“Lady Phoebe was invited to the ball. She arrived in the company of her cousin, Lady Genevieve.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” Mrs. Vale prompted.
“I know very little about Lady Phoebe,” he confessed at last. “I have made enquiries and asked the Duchess of Whitestone, but I still feel as if something in the lady’s history eludes me.”
“You wish to know more?” Mrs. Vale ventured.
“Precisely.” Sebastian had to resist the urge to applaud. He had not done a great job of making his wishes apparent, but Mrs. Vale had got to the point, just the same. “As far as I know, Lady Phoebe has lived a tumultuous life. She has been carted backand forth from London several times, all at the behest of her parents.”
Mrs. Vale carefully folded the paper Sebastian gave her and tucked it into the pocket of her black skirts. “And where did Lady Phoebe live when she was not in London, Your Grace?”
“That is what I’d like you to find out for me,” he answered. “I know that her grandfather, the late Earl of Tripleton, was important to her. He cared for her greatly and showed her kindness.”
“The late Earl of Tripleton,” Mrs. Vale said softly. “Do you know his given name? Have you consultedDeBrett’s?”
Sebastian thought of his copy ofDeBrett’s, the great guide to the British peerage, that lay on a table at his other home. He had never thought of keeping another edition here at this townhouse, but as Mrs. Vale suggested, it would have been handy in this situation.
“Start there,” Sebastian instructed. “Learn all you can about the House of Tripleton and report back to me once you know more about Lady Phoebe and where she lived when she was not in London.”
He paused and ran a hand through his thick crop of hair, pushing aside the auburn locks that dangled closest to his eyes.
“This is a matter of some importance, Mrs. Vale. I trust that you will place this investigation at the top of your to-do list.”
“Of course, Your Grace.”
“That will be all.”
She curtsied her assent and left the study. Once the door was shut firmly behind the housekeeper, Sebastian slumped back into his seat and stared at the colossal desk, separating him from the outside world.
Before you were my Thisbe, who were you, Lady Phoebe?
As he mulled over that matter, Sebastian’s eyes snagged on the bottle of brandy that was perched near the left corner of the desk. He leaned forward to grab the neck of the bottle but paused with his hand hovering in mid-air.
My drink… The last drink I had at Lord Spencer’s Masquerade Ball…
In all his running around town and thinking of Lady Phoebe, he had forgotten the illness that struck him after he quaffed his cup that evening. There had been a few frightening moments when he was certain that the mysterious fox-masked lady had dropped something into his drink, but then he had abandoned that idea entirely.
Lady Phoebe was not to blame. Surely not…
He replaced the bottle of brandy carefully on the corner of his desk and hastily opened the top drawer on the desk.
I must find something to take my mind off that lady.
Now that he had set Mrs. Vale on the task of learning more about Lady Phoebe’s background, Sebastian vowed that he would focus and concentrate on other matters…more important ones.
Without wasting another moment, Sebastian pulled out the documents he had been working on pertaining to his most recent mission for the Crown.
A letter had come from Colonel Learmonth several months ago, and Sebastian had been thrown into the mission with everything he had. He’d only let his focus slip these past couple of weeks. Still, guilt pierced him at the thought.
He knew his place in the world. He knew where his loyalties ought to lie. He served the Crown and no one else, no other person, place, or thing came before his King and Country.
Without that purpose grounding him, the Duke of Talwyn was just a man wearing a mask, prancing around ballrooms with no proper use for the skills he had. But Sebastian had to be useful.
He could not bear to sit idly and because he had a specific set of skills, it was his duty to use them to the best of his abilities in service of the Crown.
He looked over the encrypted letter from Colonel Learmonth. There were sections of it that had, at one time, been indecipherable. Luckily, upon first receiving this correspondence, Sebastian had persuaded Percy to translate the challenging bits.
Sebastian had been hesitant to go to his friend, weary of making him reminisce about their days working side-by-side, but Percy had taken it in stride, and remained unaffected.
