Love's Harbinger Read Online Free

up as a regular nabob, eh, Guy?”
    “Why not? I’m as good as the rest of them.”
    “Better.”
    “Toadeater.” Guy laughed, and tossed him a golden boy.
     

Chapter Two
     
    “It was a waste of time going there,” Lady Faith said when they were back in the carriage, returning to Berkeley Square. “I, for one, place no credence in the story of that impertinent scandalmonger, Delamar.” She might as well have been talking to herself for all the attention her aunt paid her.
    Lady Lynne drew a deep sigh and asked in a soupy voice, “Did you notice his eyes? And that scar—from a duel, I daresay.”
    “More likely he got his head caught in a dustbin when he was rooting for a story.” Again she was ignored.
    “And his shoulders—they dwarf an ordinary man’s.” Then the dame reluctantly turned her mind to business. If her niece knew anything at all about Thomas’s movements, it was necessary to squeeze the information out of her. “This Elwood fellow, Faith, you met him, I think?”
    “Yes, a few times in the park, with Thomas. I didn’t much care for him. I have no idea where he lived, but we met him once at his office on Tottenham Court Road just north of Great Russell. Thomas despised him. Of course it is Elwood who took the money.”
    “You should have told Mr. Delamar so!”
    “I’m sorry we ever went to see him. He won’t listen to reason. Let the bloodhound do his own sniffing.”
    “You forget I have five thousand pounds in that nonexistent company, my dear. You owe it to me, if not to Thomas’s erstwhile reputation, to do what you can to find him. Perhaps when I tell you Thomas tried to get his hands on your dowry as well, it will open up your eyes. Fortunately, your papa would not hear of it. I only wonder he didn’t wait till he had married you, then run off with your pittance as well as mine.”
    “This gives me the megrims. I hope we don’t have to attend that rout party this evening?”
    “I am not up to it,” her aunt said, though it was not the megrims that would keep her away. She was on thorns for Mr. Delamar’s visit and planned to entertain him without Lady Faith to chaperone them. She wished the girl farther away than upstairs in her bed and proceeded to convince her of her duty. “Of course you must attend the rout, Faith. It is as good as an indictment of Thomas if you shab off.”
    “How can I go? Everyone will be staring and talking. It will be horrid.”
    “That is precisely why you must go, to give the lie to the rumors in case Mr. Delamar finds the money and we can wrap the whole affair up in clean linen. Tell everyone what you told Mr. Delamar, that Thomas was feeling poorly and went home for a rest. I cannot go, but I shall write a note to Mrs. Coates and send you off to her early, before she gets away. She will be happy to take you and save her own horses. You need do no more than put in an appearance. Come home as early as you like—any time after ten.”
    Lady Faith’s first instinct was to object, but a second thought showed her the possibility of helping Thomas. It was an excellent chance to get away from her chaperone for an hour to do a little investigating of her own. There was no point in going to Thomas’s flat or to Mr. Elwood’s, but that office on Tottenham Court Road . . . Mr. Delamar didn’t know about it. She was sure she would find some evidence there to exonerate Thomas. He would be revealed as a flat, of course, taken in by Elwood, but better an honest dupe than a criminal. She gave a resigned sigh and said, “Oh, very well, if you think I should.”
    The ladies went through the farce of sitting down to dinner. When Lady Lynne’s appetite was up, she was an excellent trencherman, but that evening she was able to manage no more than half a pheasant and a dish of peas, though she was tempted back into appetite by the fresh strawberries and clotted cream served for dessert. Lady Faith’s appetite was quenched by foreboding and her