Love's Harbinger Read Free Page B

leave?”
    “The only reason I’m still here is that I’ve been scurrying around, trying to get a lead on Elwood. There are rumors he’s still in town, though he’s not at his flat. I want to find out if Lord Thomas ran off with the whole lot or split it with Elwood. I don’t see why Elwood would be hiding if he were totally innocent, but still it’s Lord Thomas who has flown, and flight is usually taken as prima facie evidence of guilt. I’ll be leaving around nine. The girl must know something, don’t you think? She could help us, if she would.”
    “She’s as stubborn as a mule, but I’ll try my hand at pumping her for news. Why don’t you drop around my place before you leave London? I might have something for you by then. She might have an idea where we could find Elwood at least. He was out with her and Thomas a few times.”
    “I was wondering if she plans to give you the slip and follow her Thomas. It’s possible, I suppose. Is it a love match?”
    Lady Lynne drew a thoughtful breath and settled on uncompromising vagueness. “They’re fond of each other. Love will grow in time.”
    “You must be alluding to the old cliché that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I shouldn’t think a vacuum the likeliest ambience for the sprouting of love. But then he won’t really leave a vacuum behind, will he? He’ll leave a trail of pain and mortification.”
    “And empty bank balances!” Lady Lynne added tartly.
    “There are several that will be emptier than yours, Lady Lynne, though to steal from a friend carries a special sort of odium even for a nobleman,” he said with a bold sneer that sent shivers of delight up her spine. “I’ll drop by Berkeley Square some time before nine.”
    “Oh, you know where I live.” She smiled.
    “Knowing things is my business. I never did find out why such a charming young lady as yourself hasn’t remarried—yet. Two years since you were widowed. London bachelors are slow-tops.”
    “Oh, you really are wicked!” she crooned, and tapped his fingers playfully, then darted off to meet her niece.
    Mr. Delamar strolled to the window to watch them enter their carriage. There was a glow in his topaz eyes, but it was not a glow of admiration for Lady Lynne, who felt she had engaged his interest. He thought her a fat, silly old fool who might easily be led into revealing anything she knew, only he feared she knew even less than himself.
    It was a glow of suspicion directed at Lady Faith Mordain. Why was she so insistent that Lord Thomas was innocent? She didn’t look like a fool. There was intelligence in those large gray eyes. Intelligence and anger and pride. The lady was stung at her public humiliation. A woman scorned might be led to help him, if he handled her properly. But he had always found the proud aristocracy difficult to handle. They stuck together like burrs, spreading their noble mantle over their own.
    He’d probably never get to the bottom of this Lord Thomas affair, but he’d give it his best effort. It was a personal crusade, almost a vendetta, that he bring Lord Thomas to justice. Even if he hadn’t been the proprietor and editor of the Harbinger , he would have hounded Lord Thomas to the grave. He was sorry Lady Faith must be spattered in the fray, it she were innocent, but it wouldn’t deter him.
    Lord Thomas had chosen some of his victims poorly. He wouldn’t get away with the life savings of Buck and Eddie. The Lady Lynnes of the world were of less interest to him, though of course they enhanced the interest of the story. But that his own buddies, who had risked their lives for England, should be duped by a Lord Thomas was not to be borne.
    He was interrupted by the appearance of a printer’s devil behind him. “What’s up then, Guy?” the fellow asked.
    “My dander. Call for my rig, Joey. If anything important comes up, I’ll be at my house before I leave town.”
    “The new place?”
    “That’s right, in Piccadilly.”
    “Setting