“I don’t think this should take long,” she said, forcing her mind to Mrs. Oliver’s problem and making plans on what to do. “I will need some information from you if you can get it. I want the names of both of those Brighton shops, and I also want the name of the agent and of other shops the agent calls on.”
“I’ll write to you this evening.”
“Then we will begin in the morning. Now, I must be indelicate and explain our fees.”
Five minutes later she brought Mrs. Oliver to the door where her carriage waited. “Leave it all to us. I will give you a report in five days and let you know if we are successful or need more time.”
Chapter Ten
Chase entered Nicholas’s apartment to find him reading in bed.
“Adopting the habits of your new position, are you?”
Nicholas looked up from his newspaper. He set it aside on the breakfast tray. “All that waits for me on rising are the complaints in those.” He gestured to a little stack of letters set neatly on the side of the bed, unopened.
“Not dunning letters, I hope.”
“I should be so fortunate. If you look closely you will recognize the hands. One is Phillip, who wants to borrow money and writes me daily. He even made it a point to chance upon me at my club.”
“Tell him to go to hell.”
“One is from Dolores, who still tries to persuade me to be less strict about challenging the will. And one, unless I am mistaken—it has been so long since I received a letter from him that I can’t be sure—is Cousin Walter.”
“What does he want?”
“I have no idea.”
Chase lifted the letter. “Let us find out. May I?”
“Enjoy yourself.”
He unsealed the letter. Walter had the practiced flamboyance in his penmanship that one would expect of a man with a high opinion of himself. Lots of flourishes and unnecessary ink decorated the capital letters. Chase read the one-page missive.
“Hmmm.”
“I don’t care for thathmmm,” Nicholas said.
“You won’t care for this letter either.” Chase waved it in front of Nicholas’s nose. “He feels the need to advise you on your duties, which he proceeds to do in a very Walter sort of way. In particular, he scolds about your lack of a wife and heir.”
“Odd, since if I die today he becomes the duke.”
“Frightening thought. You will endeavornotto die today, or soon, I trust.”
“If I do, assume he did me in.”
“Anyway, he scolds. He reminds you of that duty. And, you will be overjoyed to learn, he has even helped out by finding a potential bride for you.”
“Hell to that.” Nicholas threw off the bedclothes and strode to his dressing room.
Chase positioned himself outside its door. “She is a lovely girl, he writes. Sweet and demure and of course virtuous in the extreme. Well-bred and better raised.”
“Of course she is,” Nicholas’s voice said. “She sounds boring.”
“Walter would think that a virtue. Let me see what else he admires in her. Ah, here is more. Apparently, she is related to his wife. Her niece. Her brother Viscount Beaufort’s daughter.”
Nicholas’s face showed around the threshold. “I have seen this girl if she is that relative. We met. She had the temerity to ask when I thought my uncle would die and I would become duke. Not in so many words, but that was the question being broached. When I said Uncle was so healthy he would probably live to ninety, she suddenly lost interest.”
“Well, she wouldn’t want to wait too long, would she? Clearly you have become interesting again.”
