prankster our Teddy is.”
“So I’ve been told.” Fisk smiled, not altogether pleasantly. “But I can assure you, my lord, he wasn’t in a jesting mood last night when I accompanied him home from Regent’s Park.”
“Good heavens!” Lesley did his best to look shocked, despite the strong feeling he had that his ploy of ignorance wasn’t working. “Whatever was he doing there?”
The smile vanished from the Bow Street Runner’s face.
“May I suggest, my lord, that you leave off trying to bam me so we may get down to cases?”
His ruse definitely wasn’t working, still Lesley stiffened indignantly on the banquette. “Now see here, Fisk—”
“Your brother confessed everything to me,” he interrupted. “The duel, the mask you took from him at the Cyprian masquerade, everything, my lord. I paid a call on Sir Alex Hawksley this morning, and no more believe his valet dropped the razor while shaving him and cut his shoulder than I believe that you were not in your mother’s garden last night at more or less the same time as the thieves, because the sack of items they attempted to make off with was found near the wall, where the ground is muddy and full of hoofprints.”
A good portion of successful soldiering—-and Captain Lord Earnshaw had been a very good soldier, indeed—-was recognizing when the odds were against you and you were about to be overwhelmed.
“If you wished merely to question me about the robbery,” he replied, striving to change tactics, “why didn’t you call upon me at my home?”
Fisk’s small, narrow face took on a sly look, not a smile so much as a subtle lifting of the lines around his calculating gray eyes.
“Obviously, my lord, that’s not what I want.”
“Then what do you want?”
“Your help in apprehending the thieves.”
Lesley laughed again, this time genuinely. “You can’t be serious!”
“I’m prepared to drop all charges stemming from the duel you fought last evening,” Fisk explained brusquely, “in exchange for your assistance. Should you decline, however, I will have no choice but to prosecute.”
“Outrageous!” Lesley cried angrily. “That’s blackmail!”
“I prefer to call it persuasion,” Fisk corrected, “though from your point of view it would also be certain social ruin, for I would also, naturally, have to bring charges against Sir Alex Hawksley.”
“Oh, naturally,” Lesley agreed caustically. “And how much damage, do you suppose, will be done to my reputation if it gets out I’ve actually stooped to helping enforce the law? Or do you even care?”
“Under the circumstances, not especially, my lord,” he admitted, “for you did clearly and willfully violate the law. However, if you are discreet, and rely upon the mask you took from your brother, the part you play in the arrest need never become public knowledge.”
“What has that cursed and damned mask to do with this?”
“Everything, my lord, for it is the beauty of the plan.” Fisk leaned eagerly forward, his expression animated. God help me, Lesley moaned silently, another plan.
“Allow me to explain further. The mode of operation employed by these thieves is for one of the band to take the place of a servant. After each robbery, tied and gagged footmen stripped of their livery have been found in some part of the house or grounds. Their method is quite brilliant, for ladies and gentlemen of Quality accord servants and furniture equal notice.”
The observation stung, but its veracity couldn’t be denied, not even by Lesley, who’d himself been guilty of such haughtiness before enlisting in the Second. His experiences on Spanish battlefields, however, had taught him that nobility and honor were determined by more than the circumstances of one’s birth.
“They strike only at Society affairs, balls, routs, and the like,” Fisk continued, “and as best we can deduce, during the supper hour. With the guests at table, the thief is then relatively free
“So I’ve been told.” Fisk smiled, not altogether pleasantly. “But I can assure you, my lord, he wasn’t in a jesting mood last night when I accompanied him home from Regent’s Park.”
“Good heavens!” Lesley did his best to look shocked, despite the strong feeling he had that his ploy of ignorance wasn’t working. “Whatever was he doing there?”
The smile vanished from the Bow Street Runner’s face.
“May I suggest, my lord, that you leave off trying to bam me so we may get down to cases?”
His ruse definitely wasn’t working, still Lesley stiffened indignantly on the banquette. “Now see here, Fisk—”
“Your brother confessed everything to me,” he interrupted. “The duel, the mask you took from him at the Cyprian masquerade, everything, my lord. I paid a call on Sir Alex Hawksley this morning, and no more believe his valet dropped the razor while shaving him and cut his shoulder than I believe that you were not in your mother’s garden last night at more or less the same time as the thieves, because the sack of items they attempted to make off with was found near the wall, where the ground is muddy and full of hoofprints.”
A good portion of successful soldiering—-and Captain Lord Earnshaw had been a very good soldier, indeed—-was recognizing when the odds were against you and you were about to be overwhelmed.
“If you wished merely to question me about the robbery,” he replied, striving to change tactics, “why didn’t you call upon me at my home?”
Fisk’s small, narrow face took on a sly look, not a smile so much as a subtle lifting of the lines around his calculating gray eyes.
“Obviously, my lord, that’s not what I want.”
“Then what do you want?”
“Your help in apprehending the thieves.”
Lesley laughed again, this time genuinely. “You can’t be serious!”
“I’m prepared to drop all charges stemming from the duel you fought last evening,” Fisk explained brusquely, “in exchange for your assistance. Should you decline, however, I will have no choice but to prosecute.”
“Outrageous!” Lesley cried angrily. “That’s blackmail!”
“I prefer to call it persuasion,” Fisk corrected, “though from your point of view it would also be certain social ruin, for I would also, naturally, have to bring charges against Sir Alex Hawksley.”
“Oh, naturally,” Lesley agreed caustically. “And how much damage, do you suppose, will be done to my reputation if it gets out I’ve actually stooped to helping enforce the law? Or do you even care?”
“Under the circumstances, not especially, my lord,” he admitted, “for you did clearly and willfully violate the law. However, if you are discreet, and rely upon the mask you took from your brother, the part you play in the arrest need never become public knowledge.”
“What has that cursed and damned mask to do with this?”
“Everything, my lord, for it is the beauty of the plan.” Fisk leaned eagerly forward, his expression animated. God help me, Lesley moaned silently, another plan.
“Allow me to explain further. The mode of operation employed by these thieves is for one of the band to take the place of a servant. After each robbery, tied and gagged footmen stripped of their livery have been found in some part of the house or grounds. Their method is quite brilliant, for ladies and gentlemen of Quality accord servants and furniture equal notice.”
The observation stung, but its veracity couldn’t be denied, not even by Lesley, who’d himself been guilty of such haughtiness before enlisting in the Second. His experiences on Spanish battlefields, however, had taught him that nobility and honor were determined by more than the circumstances of one’s birth.
“They strike only at Society affairs, balls, routs, and the like,” Fisk continued, “and as best we can deduce, during the supper hour. With the guests at table, the thief is then relatively free
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