Violet Danvers, Beck thought just as Wagner said happily, “I have it—Pansy. Wasn’t that it? General Danvers’s daughter?Pan-seee.” He chuckled over his own pronunciation. “That part I’ll never forget.”
Beck did not correct him. It would just encourage him.
“You are the bravest officer I ever served under, sir, but you are afraid of women.”
Beck flipped around so fast, Wagner almost walked into him. Ignoring the pedestrians who had to flow around them, he said, “I amnotafraid of women.”
Wagner widened his squinty eyes and feigned surprise. “Then what is it, sir? I mean, they practically crawl into your bed, and still you run.”
“I’m not going to listen to this.” Beck began walking again.
Wagner was at his heels. “Just having my say.”
“You’ve said enough.”
“Not nearly.”
Beck didn’t answer. Wagner always had to have the last word, and an exchange like this could go on for hours. However, there was one way to change the subject with Wagner. “Fancy a pint?”
“Always.”
They ducked into a corner tavern. The place was busy with the hum of male voices dominating the air. They wove their way through the crowd and found a table in the corner by a window. Leaving Wagner at the table, Beck went up to call for two ales. He carried back the tankards and set one down in front of the sergeant.
“When do you start working?” he asked Wagner.
“I travel to Colemore tomorrow. I was hired on as a stable hand.” Colemore was the Marquess of Middlebury’s country estate.
Beck had decided that since Middlebury did not come to London, he would have to take himself to the reclusive lord... however, inconsideration of Winstead’s murderous attack, he wasn’t about to announce his presence. No, he had spent months preparing a ruse that had come together because of both luck and determination. Gwendolyn Lanscarr was part of his good luck. In fact, without her, or a crusty old lady named Lady Ellen Orpington, he wouldn’t be able to execute it.
However, he was no fool. In case all went wrong, he wanted Wagner close at hand. For that reason, he’d asked his friend to find work at Colemore.
“I hear the horses are some of the finest in England,” Wagner said.
“When one has that much money, one has the best of everything.”
“What is this gambit about?” Wagner asked.
“Meeting the Marquess of Middlebury,” Beck said.
“What of the woman at the bookshop?”
“She is the means to an end. The marquess and marchioness host a house party where whist is a serious game. I was hired by Lady Orpington, one of their usual guests, to find a whist player of uncommon talent to be her partner. That player is Miss Lanscarr.”
“Oh,” Jem said, and pulled on his nose. “She doesn’t look like a card sharp.”
“She is. An excellent one. And if Lady Orpington approves of her, she will include me as a member of her party when she goes to Colemore.”
Wagner raised his brows. “I don’t see how all of this will play out, Major, but I’m with you. As to the lady, I don’t think you are as blind to heras you’d have me believe. Otherwise I wouldn’t have teased you.” With that he toasted the air with his drink and drained the tankard dry.
Beck didn’t touch his drink. Bringing Gwendolyn into this plan had been a necessity, but Wagner was right—she did threaten Beck’s peace of mind. Gwendolyn Lanscarr was forbidden fruit. She made him yearn for what a man like him could not have, just as Violet had once done.
Gwendolyn had been reared for the life of a gentlewoman. Titled and moneyed men lined up outside her door to woo her. Men more suitable to her than Beck. He knew because he’d been watching. He couldn’t help himself.
So, Wagner was right. Beck was not blind. If he could have found another woman with Gwendolyn’s intelligence, grace, and skill, he would have stayed away from her. She was the line he’d dared not cross.
And he would not let himself forget that fact...
Chapter Three
