Rogue's Reward

“Having flown over many knavish professions, he settled only in rogue.”

—
The Winter’s Tale

The tennis ball bounced sharply, cracked into the waiting racket, and flew back at the heedless blond head of Walter Feveril Downe. Mr. Downe’s wandering attention returned too late. He lunged clumsily and sent the ball careening into the wall of the court. The dandies watching from the gallery clapped and cheered.

“Game, set, and match to me, sir!” Leander Campbell laughed and tossed his racket into the air before deftly catching it again in his other hand. “And sixty guineas, I believe?”

“Devil take it, Lee!” Walter Downe frowned and thrust one hand through his disordered hair. “How the devil is a fellow supposed to win against you?”

“If that fellow had been paying the slightest attention to the game, instead of dreaming like a lotus eater, he would have stood a better chance. What’s on your mind? A member of the frail sex, no doubt.”

Walter grimaced. “If you knew what it was like to have normal human feelings, you wouldn’t be so damned cynical about love. I would willingly lay down my life for an angel like Lady Diana Hart.”

Lee raised a brow at this fervent sally. “But of course as a hardened rake and gambler, angels are above my touch.” He strode up to the net and the men shook hands. “Have you proposed to this paragon of female grace and been rejected, or are you merely pining from a distance, the lady oblivious to your devotion? Either way, to effect an instant demise seems a very odd way of demonstrating your affection.”

“Damn it, sir! This is serious. I’m in a devilish quandary. I worship the very hem of her skirt, yet how can I propose to her when I’m only plain Mr. Downe, destined to become a vicar?”

“The Honorable Mr. Walter Feveril Downe,” Lee corrected.

“Yes, but what on earth are my prospects?”

“Considerably better than most.” Lee bit back a wry grin as the men walked together to the changing rooms. “You are a viscount’s younger son. You will become a model churchman, and Lady Diana will make you a faultless wife. I am to assume that the lady returns your regard and would wed you willingly if only her dragon of a mama would allow it?”

“Well, I don’t know,” Walter said, coloring a little. “I think she likes me, but it’s impossible, don’t you see? How can I in honor address her? She’s heiress to a fortune. Lady Augusta will make her marry a duke.”

“And you will stand aside and allow this outrage against all your finer sensibilities to take place? How can you allow the lady to be consumed by a duke, when your infinitely superior self is available? She would hate being a duchess. In fact, I think you should elope with her.”

“Campbell, for God’s sake!”

“Why not? Court her, secure her affection, and run off with her. What else could Lady Augusta do then but agree to welcome you as her son-in-law?”

Lee peeled off his clothes and stepped under the shower. At the pull of a chain, cold water dumped over his head. He soaped up, pulled another chain, and rinsed the soap off his body, before reaching for a towel to dry himself.

Walter Feveril Downe was still sitting on the bench, staring at the floor.

“Alas,” Lee said, rubbing at his wet hair. “I see that your scrupulous honor forbids your stealing an heiress. If I were in your shoes, I shouldn’t let the fortune stand in my way. Think of the family connections! There’s no sense in living in poverty if you have a chance at some comfort. There must be several rich livings within the gift of Hawksley. In fact, you would undoubtedly end up a bishop. And if not, Lady Diana would much rather be a parson’s wife than a duchess.”

Downe leaped to his feet, his face puce. “If I didn’t know you would mow me down like a blade of grass, I would call you out, sir. Damn me, if I wouldn’t!”

Lee choked back a wicked temptation to laugh, shrugged into a spotlessly clean white shirt, then sat to pull on a pair of breeches.

“Your righteous indignation would carry the day,” he said. “I could never prevail against it and I concede the duel in advance.”

“But how dare you presume to know what Lady Diana Hart of Hawksley Park would like?”

“Because she’s my sister, of course.”

The blond man collapsed back to the bench as if he had been punched. “What do you mean? She’s an only child, isn’t she?”

Lee’s boots reflected soft gleams of light from the windows. “Lady Augusta’s only child. My half-sister, I should have said. Lady Diana and I had the misfortune to share the same father, the late Lord Hawksley. Sadly, in my case he neglected to marry my mother, which is why I’m plain Mr. Campbell. As far as I know he never learned of my existence. He must have been a remarkably careless fellow.”

“I had no idea,” Walter Downe said faintly.

“No, most people haven’t.” Still suppressing his inclination to mirth, Lee strode to the mirror to run a comb through his hair. “They only know that I’m not respectable.”

“But you’re an earl’s son—”

“And the title died with him. I am that most sorry of creatures, I’m afraid, a bastard. I use my mother’s last name, though I never knew her.”

Walter was still gaping. “And Lady Diana knows about this?”

“Of course.” He arranged his cravat in elaborate folds. “We grew up together. My stepmother took me in when I was deposited on her doorstep and raised me.”

“For heaven’s sake, Lee, what an extraordinary act of generosity! How did she know you really were her husband’s child?”

“Because I was accompanied by a document naming him as my father. But I do see your point. Lady Augusta is not generally thought of as the soul of charity, is she? No, I have the additional misfortune of looking exactly like the late Lord Hawksley, dark of hair and aspect, while staring at the world from damnably blue eyes, far more suitable in a woman. Apparently one glance at my infant face was sufficient to prevent any possibility of denying the connection.”

“Wasn’t it rather humiliating to be raised by your father’s wife, after he had abandoned your mother?”

“My dear fellow,” Lee said with a grin. “I was actually raised by a succession of rather brutal schoolmasters at Eton, as were you. Lady Augusta gave me every advantage that she could and did more than her duty, don’t you think? Obviously I have no claim on Hawksley, but I received the normal education of an English gentleman and am thus able to make my own way in the world. I am grateful to her.”

“But you would never be able to marry into any of the best families,” the Honorable Mr. Downe said sympathetically. “And I suppose you have no property and no chance at all at any number of professions. I am sorry, old chap, for wailing on about my problems.”

Lee finally gave way to a genuine burst of laughter. “Save your compassion for your future flock. Unlike you, my dear fellow, I am not in love with a scion of the peerage and don’t intend to be so. Having known of my unfortunate birth all my life, I don’t view it as any kind of calamity, but rather as the source of a blessed freedom. I have never had the least problem living by my wits. Now, for God’s sake, get washed and changed.”

Walter Feveril Downe stripped off his tennis clothes and stepped into the shower.

Lee turned to leave just as the door to the dressing room burst open to reveal the white face of one of London’s most famous dandies.

“Thank God I found you, Campbell!” he exclaimed. “No one knows what to do. Manton Barnes just shot himself.”

* * *

“What a grim place!” Helena said, laughing. “How can you bear it, Eleanor?”

“Languishing in jail like the Pearl of Brittany?” Lady Eleanor Acton warmly embraced her sister-in-law. “I admit I really do feel a little like a medieval princess, wickedly imprisoned. Which would you prefer—the chair or the sofa? Both are equally ill favored.”

Helena surveyed the uncomfortable furniture provided for guests in the parlor of Miss Able’s Select Academy for Young Ladies. Her stylish traveling dress elegantly disguised an interesting condition, so she was more than ready to sit down.

In contrast, Eleanor was clad in the demure white muslin considered suitable by Miss Able for her pupils, even if they were the daughters of the peerage.

“I shall take the horsehair sofa,” Helena said. “It will remind me of my own schooldays in Exeter. Richard and I just met the formidable Miss Able. Your brother is now trapped in her office making polite inquiries about his little sisters, but I had to escape to see you right away. Now I find you don’t even have a seat worthy of the name.”

Eleanor dropped to the remaining wooden chair and lifted amused brown eyes.

“At this moment poor Joanna is agonizing over an elegy she must learn by heart, and little Milly is memorizing ‘The Malays are ferocious and unprincipled to a high degree,’ and ‘Patagonia is a desolate country, where men have been seen of a gigantic size,’ and so we learn about the world. But my captivity is soon to be over. I’ve a letter from Mama. I’m to come out this Season.”

“And be presented at court?”

“Mama says it’s high time her brown hen was married and that I have surely learned enough French and embroidery to be considered perfectly accomplished. I’ll have to curtsy to the Queen with a feather on my head. Can you think of anything more absurd? But more remarkable still, first I go with Mama to Norfolk for Easter.”

Helena laughed. Lady Eleanor might have chestnut hair and nut-brown eyes, but she was definitely not a brown hen. “To Norfolk?”

“We visit Hawksley Park, home of my friend Lady Diana Hart and her mother, the ominous dowager countess, who undoubtedly counts as being regal enough for practice. Since I understand that Mama and Lady Augusta are always at daggers drawn, it wouldn’t appear to be the most amiable undertaking. No doubt I shall be grateful that it’s essential to polite society for countesses to be civil to each other. Diana did invite me for Christmas—”

“But you came to us at Acton Mead, instead.”

“Because I wanted more to meet Richard’s new wife, of course. And it was splendid, in spite of my suffering from the most frightful ague and the presence of all my brothers and sisters. Pray do not think for a moment that it was any sacrifice. But it’ll be good to see Diana again. She was the loveliest thing in this school and she’s been out for a year.”

Helena met this with genuine surprise. “She’s not wed?”

“She’s received innumerable offers, but Lady Augusta turned down every one, angling for a spectacular match. And since Diana is sole heir to Hawksley Park, she’s bound to get one.”

“As eldest daughter to the Earl of Acton,” Helena said, smiling, “so are you. But you won’t meet anyone in Norfolk.”

“Exactly! Which makes me wonder why Mama wants to take me there. For you know as well as I that the beautiful Countess of Acton never did a thing without an ulterior motive in her life.”

Helena remembered her own encounters with Eleanor’s mother and laughed, but her attention was diverted by the sound of footsteps striding down the corridor. Her heart sang as she recognized her husband’s step. Eleanor’s brother Richard, Lord Lenwood, heir of the Earl of Acton, was almost at the door.

Both ladies jumped up and Helena said softly, “Marry for love, Eleanor!”

Eleanor grinned at her sister-in-law. “Don’t be silly! Just because you and my splendid brother are as entwined as Philemon and Baucis doesn’t mean there’s usually any connection between love and marriage among the peerage. Anyone the least interesting would be bound to give Papa apoplexy on the spot and I’ll never experience the wild adventures you did.”

“In truth, I hope not,” Helena replied.

Eleanor slipped an arm around Helena’s waist and whispered her next comment into her ear as the door began to open.

“My parents’ idea of a suitable match will be some fatuous lord in need of my portion, but I must be dutiful and clear the way for my sisters, I suppose. In the meantime, anything is better than school. I intend to thoroughly enjoy a dull stay in Norfolk and practice my curtsies.”

* * *

The door to Manton Barnes’s lodgings on Ryder Street stood open. A couple of young men gaped at the body sprawled on the floor. Lee knelt over him for a moment, but it was obviously useless to feel for a pulse.

“The damned silly fool!” he said softly, betraying nothing of anger or pain, though both burned within him.

“We came to fetch him for a drive and found him like this,” one of the men said shakily. “What will his family think?”

“That he met with an accident cleaning his gun,” Lee replied firmly. “Why did you fetch me?”

“We thought you’d know what to do, so if you wouldn’t mind taking charge— Anyway, he left a note addressed to you. It’s over there on the mantel.”

Lee retrieved the note. “I trust that no word of this will pass any of your honorable lips?”

“Of course not,” the first man said indignantly.

“Then there’s nothing more you can do. I shall see that he’s not buried at the crossroads.”

“But why did he do it?”

“Is it any of your business?”