Silk and Shadows Read Online Free Page B

private, I think it a good thing to maintain the formalities."
    "Doubtless you are right. Care for some tea?"
    Slade accepted the offer. While Kuram went to order refreshments, the Englishman brought his employer up to date on matters of business.
    Peregrine had met Benjamin Slade five years earlier in Bombay . A lawyer by training, Slade had served the East India Company loyally for a decade before being dismissed in a cloud of scandal. After some quiet investigation, Peregrine learned that Slade's business acumen had helped make his superior, a Mr. Wilkerson, a wealthy man. His reward had been to be made a scapegoat for Wilkerson's embezzling.
    Benjamin Slade had been an embittered and desperate man when Peregrine paid a call and offered him two things: a job and revenge. Slade had accepted both. Within a month, new evidence came to light that destroyed Wilkerson's career and sent him to prison. While the lawyer knew that the evidence must have been manufactured, he made no protest, for justice had been done. A month later, Slade took ship for London to become Peregrine's British business agent. In the intervening years he had served his employer brilliantly, in ways both orthodox and unorthodox.
    After receiving an overview of recent business developments, Peregrine leaned back in his chair and crossed his long legs. "I wish to make a splash in the London social scene, so you must find me a fashionable house. Something worthy of a prince."
    Slade nodded. "To rent or to buy?"
    "Either. If no suitable property is available for lease, buy one. I would also like you to look for a country estate within two hours' drive of London . Besides an impressive house, there must be enough land so that it can be farmed profitably."
    His agent's eyebrows went up. "Do you intend to stay in England indefinitely?"
    "That remains to be seen. As a matter of principle, I want the property to be a decent investment in its own right, as well as good for entertaining." Peregrine paused while Kuram set down a tea tray between the men, then continued, "The information you have gathered on Sir Charles Weldon was a useful beginning, but I want you to explore his business dealings more deeply."
    Slade nodded, his face expressionless. "Certainly. Can you give me an idea of what are you looking for? "
    Peregrine's answer shook the lawyer's careful control. "Good God," Slade gasped, "what you are suggesting is unbelievable."
    "Unbelievable, perhaps, but not impossible," Peregrine murmured. "The fact that it is unbelievable would be Weldon's best protection. While I have no evidence, my instincts tell me that if you look in the directions I have indicated, you will discover something. I rely on you to find the needle in the haystack, Benjamin, and to do it with the utmost discretion."
    The lawyer nodded, still stunned. "If it is there, I swear that I shall find it."
    Peregrine sipped his tea, satisfied. A vital thread was about to be spun in the web forming around Sir Charles Weldon.
    The unpredictable English weather had cooperated to make Lady Sara's party a success, and the colorful dresses of the female guests were like flowers strewn across the sunlit
garden
of
Haddonfield House
. Food, drink, and conversation, mankind's basic entertainment, were all plentiful. As voices and laughter rang through the summer-scented air, footmen circulated among the guests with trays of drinks and gentle strains of music emanated from an invisible chamber quartet.
    Having just arrived, Peregrine and Lord Ross stood at the edge of the garden, their height giving them an advantage in viewing the guests. As the Englishman made low-voiced comments about what could be expected of the event, Peregrine listened with only half an ear. Though his face was calm, internally he vibrated with anticipation. Today, after twenty-five years of waiting, he would meet his enemy face-to-face.
    Narrowing his eyes against the sun, Ross said, "I don't see Weldon yet, but he will certainly