Her cousin’s face turned almost as red as her hair. “I did not mean for you to be that, uh, bold. If you just befriend him, and perhaps flirt a smidgen, Lord Malbarry would confide in you at least a trifle.”
“No,” Sophia said emphatically as if that one word ended all discussion.
Hannah stiffened. She detested being told that she couldn’t do something. It was a flaw that had landed her in more than just a spot of trouble, but she’d never been able to resist the roar that surged through her.
“And why not?” Hannah demanded.
Sophia arched a single eyebrow. “Do you really think such subterfuge fits your temperament? You’re too honest. We need to proceed cautiously if we’re to tangle with a noble family, even one with a tarnished reputation. The Black Sheep has already brought down one peer. If we make a misstep, there’s many who’d like to see that our doors are permanently closed.”
Hannah harrumphed. Sophia raised excellent points, but Hannah was utterly tired of caution. “What if Malbarry approaches me?”
“Did somebody say Malbarry?” Alexander, Charlotte’s twin and the soon-to-be Duke of Falcondale, burst into the room. His sister had given him a key, which Hannah had fully endorsed at the time. Now that Alexander had failed to disclose Malbarry’s identity, she was less sanguine about his unfettered access to the coffeeshop.
“Does that mean you’ve heard or that you haven’t heard?” Alexander continued to talk as he sauntered over to the counter. “Ah, no coffee brewing yet? It is a shame. Any conversation goes better with a drink.”
“Shouldn’t you be planning your wedding rather than plaguing us?” Hannah asked.
“Haven’t you forgiven me yet?” Alexander delivered his best sorrowful look.
Hannah was not swayed.
“No.”
“What is the news?” Sophia asked Alexander.
“Lord Malbarry is no longer the viscount—or Malbarry for that matter. He’s Foxglen now. The old duke died two nights ago.”
“What?” Hannah felt like a hole had been drilled into her gut. Her family had waited too long for their revenge. The main perpetrator was gone.
“Pastry?” Alexander pulled a savory-smelling one from the sack that he’d carried in.
“How can you think of food right now?” Hannah demanded.
Alexander shrugged. “I’m famished. I was purchasing these for a snack when I heard the news, and I came here straightaway. I didn’t want to anger you by failing, once again, to promptly disclose information pertaining to the Aucourtes. The sausage in them is delicious, by the way—in the pies, I mean, not in the Aucourtes.”
“Does your fiancée ever accuse you of making her head spin?” Hannah asked, although she had to admit that the meat and onion mixture did smell divine. But she didn’t want to be distracted either by her cousin’s roundabout delivery of the news or by the food he was currently demolishing.
“No,” Alexander said cheerfully between bites. “She finds me endearingly charming.”
“The Duke of Foxglen didn’t look well the last time that I spotted him at a ball, but I still cannot believe he’s dead. He seemed as if he could just scowl death away,” Charlotte said.
“I’m honestly relieved,” Sophia said. “It feels like at least one tragic chapter in my family’s history is closed.”
“Well, I am not,” Hannah disagreed. “I’m upset that we dawdled too long on seeking revenge.”
“Malbarry—well, I mean the new Duke of Foxglen—is a good chap. Look how he came to our aid a few weeks ago,” Alexander said in his typical happy-go-lucky manner.
Hannah, however, was anything but cheerful. Yet she felt a glimmer of some dark hope. Perhaps there still was a way to avenge her family. “The old Duke of Foxglen was forever prattling on about his family’s reputation, correct?”
“Yes,” Charlotte said slowly as if reluctant to give an answer, “but Sophia has the right of it. The perpetrator is dead—”
“But his precious legacy is alive and healthy,” Hannah said, “and I aim to utterly destroy it.”
Chapter Three
It’s a shame that the new Duke of Foxglen isn’t here although I suppose he is in mourning.”
It had been a wonderful wedding breakfast celebrating the nuptials of Alexander and his bride at the Black Sheep.Had been.
