A Warriner To Seduce Her. Virginia Heath

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СКАЧАТЬ servants as we dare. All have been refused. The others are too close to Rowley for me to risk approaching them. They will only tip him off.’ Seb Leatham always sounded angry even when he wasn’t. Unlike the suave Flint he worked best in the shadows and had a knack for blending in with the lowest of the low. ‘And we already know the place is guarded like a fortress. Right now, he’s confident enough to make mistakes. We daren’t risk shaking that confidence by breaking in.’

      ‘Then we’ll need to be invited, won’t we?’ Fennimore smiled enigmatically. A sure sign he had dredged up something thus far undiscovered. Whatever it was Jake didn’t care. He’d spent the last eight months infiltrating a gun-smuggling consortium running out of the East End docks and, now that the lynchpins were all sat in damp cells in Newgate awaiting trial, blissfully unaware of how their empire had crumbled, Jake was due a significant stretch of leave. Hell, he’d earned it. It had been a dangerous assignment and one he’d barely survived without a bullet between the eyes.

      Tomorrow, he would head north to Markham Manor and see his brothers for the first time in almost a year. For some strange reason, he had a hankering for the north and for home in particular. Probably because he was tired. Leading a double life, a secret double life, was exhausting. In deepest, darkest, dankest Nottinghamshire he was just Jake. It would almost be as good to be that carefree young rapscallion again as it would to see his family. Three months of being himself, no hidden agendas, no danger, no responsibilities and no web of lies.

      Except the one.

      The rest of the Warriners had absolutely no idea the directionless rake of the family had worked for the British government since the day he left Cambridge, when Lord Fennimore had recognised he actually had some potential, albeit not potential which would ever serve a good purpose. Not strictly true. Jamie suspected. The questions he asked and the quiet assessing way he had about him suggested he was piecing together the hidden puzzle of Jake’s life. Jamie hadn’t vocalised his theory outright, because that was not his reticent elder brother’s style, but he had abruptly stopped joining in with the litany of criticisms Jake had received about his lack of purpose on his last two visits home, which in turn had led to more guilt and made returning home harder. That and the desire to keep them all safe. His job was dangerous. The risk of inadvertently dragging some of that with him on a visit home kept him up at night, when he much preferred to sleep. And, of course, it meant he prolonged his absences further and made more excuses.

      Five years of lying to the brothers he loved was driving a wedge between them because Jake was actively avoiding them. They knew him too well and saw too much. They had also all made great successes of their lives and despaired that he had not. He tried not to feel envious at it, knowing they deserved all the good things and more, but the sight of their lives blossoming was coming to make his own existence feel barren. Yet he missed them and every day he missed them more. At least now his last assignment was completed he could go home and relax, safe in the knowledge he was working on nothing else which might put them in danger, trip him up or force him to tell them another pack of lies which he doubted they truly believed.

      He let his eyes wander around the stuffy study which served as the King’s Elite secret headquarters until they fixed on the dancing flames in the fireplace and listened with less than half an ear.

      Or at least he thought he did.

      ‘Warriner!’ His head snapped around to see Lord Fennimore’s bushy grey eyebrows drawn together in a scowl. ‘Have you listened to a damn word I just said?’

      ‘Er...of course, sir...well, actually...no. Not really. My eyes glazed over somewhere between one thousand barrels in Sussex and Rowley’s resistance to mud. Forgive me. I’m tired and as I’m about to go on leave I didn’t think it mattered.’

      ‘Your leave has been cancelled. I have a job for you.’

      ‘But, sir...’

      ‘No buts, Warriner. Only you can do this one. It’s a seduction job, so right up your street.’

      Leatham and Flint were grinning at him smugly, no doubt having sold his sorry carcass up the river to avoid spending hours, weeks and months charming information out of yet another empty-headed smuggler’s mistress. ‘Now hold on a minute sir, I’m due leave. Urgently due leave. You patted me on the back only last week and said so yourself. I’ve made plans.’

      ‘Plans change. You can have your leave as soon as you’ve exhausted this new lead.’ There was no point arguing further. Fennimore never budged when his mind was made up. Never. ‘Given the lady’s age and experience, I dare say you’ll have done the deed in less than a fortnight and you can head north to rusticate then.’

      Two weeks wasn’t so bad, even if it did mean letting his family down again. Something he had done all too often in the last few years, to such an extent he could already picture his eldest brother Jack’s irritated shake of the head and hear, crystal-clear, the blistering lecture he would receive as a result.

       When are you going to do something with your life? Being a rake is not a career.

      Jake was so caught up in the imaginary conversation with his responsible elder sibling it took a few moments for his superior’s words to sink in.

      ‘What do you mean age?’

      ‘You really weren’t listening, were you?’ Lord Fennimore huffed and began to snatch up his papers, signalling the meeting was over. ‘Crispin Rowley has a niece. His deceased, much elder half-sister’s child. The girl has been hidden away in a convent since she was orphaned, hence we haven’t bothered with her before. However, her neglectful uncle has now decided he’s going to give the chit a Season. My sources tell me he is doing so with the express intention of marrying her off by the end of it and to someone of stature. She’s recently moved into his house in Mayfair. Her name is Miss Blunt.’

      ‘She’s fresh from the schoolroom?’

      ‘One assumes.’

      ‘What does that make her? Seventeen? Eighteen?’ Please God, not sixteen.

      ‘I suppose.’

      ‘You want me to seduce a child!’

      ‘Eighteen is not a child and you only need to actually seduce her if other methods of persuasion prove fruitless.’

      ‘Why can’t Flint seduce her?’

      ‘I need Flint to keep chipping away on the other side. He’s making headway into the bounder’s inner circle and all that would be put in jeopardy if Rowley disapproves of him courting his niece. Your reputation makes you the perfect choice. Besides, I can hardly send Leatham.’ All eyes instinctively travelled to the jagged and impressive scar down Seb Leatham’s right cheek. Even without the scar, his friend resembled a bare-knuckle fighter and was painfully monosyllabic around the opposite sex. Jake was nicely trapped and Lord Fennimore knew it.

      ‘The girl has spent most of her life with nuns, Warriner, isolated from the manipulative machinations of the world. In the full glow of your legendary charm, she’ll probably confide all her secrets with a few flowery words. A simple brush of the cheek will likely render her a melted puddle at your feet. It won’t take long to pry a list of her uncle’s associates from her or his day-to-day schedule. Perhaps you can even convince the chit to steal away a few stray letters and such for a couple of hours so we can analyse them. I’m sure you’ll work out how to get her to do your bidding without having to bed her. But if it comes to it, then I’ll expect you to do your duty for King and country. You’ve never complained СКАЧАТЬ