A Daring Liaison(51)

This echo of Charles’s thoughts confirmed his suspicions. It was looking more and more as if Georgiana Carson was not at all what she seemed. “How soon can you report back?” he asked Richardson.

The man glanced at the tall case clock standing in one corner of the parlor and still reading an indecently early hour. “How soon do you need the information?”

“Yesterday.”

“I can ride for Brighton within the hour and from there hire a smack to Mousehole. With favorable winds and ready tongues once I get there, three days, perhaps four.”

Charles nodded and Richardson got to his feet. “I’m going to need a few days to sleep when I get back.”

Wycliffe nodded. “You’ll get them.” He waited until Richardson disappeared and then turned back to Charles, a serious expression on his face. “And the rest of it?”

Damn. The man always knew when he was holding back. “Only a vague notion that all is not as it should be. But why Lady Caroline should be party to a lie, I cannot imagine.”

Wycliffe gave him a sage smile. “Can you not?”

“Nothing I’d care to share at the moment.”

“Do you think our assailant in this instance has turned his attention to Georgiana?”

“I do. She has had several close calls recently. One just last night in Vauxhall Gardens. A man encountered her along one of the paths and warned her that he had plans for her. That he’d rather ‘cut’ her than see her with me. Cut her, Wycliffe. I think that is a clear threat.”

“Did he say why? Did she even know him?”

Charles shook his head. “He was behind her and warned her not to turn around. She said she did not recognize his voice, but I wonder if she would tell me if she had.”

“I cannot believe anyone would wish her harm. She is such a pleasant woman. Who could she have given offense to?”

“I can think of at least half a dozen people who might want Georgiana dead, and most of them would profit by it.”

“Half a dozen?” Wycliffe scoffed. “Surely that is an exaggeration.”

“Not in the least. A conservative estimate, actually. Between the families of her deceased husbands, the newly found potential heirs to Caroline’s fortune and her own murky beginnings, there could be more.”

Wycliffe sat back in his chair and looked thoughtful. “Two cousins of Lady Caroline’s, a displaced cousin of her second husband, the parents of her first husband.” He stopped to look pointedly at Charles. “Not to mention various friends and Adam Booth’s parents. Yes. You might have something there.”

“I would wager my fortune that she had nothing to do with Booth’s death.”

“Never really thought she did.”

“Then why—”

“To get you to accept the assignment, Hunter. You can be deucedly stubborn when you have your ire up.”

“Possibly,” he mused. What did he actually know about Georgiana? That she’d been raised by Lady Caroline Betman and married twice. That she made love like an innocent and that she used lilac soap to wash her hair. That she had turned him around with barely a crook of her finger. What still lay hidden to be discovered?

“I heard you hired Finn. What prompted that?”

“Her butler has been behaving suspiciously. She dismissed him and he made threats. He and I...well, he knows he’d be a fool to try anything. But fools are born every day.”

Wycliffe leaned forward and lowered his voice, glancing right and left before speaking. “Hunter, hurry up. I’ve heard from the Under Secretary that pressure is increasing to solve these cases. And there appears to be some new development. Information that could implicate Mrs. Huffington in those murders and lead to her imminent arrest.”

“Imminent? How imminent?”

“Within a few days. A week at most.”

“Why?”

“The pressure was severe a week ago when I put you on this matter. With nothing to acquit her and new evidence to implicate her...it’s becoming a losing proposition, Hunter.”

“Damn it, what new evidence?”

“Laudanum.”

“What does that mean?”

“That was the word whispered to me this morning in my office. It isn’t official. Not yet. But, if you can, find out what Mrs. Huffington knows about laudanum.”

Charles nodded. He would be seeing Georgiana tonight. If the word meant anything to her, he’d know it.