Trouble is brewing. You are needed.
Crushing the missive in his grasp, Dominic got into his carriage and ordered his coachman. “Return home posthaste.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose as the coach set out. Thiswas a complication he hadn’t wanted but he knew was likely unavoidable. Transition of power was never an easy task.
The moment he arrived back at his townhouse, he changed out of his fashionable clothes into something more appropriate for a leader of London’s underworld. Heading out the back staircase, he was grateful he had loyal servants, but then, he paid them well for their discretion.
He strode out into the mews and quickly flagged down a hackney. In short order, he was deposited near the Thames near Whitechapel. From there, he set out on foot to the Crown & Sceptre. He had long employed the usefulness of public transport in his guise as Avalon and never did he allow the drivers to take him directly to the front door of the pub. The reason he’d found a way to survive this long was because he’d taken several precautions to keep his two identities separate.
When he walked into the establishment and headed for his office, he saw the door was standing wide open. This immediately caused a scowl to deepen his brow because he was never so careless as to allow anyone access to his personal domain.
However, when he turned the corner and saw Amos sitting there with his head leaned back against the chair, some of his frustration eased. He was the only man with whom Avalon had entrusted enough of his secrets where a message could be sent in the event of an emergency. He closed the door and addressed his successor with a firm tone, “What’s happened?”
The dark-skinned man narrowed the single blue eye that was revealed, the other covered by a patch that Dominic had never questioned. He’d learned enough to know that his life had not always been easy or without the need to fight. Rather than reply directly, he tossed a packet on the desk in front of him. “This.”
Dominic picked it up and emptied the contents onto the desk. At first, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and then he grabbed the leather-bound journal with a white-knuckled grip. It was the one thing he’d had at his disposal to use as leverage incase things got too heated in his dual roles. But as he flipped through the pages, he found that they had all been smoothly cut out and what remained was filled with notations of his life as the Duke of Cuthbert. “Bloody hell.”
“Aye,” Amos agreed with a heavy exhale. “It appears you no longer have the upper hand.”
Dominic snapped the journal shut and tossed it back down on the desk with a thud. He inspected the packet, but other than the receiving address, there was nothing to indicate from where it might have originated. “I had this secured where no one could find it. There must be more than one adversary that wishes to bring me down to involve my servants. My assumption is that it’s someone in the upper echelon.”
“So, it’s true,” Amos murmured. “You’re a duke.”
He didn’t seem impressed. In truth, Dominic thought he sounded more disappointed than anything. “Yes. But I have always felt more at home in the guise of Avalon. An identity that someone would like to destroy, as well as myself and everyone else that was written in this book.”
Amos tilted his head, his gaze shrewd. “Then it appears it shall be up to us to stop them before the damage is done. As my first order of business as the new leader of the Blue Boys, I feel it is my responsibility to release you from your previous obligations.”
Dominic stilled. He had been attempting to convince Amos to succeed him, but until this moment, he hadn’t been sure if the man was intending to take up the reins. “You are sure you are willing to do this?”
Amos nodded. “It will give me something to do while Devon is welcoming his first child.”
Dominic blinked and then gave a hearty laugh. “Offer my felicitations,” he noted, and then sobered once more. Leaning forward on the desk, he said, “It appears all we have left to do is find out who is so eager to sabotage my future and then find some way to dispose of Avalon in a way that doesn’t cause a riot.”
Amos got to his feet. “It sounds like we have some work to do. Let’s get started.”
Lexie had takenspecial consideration with her appearance later that afternoon at the musicale, but she left feeling despondent since the duke had failed to make an appearance. She wished she’d told him at the museum that she would be attending, but she had imagined he would be there.
Her aunt had noticed her reticence on the way back to their townhouse in Mayfair and remarked upon it, having no idea that her true disappointment was in the one man she had been warned against. “Don’t fret, my dear. I know the ladies this evening had more gentlemen hanging on their every word, but we shall endeavor to set them all on their ear when the season begins in earnest next spring. Once your talents are showcased the fight will be on, and you will have no end of suitors clamoring for your hand, mark my word. I promised your father that I would see you happily married in one season, and I intend to keep it.”
She had offered a weak smile to her aunt, but inside her heart was withering. She wasn’t sure how long it took men of society to propose but surely it wouldn’t take as long as the spring for her to see the duke on one knee?
Perhaps she had to adjust her strategy. It wasn’t as though she was schooled in the art of flirtation, but she had thought she and the duke had shared a moment earlier in the day. When he’d claimed the rumors about him had been true, she couldn’t stop her stomach from doing a little flip, nor the way her heart had abruptly run away with her. She had panicked at first, thinking that he had been able to see her delight at the revelation when she should have backed away in horror. Any sensible lady would have done so, but Lexie had been hoping to uncover just thisthing. She wanted adventure and excitement, and with the slight flicker in the duke’s brown eyes, she knew he could show her that—and more.
It was the prospect ofmorethat had caused her breathing to become slightly erratic.
It was all she could do not to clap her hands together in glee as she’d practically skipped down the museum steps on the way home. Her maid had looked at her curiously but wisely said nothing as they had returned. Once secluded in her room, Lexie had spun in a circle of elation in the middle of her bedchamber before collapsing on the bed. She had closed her eyes and hugged herself, imagining the duke was there with her. He would take her in his arms and kiss her until her toes curled and she could finally experience something of note in her staid existence. She was tired of being so proper and perfect.
She wanted the chance to be naughty, soverynaughty. Whether or not she found herself going home in disgrace or ruined, she wasn’t certain that she cared. She had no other siblings to concern herself with and her mother was long gone, so there would be no disapproving stares to greet her other than that of her father and he was known to offer them more than a warm smile at any given time. She would regret injuring her Aunt Bonnie who had taken it upon herself to act as her chaperone, but Lexie had no doubt she would easily wash her hands of any scandal and rush to Margaret and explain how she had been taken advantage of by her nasty relation.
Lexie giggled at the image of her aunt fanning herself and trying not to faint. The theatrics would almost be too entertaining not to witness.
She surely sounded like a horrible person for daring to envision such a scenario, but it wasn’t that she was ungrateful for the opportunity she’d been given. She just looked at her journey to London as a differentsortof opportunity than the one she was expected to have. Why was it that men got to have all the fun andwomen had to comport themselves with the utmost decorum so as not to garner a whiff of scandal? Men could have their liaisons and gamble and race their carriages, and no one thought anything of it. It was all part of the process of settling down, as her aunt had put it. Lexie decided women should have the same freedoms and she intended to do her best to fulfill those dreams.
Unfortunately, the next time she encountered the duke was more than two weeks later on Guy Fawkes night at Vauxhall amidst fireworks, large bonfires, and even a costume party. Lexie had been surprised when her aunt had suggested they attend, believing that it might be considered too pagan or Gaelic for them to participate, but she had merely lifted her chin and said she never missed any important society event. And since it was rumored that the king might make an appearance, she wasn’t about to bow out.
All this time, Lexie thought of the subject of her fascination and how disappointed she’d been that he’d failed to appear at any of thetonevents she had attended. For someone who had wanted to find a bride, she thought the man had done a superb job of making himself scarce. And of all the times he chose to resurface, it was rather ironic that he should come dressed as Hades when he was wanting to prove his new respectability in taking a suitable wife. She had spied his towering figure immediately. If it hadn’t been for the air of dominance that he presented to the rest of the world, she would have known him by his tousled dark hair and the smirk upon his face as he conversed with a group of fellow Roman gods.
Lexie had chosen to play the part of Aphrodite, her Roman Palla robe decorated with embroidered swans and seashells, while a faux crown of rose blooms sewn together sat atop her upswept curls. She had chosen the goddess of love in the off chance that he might attend, but now she rather wished she’d opted for Persephone.
