The Devil You Know (The Devil DeVere #3)(11)

“What then happened to the girl?” Annalee asked.

“The jury believed she made no sincere effort to escape her captor. The broadsheets further claimed that while Baltimore was undoubtedly guilty, neither was she truly innocent.”

“How horribly unfair for the victim to be painted with the same brush as the perpetrator of the crime!” exclaimed Annalee.

DeVere shrugged. “As I said, it is a man’s world.”

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“I marvel that you have taken such a very keen interest in this Lord Baltimore,” Diana remarked.

“I am so easily bored that you might say he has become my hobby,” DeVere said. “His life has provided me endless entertainment. I have acquired his diaries and travel journals, and my agent even now seeks to purchase the notorious Bloomsbury House from the Duke of Bolton.”

“Why on earth would you desire such a tainted thing?” Diana asked.

DeVere cocked a brow. “Must I have a reason? ”

“But what happened to him in the end?” Annalee asked. “You said the scoundrel was acquitted. Was he never held to account for his crimes?”

“Can one ever truly escape one’s sins?” DeVere asked, waxing philosophic. “No doubt you ladies and my entirely-too-upright brother will be relieved to hear that our hero did come to a bad end. Upon his acquittal, he found himself in dire financial straits.

He sold off everything and left England with eight women, a physician, and two Negro servant—presumably eunuchs,” he added in a laughing aside. “He travelled thusly for three years until his death in Italy. He was eight and thirty. And so ends our tale of woe.”

“What a wasteful life!” Annalee declared.

“Indeed,” said Hew. “It only serves to demonstrate how idle-ness can lead to a man’s destruction. Speaking of which, might I remind you that we have a gentleman to rescue from the devil’s own abode at Clay Hill.”

“The devil’s abode? What on earth do you mean?” said Annalee.

Hew’s face flushed. “Mayhap I said more than I should have.”

“Nevertheless, you must now explain,” said Diana. “Is my husband in danger?”

“Only if he has a predilection for hard drinking, deep gaming, and low company,” DeVere answered with a smirk.

“Dear God.” Diana cast all three men an accusing look. “Why on earth have you waited so long to retrieve him?”

“Because he has already been there three days, madam,”

said DeVere. “I assure you the damage is already done. Besides, one must make allowance for a gentleman’s dignity. To have ap-29

The Devil You Know

peared immediately upon your known arrival to fetch him here would have implied...”

“What?” she demanded.

His lips twitched in obvious amusement. “To put it politely...

that he is less than master of his own domain.”

Diana’s met DeVere’s mocking smile with a look of reproach.

“And thus, does the devil look after his own.”

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Chapter Four


“It appears our Colonel is entertaining,” Hew remarked.

Though the hour was advanced, the scene was much as they had envisioned it would be when they arrived at O’Kelly’s mansion.

Grooms milled about, horse-drawn vehicles overflowed the court-yard, and every window was ablaze with the glow of candles.

“His house is always full when he comes down for the races,”

said DeVere. “He and his consort, Mrs. Hayes, are a notoriously cunning pair of adventurers who use such lavish entertainment to gain the confidence of their guests.” He lowered his voice. “While Madam Hayes provides the carnal delights of her filles de joies straight from her London brothels, our good Colonel, who keeps as deep a cellar as my own, plies his intended dupes with drink.

When the time is right, the dice boxes and faro tables appear.”

“But I’m confounded how Reginald fell in with them,” said Ned with a frown.

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“Perhaps I can enlighten you on that score,” Hew said. “A few days ago, when I came in from a training run on the downs, I encountered three gentlemen—and I use the term generously— one of whom I recognized as our neighbor, O’Kelly. I gathered from snippets of conversation that the fellows were previously acquainted with one another and had met up quite by happen-stance at a tavern in Ewell. While there was some talk of breeding one of the mares to our Snap stallion, the Colonel convinced the chap that he would be better to look at Eclipse instead. I now have no doubt in my mind that O’Kelly accompanied Lord Reginald as a convenient excuse to spy upon his competition.”

“They paid me no heed at all, likely presuming I was the stable master, and unaware that one of the three was your expected guest Lord Reginald, I was not inclined to undeceive them. The three shortly departed, presumably to Clay Hill.”

“And thus did our good neighbor prime his pigeon for the plucking,” remarked DeVere.

“I wish I had spoken of this earlier,” said Hew with a frown.

“Don’t blame yourself,” said Ned. “You are not the man’s keeper. And if they were previously acquainted as you say, there is nothing you could have done without insulting O’Kelly.”