I’m having trouble finding her. No one in Manchester seems to know anything. But she told her family she would send them word as soon as she settled in London.”
    “Is it possible we’re barking up the wrong tree with Elsie and Benny?” Stoneville asked. “The authorities were never sure he was murdered. He might have been the victim of a hunting accident. Elsie might have moved on because she didn’t like her employer. Their both being in Manchester at the same time could be coincidence.”
    “True.” But in Jackson’s business, genuine coincidences were rare. “I did learn she was younger than your mother.”
    “Quite pretty, too, as I recall,” Stoneville said.
    “How strange that Mrs. Rawdon would have a fetching young lady’s maid,” Mrs. Plumtree said. “That’s asking for trouble, men being what they are.”
    “Not all men, Gran,” Mrs. Masters said stoutly.
    Mrs. Plumtree cast a glance about the table, then smiled. “No, not all men.”
    Jackson fought to shield his thoughts. Masters did seem an excellent husband, but he’d already reformed by the time he’d begun courting his wife. And the Sharpe men seemed devoted to their wives, but would it last?
    His mother had been seduced by a nobleman, a brash young lord in Liverpool with a penchant for sweet maidens. Instead of marrying her, the arse had married a wealthy woman and set up Jackson’s mother as his mistress, abandoning her when Jackson was two. So Jackson had no illusions about what marriage meant to the aristocracy.
    Don’t blame your father, Mother had said as she lay dying in his aunt and uncle’s home. If not for him, I wouldn’t have you. And that made it all worth it.
    He couldn’t see how. The memory of her emaciated body lying on that bed …
    With an effort, he tamped down his anger and forced himself to pay attention to the matter at hand. “I’m waiting to hear from Elsie’s family about her location in London. I heard from Major Rawdon’s regiment in India that he’d taken a three-year post in Gibraltar, so I’ve sent