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Emma was dancing again, this time with a dandy dressed like Voltaire. How the man waltzed while balancing a flowing powdered wig and with a half mask blocking his vision, I couldn’t guess. They made a graceful pair, and I noticed the wizard and Henry VIII watching them as closely as I. I was surprised the wizard hadn’t asked her to dance yet. Maybe the Frenchman had beaten him to Emma’s side. Her beauty was difficult to ignore.
I continued my circuit of the room. The music changed, and I saw Emma dancing with Henry VIII again. When I stopped and looked around, I heard a smooth male voice in my ear. “Let’s go out into the garden, Miss Fenchurch.”
I spun around and found myself facing a black half mask and a tall, white wig. Looking down, I saw pale blue knee breeches and black shoes with silver buckles. There were a half dozen identical costumes at this ball. “Who are you, and what have you done with Marie Antoinette?”
“Unlike her, I’m trying not to lose my head. Nicholas Drake, at your service.” He gave me as much of a bow as he could manage with bodies squishing us from all directions and his wig threatening to topple off his head.
“How did you know it was me?”
“I’d like to say it was a brilliant deduction, but the Duke of Blackford told me what you would wear. I wanted you here to assure my safety.”
I’d never been in a situation where I was less able to assure his well-being. All I had was a ceremonial dagger, and we were being pushed on from every direction. “Why have you come here? There must be safer places for you to hide.”
“I received a tempting proposition from the Duke of Blackford. This seemed the safest place for us to negotiate. He arranged for my invitation.” Even with his mouth next to my ear, I had to guess at every other word.
My suspicions of the duke intensified. “What proposition?” I found I was nearly bellowing in Drake’s ear to be heard.
“We can’t talk in here. Let’s go out in the garden.”
I trusted Drake almost as much as I trusted the Duke of Blackford. Putting a hand over my dagger, I nodded and followed him outside.
The veranda near the doors was well lit with gas lamps. The music and the laughter from inside poured over us. The garden beyond was a mass of shadows cast by hanging lanterns and thick bushes. While this dark area would be a great place for a tryst, it wouldn’t be good for a business meeting. Or preventing an attack.
Drake nodded his head toward the garden. “That way. It’s too loud and public here.”
“And much safer.”
He laughed, a seductive sound if I were to fancy him. I didn’t, but I could understand why the young debutantes flocked around him. “I didn’t take you for a coward. Come on. I won’t hurt you.”
No, he wouldn’t. That was why I wore a dagger.
We walked a little way into the garden and looked around to make certain we wouldn’t be overheard. “We had your house under watch. You were safe there. Why come here tonight?”
“No place is safer than in the middle of a crowd.”
He might sound foolhardy, but I saw how his eyes glanced all around him. He was scared. “What is the duke’s proposition?” I whispered.
“All of my blackmail material in exchange for a sizable sum of money and two first-class passages to Canada.”
“It sounds like a good deal. You should take it.”
He shook his head and glanced around, making certain no one was approaching. “I want assurances.”
“What kind of assurances?”
“The kind that doesn’t have me handing over the letters only to get a knife in the back.”
“I think if the Duke of Blackford wanted to double-cross you, you would already be dead.”
“Are you positive he isn’t the one who’s sent his thugs to kill me?” Despite the shadows, I saw him raise an eyebrow.
I considered my answer. “Yes. He’s done everything to make himself look guilty, including lying to the Archivist Society and pla
“Thank you for that robust defense of my honor.” I peered into the thick shadows away from the house where the deep, ironic voice came from. Then a highwayman stepped out of the darkness. Black half mask, black tricorn hat, a pistol tucked into the black sash at his waist. Straight black hair gleaming in the light of a hanging lantern. The only white was his shirt. I suspected there was a knife strapped to his forearm under the loose sleeves.
The air fairly hummed with danger, and I could have sworn I smelled gunpowder mixed in with the scent of spring flowers.
I glanced from Drake to the duke. There was no comparison. The duke raised my heart rate. Drake a
Wanting answers to the mysteries he left in his wake, I took a step toward him. “We need to talk, Your Grace.”
“No time for that now. Stand guard while Mr. Drake and I negotiate.”
Drake took a couple of steps into the darkness and I stood next to a tall bush, keeping an eye out for anyone entering or leaving the veranda. I rubbed my hands up and down my bare upper arms as I grew chilled standing outside. The overwarm, overbright ballroom looked more appealing by the moment.
I could hear the two men talking behind me in low, strident tones. There were no other sounds of footsteps or voices nearby, and the only time I could hear the music was when someone opened the French doors. It was peaceful out there. Unfortunately, I was only aware of being cold and bored.
To fend off boredom and, I admit, to satisfy my curiosity, I tried to hear what the two men had to say to each other. I thought I heard a large sum of money mentioned and decided that couldn’t be right. A couple, a Harlequin and an Elizabeth I, started in my direction and I moved a little. They must have wanted privacy because they turned toward the far side of the garden.
Between the gasps and giggles at a distance and Drake and the Duke of Blackford muttering figures closer at hand, the evening was less boring but still chilly. I tried counting stars but the sky was too cloudy. I resisted the growing urge to tell the two men to make up their minds before the ball ended.
Just as I ran out of patience, they approached me. “Miss Fenchurch, if you’d come with us,” Drake said. “For a sum of money that the duke is going to remove from the bank tonight, I’m going to hand over all my . . . incriminating papers. I’d like you along to assure fair dealing.”
“How do you plan to get into a bank at this hour?”
“Sir Izzy Fairweather is in the card room. I’ll ask him to join us,” the duke said.
“And the papers?”
“Are in a safe box in his bank,” Drake said.
The duke laughed. “Wise man.”
Amazing how the letters Drake held and the duke’s money were both in the bank owned by a guest at the ball. Some people would call that a coincidence. Knowing how much the Duke of Blackford had interfered, I suspected he’d somehow learned where the papers were and made certain the money and the banker were available tonight.
We’d reached the French doors. “I need to tell Emma all is well and to enjoy the ball without me.”
“No need. Sumner is here watching out for her, and I’m sure you have guards here, too. We’ll bring you back as soon as our business is finished.”
Sir Izzy Fairweather, dressed as a portly Lord High Justice in judicial wig and gown, appeared overjoyed to see us and rose from the card table immediately. As I collected my cloak, I heard him grumble to Blackford, “You’ll drop me off at home after we stop by the bank? I’ve had enough of Arlington’s kind regards for everyone in my family. The man must want something, and it’s difficult to say no to your host.”