“Ever the egalitarian,” Kingsley laughed. “Precisely why I must be the face of our enterprises among the gentry. You, my dear friend, would perhaps be better suited to the salons of Paris or the new American republic, where such progressive notions are celebrated. With a name as plebeian as Harper, how could I introduce him in these halls where your ancestors shall forever gaze at my visage with disdain?”
Julian rolled his eyes drolly. “Well then, summon him forthwith, and let us hear his report,” he declared, cutting through Kingsley’s aristocratic pretensions. “They have been doing so already at mine. You learn to ignore them,” he finished with a dry smile.
The man shrugged, then promptly rose and tugged on the nearest bellpull. Moments later, when Crammond entered the room, Julian ordered him to send Mr. Christopher Harper up from the kitchens.
“Ah, I was thinking,” Kingsley began with another clap, framed with a bright smile, after Crammond departed, “that Harper and I could provide your damsel in distress an escort back to her home in Theydon.”
“A little out of your way, is it not?” Julian said, shuffling in his seat to pour himself some brandy from the decanter on the side table.
“Not in the slightest!” Kingsley declared, jumping to his feet. “Not when we are providing aid to one you have taken underyour esteemed protection, old chap,” he finished, his smile never slipping.
Julian experienced a curious sensation then. As he watched his oldest and most trusted friend, he felt a twinge of doubt. Something in what Kingsley had said did not ring true. He could say with hand on heart that Kingsley had never lied to him. Not once in their twenty years of friendship. At least he had no reason to suspect he had ever been lied to. Now, for the first time, Julian wondered. What was it that had put him on alert? He tried to recall their previous words, searching for anything out of the ordinary. Kingsley’s apparent interest in Ester was not proof. Nor were his deductions. His reaction had been slightly out of character but that was not conclusive in itself, particularly when weighed against two decades of friendship.
“I shall ask her if she feels ready to leave,” Julian replied cautiously.
“I am in no hurry, old chap. I can change my schedule to accommodate her. Unless, you are intending to provide her escort yourself? Or perhaps… you are hoping to spend more time alone with her here?”
Kingsley’s smile deepened and Julian felt disconcerted at his own innermost desires being exposed. It was a hazard of allowing another person to know him so well.
He shrugged, then gave a wave of the hand. “I will ask and I am sure your offer will be gratefully received. Being escorted intothe village by the Phantom might do more harm than good, I fear,” he replied.
“The Phantom!” Kingsley scoffed, “I still marvel that a man of honor and integrity should be vilified so simply because he chooses to hold himself apart from the community.”
“There is more to it and you know it,” Julian muttered, before taking a sip of the brandy from the crystal glass.
“Stuff and nonsense. You cannot expect me to agree with this rubbish. Whether the perpetrators are members of our own society or the common folk of village and town. You may be eccentric, old chap, but that is no reason for discourtesy. There are many poor houses in London that would not exist were it not for your policy of investing a portion of our profits in charitable works. I should like to knock some heads together in that benighted village.”
His anger at the fear and suspicion with which Julian was regarded by many was customary. It had been that way almost since the day the two had met at Silverton. Julian felt a warm sense of comfort at the continuity, the return to familiar behavior.
“It is a pleasant place that I regard with affection,” Julian stated, defending the place he had come to call home.
Kingsley only tutted. “Southerners are reactionary and hostile to strangers. No matter how long you live in a place. Northernersare far more accepting. I very much look forward to returning to my new estate for the hunts.”
“New estates in the north?” Julian asked curiously, setting down his glass.
“Did I not tell you? I chose to invest my share of our profits in property and purchased land in Cheshire. The hunting is excellent with the wilds of Wales so close by. And the hospitality has been most generous. The price of land up there is also very advantageous... Whatever is the matter, old boy?”
Julian had been staring. A chill ran through him at the revelation. Kingsley’s ancestral seat was in Hampshire, with property in London. Julian had not known that Kingsley had purchased land inCheshire. Placing him in proximity to Ester’s family. It would be feasible therefore that he would attend the same social functions as Ester had attended.
“I did not know you had purchased lands in the north,” Julian commented, woodenly.
“Investing my share of our profits wisely. Bricks and mortar. Safest investment at the moment,” Kingsley continued, “besides, you’re a northerner yourself. I did not think you would object.”
“Oh, I don’t object. Far from it. It just came as a surprise, that’s all,” Julian hastily added. “Whereabouts is your new property?”
“Not far from a little place called Tarporley. Very picturesque place near a river. Ah, which reminds me, you must come with me for the hunting next time I visit.”
Julian nodded absently. “Perhaps I will.”
A knock came at the door just then, and Crammond issued a young man into the room. Mr. Christopher Harper.He was tall, with brown hair and high cheeks with a prominent nose. He carried a leather-bound sheaf of papers, tied with string, and moved with the air of a common-born man elevated in his status and aware of it.
“Harper, His Grace was telling me that he rescued a damsel in distress the other night. Out at Theydon’s Mere. He foiled a highwayman in an attempted robbery.”
Harper glanced at Julian with cold eyes, freezing in mid-stride.
“Indeed, Your Grace? How fortuitous that you were there.”
“It was. And please, don’t stand on ceremony. Crammond, bring a chair over for Mr. Harper.”
