the sofa skirts. Marcus hunkered down to pick it up and found it was an inch of fine straw plait, a long thread dangling from it.
He pulled the bell rope. ‘Peters, ask Miss Price if it would be convenient for her to spare me a moment.’
His sisters’ companion came in promptly, bandbox neat, calm and collected as always. ‘Marcus?’ She smiled and took a seat as he resumed his. In private they had long since used first names, allies in maintaining order and decorum in the Carlow household.
‘What do you make of this, Diana?’ He passed her the fragment of plait and watched as she studied it.
‘It is a straw plait of course. Hat straw—it is too fine for anything else.’ She rubbed and flexed it between her fingers. ‘English, I would say. Very good quality and an unusual plait. I have never seen anything quite like it.’ She tugged the thread dangling from it and looked at him with intelligent eyes. ‘Our visitor of this morning is a milliner?’
‘She said she was a dressmaker, but it would not surprise me to know that was untrue.’
‘If she is working with expensive materials such as this, then she will be with one of the better establishments. Not necessarily of the very highest rank, but good.’
‘Could one narrow them down using that piece of plait?’
‘I should think so.’ Miss Price picked at it with her fingernail. ‘It is unusual enough to be the work of one plaiter, or perhaps from a village where this is a traditional pattern. I can give you a list of establishments to try.’
‘Thank you, I would be obliged. I would like to get my hands on that young woman.’ Diana’s fine eyebrows rose. ‘And drag her off to the magistrates,’ he added smoothly.
Within an hour Miss Price produced the promised list, by which time Peters had returned with Hawkins, the ex-Bow Street Runner that Marcus had found useful to employ in the past. He handed the man the piece of plait and the list. ‘I want to know which of these establishments uses this plait—without arousing suspicion.’
‘Aye, my lord. I’ll send in my daughters, they can say they are ladies’ maids, trying to track down an exclusive pattern for their mistress.’ He glanced down the list and bowed himself out. ‘I’ll be back by this time tomorrow.’
‘Who on earth is that man, Marcus?’ He looked up, startled to realize that he had been so deep in thought that he had not heard his mother come in.
‘Mama.’ He got to his feet as she settled on the sofa in a flurry of silk skirts and held out one immaculately manicured hand to the blaze. Despite the prospect of an evening at home and frequent visits to the sick room, Lady Narborough was exquisitely attired in teal-green silk and adorned with the Carlow opals. ‘An investigator. I wanted to track down the young woman who so upset Father this morning.’
‘I do not understand it.’ His mother turned her large dark eyes on him and he noticed with a pang the fine lines radiating from the corners. She was still a beauty, but no longer a young one, no longer so resilient. ‘What on earth was in that parcel that disturbed your father so much?’
‘A foolish practical joke. A cord. It appeared to be a snake. I assume Papa got up too suddenly and then, on top of that, was startled by what he thought was a reptile.’ Marcus shrugged negligently. If his mother knew the true nature of the rope, she would make the connection with the past, and he had no intention of worrying her with that if he could avoid it. ‘I imagine it will turn out to be one of Hal’s madcap friends playing a trick on me that misfired.’
As he intended, that was enough to turn his mother’s attention from the parcel to thoughts of her sons. ‘Your father is fretting,’ she said. ‘You know how he does when he is unwell. He wants to hold his grandchildren on his knee—and soon! It is too much to hope that Hal will oblige us. Every respectable young lady has been warned against him Seasons ago. You are the heir, Marcus. It is time you found yourself a wife and settled down, set up your nursery.’
It was a subject she returned to with increasing frequency these days. Perhaps it was natural, with an ailing husband, to seek comfort in thoughts of descendants, but he saw no possibility of satisfying her in the immediate future.
There were attractive women aplenty out there and many who caught his eye, but none of them were the kind a gentleman married. What he wanted, he knew, was maturity, intelligence and wit. Breeding went without saying, for he had his name to consider. Wealth was of lesser importance; he was in the fortunate position of not having to marry for money. As for looks—well, character was more desirable, although he did not imagine his chosen bride would be exactly muffin-faced.
But where to find her? ‘The Season is about to start, Mama. I’ll give it serious thought, I promise.’ Some young lady, fresh-faced, innocent, schooled by her mama to perfect deportment and without an original idea in her head would be the expectation for a man in his position. His heart sank.
What he wanted...green eyes, a determined chin, a voice like warm honey and the desperate courage to stand her ground and lie when a man his size, in a temper, tried to threaten her? Yes, that was the calibre of woman he wanted. Now he just had to find an eligible lady with the qualities possessed by a shabby, skinny milliner. Without the lying and the mystery.
‘My lord?’
‘Mmm?’ Startled, Marcus sat bolt upright in the chair by the fire. He hadn’t been dozing exactly, more brooding, he told himself.
Wellow was too well trained to appear surprised by anything the family might do. ‘I beg your pardon, my lord, but we thought you had gone out.’
‘Why? What is the time?’
‘Ten, my lord. Would you like me to have a supper laid out in the Small Dining Room?’
‘Good God.’ Marcus considered his club, then Perdita’s apartments, and found that, after all, the thought of a supper in his own dining room was more enticing. ‘I lost track of the time, Wellow. The family has dined, I take it?’
‘Yes, my lord, on the assumption you were at your club, my lord.’
‘Quite. Supper, if you please.’ He felt no enthusiasm for an evening of erotic negotiation with Mrs Jensen. Damn it, was he sickening for something?
What if he comes to the shop? Salterton, the dark man? What if he asks me what happened at Lord Narborough’s house? Do I tell him? Or lie? Do I try and find out about him and then tell Lord Stanegate? But he is a Carlow.
There Nell’s train of thought stuttered to a halt and she sat staring rather blankly into her cooling cup of black coffee. A night’s restless, dream-disturbed sleep had done nothing to calm her.
She was afraid of Salterton, she realized, although she did not know why. Something about him made her think of knives. But she was afraid of Stanegate too. He had power and influence, and however unwittingly, she had been the cause of his father’s collapse. Only he did not believe it was unwitting.
If only that were all. Lord Narborough was his father and he had been her own father’s friend, she knew that much. Something had happened when she was very young and her father was taken away. And then Papa had died and Mama had never smiled again—and she spoke the name of Carlow like a curse.
Over the years, growing up, Nell had pieced together a little. Papa must have done
