CHAPTER8
A LADY DOES HER RESEARCH
Meanwhile, back at the Castlewait townhouse
Sure Jack was sound asleep, Persephone slipped from beneath the covers and crept to the mistress suite by way of the dressing room. The initials ‘JW’ had already brought to mind images of three aristocrats, but they were all far too old to be engaging young ladies in dark deeds in dark alcoves. Determined to learn who else might be ‘Lord JW,’ she pulled the counterpane from her bed, wrapped it about her shoulders, and crept out of the mistress suite and down the stairs to the library.
Turning up the flame on a candle lamp, she immediately went to the shelf containing a copy ofDebrett’s Peerage and Baronetage. Although it wasn’t the most recent edition of the book of aristocrats and their families, it would do. After all, ‘Lord JW’ had to be of an age old enough to engage in salacious behavior, which meant he had to have been born before eighteen-hundred. More likely, he would have been born before seventeen-ninety-five.
Helping herself to a sheet of parchment, an ink pot, and a quill from her late husband’s desk, she settled herself at the library table and began paging through the book. Since the initials JW could refer to a given name or to a first name and a title, she thought to start with the W’s. Excitement gripped her when she discovered the first name was a candidate.
John Wainwright, Duke of Chichester.
She was about to write his name but remembered he had died in a fire. His son John had a reputation as a rake, but he, too, had died in the same fire. The younger son, Joshua, was now the duke, but he had suffered severe burns and had sequestered himself in the ducal estate in Sussex.
Persephone moved onto another page.
Wallingham, Weatherstone, Wentworth, Wessex, Whitney, Winthorpe, Wolverhampton...Not even halfway through the book, she was becoming discouraged when she noticed that the listing for the Whytes included a James.
Lord James, son of the Duke of Whyte. Too handsome for his own good, he already had a reputation as a flirt and a libertine from his days at university. From his date of birth, he would be two-and-twenty.
In the middle of writing his name on the parchment, Persephone gave a start when she heard the faint sounds of a coach pulling into the mews behind the townhouse.That will be Parker, she thought. She put the stopper onto the ink pot, pulled the counterpane more tightly around her shoulders, and was about to make her way to the stairs when she collided with a body larger than hers.
She nearly let out a scream until she realized it was Jack who had wrapped his arms around her.
“Apologies, my sweet,” he whispered hoarsely. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
Persephone inhaled softly. “I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said, relieved he had found a velvet robe to wear.
“You didn’t. I think your driver has returned.”
“He has,” she affirmed. “He’s been gone long enough that he must have discovered something. Are you feeling better?” she asked, raising a hand to press it against his forehead.
“Much. I think I just had to sleep it off.” He gaze darted to the library. “Whatever have you been doing?” he asked. The candle lamp was still burning, so the room was partially illuminated.
“Looking for ‘Lord JW’s,” she replied as she steered them to the stairs.
“And?”
“It’s only a possibility, but Lord James?—”
“Whyte’s whelp?” he interrupted, nearly stopping on the stairs.
“Indeed. What do you know of him?”
“Handsome, rich, and a rake. He was born the day you gifted your virtue to me.”
Persephone gasped. “You remember that?”
“Twenty-two years has not dulled my memory of our week together, Sephie,” he whispered hoarsely as they descended the last flight of stairs.
Touched by his words, she was about to respond when Parker appeared and stopped short at the table near the base of the stairs.
“Pardon, my lady. I... I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said, holding up the top hat he carried. “Your hat, my lord.”
“You found it!” Jack’s expression conveyed stunned surprise. “Apologies, but I don’t seem to have any coins on me at the moment,” he added as he patted the sides of the velvet robe.
“Oh, it was my pleasure, sir. It’s been a most interesting evening.”
