A Masquerade in the Moonlight(11)
“Donovan, Arthur,” Marguerite corrected the man, inclining her head slightly in Thomas’s direction as Lord Mappleton made to pull her toward the stairs. “I believe Americans are very touchy about things like that. We wouldn’t wish to seem unneighborly, now would we? Good evening, Mr. Donovan—and thank you so much for rescuing me. I’m sure I could not have asked for a more eventful interlude.”
“What? What? Donovan, you say?” Lord Mappleton blustered as the pair moved out of earshot. “Ain’t that Irish? Bad enough we have to do the pretty with these colonials without them being bloody Boglanders into the bargain.”
“And the top of the evening to you, too, Lord Mapletree,” Thomas muttered under his breath in disgust as he watched the tall, slim Miss Balfour and the shorter, decidedly stouter peer join the throng of people descending to the supper room. And then, left without many options, but not without questions, he repaired to the game room. There he proceeded to handily separate one very disgruntled, talkative Julian Quist from five hundred pounds of his “encroaching” mama’s money.
“Well, now, Tommie, you’re late enough, aren’t you? Did you see him? Did you talk to him?”
Patrick Dooley had thrown open the door to the suite of rooms in the Pulteney Hotel the moment he’d heard his friend’s distinctive, confident tread in the hallway outside, then stood back smartly to let Thomas pass by him and into the stylishly furnished sitting room that had been the scene of Dooley’s agitated pacing for the shank of the evening. Thomas’s dark, tight-lipped expression didn’t cheer Dooley’s heart after several long hours spent in nervous expectation of good news.
Thomas collapsed into the closest chair, his long legs sprawled out in front of him as he ripped at his neck cloth, freeing it, only to send the thing winging in Dooley’s direction. “What do you think, Paddy?”
“I think you’re getting the same runaround these bloody Bugs are giving every one of our diplomats, that’s what I think,” Dooley spat, grabbing the neck cloth out of the air and wadding the starched material into a ball before dashing it to the floor. “I’d not have dealings with the likes of them. We’re going to have to whip their tails again in an out-and-out war if we mean to see an end to this. Madison was mad to send you. It’s like sending a goose to the fox’s den, that’s what it is.”
“We all know it will come to war. It’s just the when and the how of the business that we don’t know.” Thomas pushed himself up out of the chair and went over to the drinks table, pouring himself three fingers of brandy. He took a lusty gulp of the liquid, then grinned at his companion. “And if you don’t mind, my good friend, I’d like to think our esteemed president has sent the fox to mind the geese. Besides, the evening wasn’t a total waste.”
He reached into his pocket and drew out a satisfyingly thick wad of notes, tossing them onto the table. “We’ve added another five hundred pounds to the war effort, Paddy. Another such month in this fair metropolis, and we won’t need Harewood or any of his troupe. We’ll simply bankrupt all of England and have done with it.”
Dooley snatched up the money and stuffed it into the top drawer of the sideboard beside the rest of Thomas’s winnings. He took a moment to look into the mirror, seeing the worry lines that creased his forehead beneath his thick shock of liberally graying red hair. He was on the shady side of sixty and years too old for this sort of thing—and that was the truth. “It’s a lovely talent you have, boyo,” he said, turning back to Thomas, “but it’s not enough. You know what we were sent to do. Cooling our heels waiting in antechambers all the day long, only to be told this minister or that has gone for the day, is not my idea of the way to get things done. Treat us like dogs, they do—less than dogs!”
Thomas put down his drink and stretched his arms into the air, yawning widely. “Enough, Paddy. We both know they’re only treating us as they’re supposed to do—the way they’ve been abusing all of Madison’s emissaries. If they fell on our necks we’d be under immediate suspicion, and so would Harewood and the others. Although I must admit I have my doubts about the business. If Lord Mappleton’s behavior tonight is any indication of the caliber of these great intriguers, I fear Madison has placed his hope in the wrong quarter. Why, the young lady I met tonight is twice the man Mappleton will ever be.”
“Young lady, is it now?” Dooley smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Well, call me seven kinds of fool for thinking you were serious about this thing, Tommie Donovan. May the good Lord save me from any patriot whose brain lives between his legs.”