The Swordmaster's Mistress: Dangerous Deceptions Book Two(14)

‘My lady? Here is the walking dress, your choice of the fawn twill was most successful, I think. Might I suggest this blue rick-rack braid? And these horn buttons?’

Guin turned her mind firmly from personal peril and her new bodyguard and focused on the detail of trim and hemline.





Chapter Five


Jared had been in many establishments run by women in his time, but none of them had been respectable gown shops. This was like being in an exquisite little bon-bon box and he found himself sitting very still on a ludicrous gilded chair expecting something to crack and drop him to the floor at any moment.

The back door had been locked and was equipped with a tinkling bell that would ring when it was opened, so no-one was going to get in the back without him hearing. The room full of seamstresses looked exactly as he imagined they should and the young woman flirting not very discreetly with him showed neither alarm nor curiosity at being informed that the Viscount preferred his wife to be escorted everywhere.

‘Not surprising, her ladyship being so beautiful. I’ll wager you have to hold the young men off with that sword to stop them making a nuisance of themselves.’ She prattled on, Jared responded, becoming increasingly tired of the game, the majority of his concentration on the puzzle of Lady Northam’s enemy.

Anyone with intelligence and nerve and the money to employ competent criminals could have set up the attacks. There was no clue there to either the sex or the age of the antagonist. And the motive seemed equally hidden.

If the Viscount’s daughters were after the title for their sons then they would have to eliminate not only Lady Northam but his lordship’s brother and nephew and distant cousins – to say nothing of their own father, if they were impatient. The nephew could surely be ignored, at least for the present, because he would be secure in the knowledge that he would inherit sooner or later.

Unless the brother and nephew feared the young wife would produce an heir for Augustus… For some reason Jared had assumed that this was a marriage in form only, despite his routine questions earlier. There was nothing new about an elderly man acquiring a pretty trophy wife to look after him in his dotage and a young woman in difficulties taking on the role of old man’s darling in return for status, luxury and security.

But the Viscount was a lively and seemingly vigorous man. If he was still active in the bedchamber, or the heirs believed him to be – and it might take as little as a meaningful glance or a teasing comment to convince them of that – then they had genuine grounds for concern. And if someone felt that an inheritance they had grown up believing was theirs, or their heir’s, was threatened, then removing the young wife might seem a solution.

Or it could be that Lady Northam was unaware of an enemy elsewhere, or had misjudged a threat. Or was keeping something secret. Or, or, or… Possibilities churned round in his head, each as likely, and unlikely, as the next. This was getting him nowhere and he still was not even certain whether this was a campaign of harassment or a genuine attempt at murder devised by someone with a warped mind and a scattergun approach to method.

If Lady Northam was going out that evening to a social function then he would have to accompany her, begin to establish himself in the London scene and discover what was being said about the Viscountess of Northam. He made a note to approach Cal for some introductions. His friend would not mind and a duke vouching for him would do wonders for the speed with which he could work his way into Society.

The other end of the scale was less easy. He had been out of London too long to know the underworld, not that he had ever been familiar with it before he took up his post as swordmaster and companion to Viscount Castledale, as Cal had been then. Jared had been too young, his own swordmaster too strict with his apprentice, to have mixed with the criminal classes.

On the other hand he had plenty of experience of the seedy underbellies of other cities around the world. It was time to put that to good effect. Jared made another note as the shop door bell tinkled and his flirtatious companion hastened away to deal with the newcomers. Jared stood up, the little chair creaking in relief, as a flurry of ladies entered. There were only four of them but they managed to fill the shop to overflowing with femininity.

He edged into a corner, hand on the hilt of his rapier to push it down parallel with his leg and out of sight. He was not exactly what the customers would expect to find in this temple to feminine elegance but there was nowhere to retreat to without giving up his line of sight on the fitting room door.

It rapidly became clear that far from being an unwanted intrusion he was providing an additional attraction. As he had not been introduced to any of the ladies he could do no more than bow slightly when they caught his eye, but that was enough to produce blushes and giggles from the pair of young ones and a lingering, considering, assessment from the two older women.

Jared greeted the reappearance of Lady Northam with a silent sigh of relief. He would fight four attackers for her without a moment’s hesitation, but he was mightily relieved to be rescued by her from that many harmless ladies.

Her fitting did not seem to have relaxed her, and there was a tiny frown between her brows as she emerged from the dressing rooms, but she greeted the other customers with a pleasant smile that became fixed when she saw the sliding glances from herself to Jared and back. They thought he was her escort, he realised, and they were reading far more into that than either of them would have wanted.