Deception Read Free Page A

“Just took a look around, that’s all.”
    Jared bit back an exasperated oath. “The diary has been stowed on board the Sea Flame since yesterday afternoon. We’d have to unload the whole damn ship to get at it.”
    “Pity,” Thaddeus muttered, defeated.
    “In any event,” Jared continued, “the diary belongs to Miss Olympia Wingfield of Meadow Stream Cottage in Dorset. She has bought and paid for it.”
    “Bah, the diary is ours,” Magnus said stoutly. “It’s a family heirloom. I say she has no right to it.”
    “You appear to have forgotten that even if we get our hands on it, we shall very likely not be able to decipher it. However…” Jared paused just long enough to get his father’s and uncle’s full attention.
    “Yes?” Magnus asked eagerly.
    “Artemis Wingfield feels certain that his niece will be able to unravel the code in which the diary is written,” Jared said. “Apparently Miss Wingfield excels at that sort of thing.”
    Thaddeus brightened immediately. “I say, lad, your course of action is clear, then, ain’t it? You’ll have to follow the diary to its destination and then proceed to insinuate yourself into Miss Wingfield’s good graces so that she’ll tell you all she learns.”
    “Brilliant notion.” Magnus’s whiskers jerked in excitement. “Charm her, son. Seduce her. When she melts in your hands, get her to tell ye everything she learns from the diary. Then we’ll snaffle it away from her.”
    Jared sighed. It was difficult being the only sane, sensible soul in a family filled with eccentrics and Originals.
    The search for the Lightbourne diary had preoccupied all the Flamecrest males except Jared for three generations. Jared’s father, uncle, and cousins had all pursued it at one time or another. So had his grandfather and his great-uncles. The lure of treasure had a truly mesmerizing effect on a clan descended from a genuine buccaneer.
    But enough was enough. A few weeks earlier his cousins had very nearly gotten themselves killed because of the diary. Jared had decided it was time to end the nonsense once and for all. Unfortunately, the only way to put a stop to the matter was to recover the diary and see if it did indeed contain the secret of the missing treasure.
    No one had argued when Jared had announced that it was his turn to pursue the mysterious fortune that had vanished nearly a hundred years earlier. In truth everyone, his father especially, was only too pleased to see Jared show some interest in the matter.
    Jared knew he was considered useful to the family because of his talent for business. But that did not account for much in a family famed for its dashing, hot-blooded men.
    His relatives considered Jared depressingly dull. They said he lacked the Flamecrest fire. He, in turn, considered that they lacked self-restraint and common sense. It had not escaped his notice that they were quick enough to come to him when there was a problem or when they needed money.
    Jared had been putting matters right and attending to the boring little details of life for the Flamecrest clan since he was nineteen. Everyone in the family agreed it was the one thing at which he excelled.
    It seemed to Jared that he was forever rescuing one member of the family or another.
    Sometimes, when he sat up late at night making notes in his appointment journal, he wondered fleetingly if someone would ever come along to rescue him.
    “It’s all very well for you two to talk about charm and seduction,” Jared said, “but we all know that I did not inherit the Flamecrest talent for either.”
    “Bah.” Magnus waved that aside with a sweeping motion of his hand. “The problem is that you’ve never applied yourself to the matter.”
    An expression of grave concern crossed Thaddeus’s face. “Well, now, Magnus, I wouldn’t go so far as to say he ain’t tried his hand at that sort of thing. There was that unfortunate situation three years ago when the lad tried to woo himself a