Page 26 of This Earl of Mine

Mother turned with a bright smile. “Goodness, it’s crowded this evening. I hope your new admirer can find us, Juliet.”

Juliet sighed audibly. “He’s not my admirer, Mother.In fact, he seemed to be spend more time looking at Georgie than at me.”

A frown creased Mother’s brow. “Well, there’s no point in him payingGeorgianaany attention, is there? Seeing as how she took leave of her senses and married some highwayman without telling anyone.” She shot Georgie a familiar, disapproving look.

“Midshipman,” Georgie corrected absently. “He wasn’t a highwayman.”

Mother waved that away. “Same thing. My point is, you’re already taken.”

“I thought you wanted a title for Juliet?” Georgie couldn’t resist saying. “Mr. Wylde is a younger son. Hisbrotheris the earl.”

Mother sniffed. “The Morcotts are an old and extremely well-connected family. Mr. Wylde may not have the robust finances one might like, certainly, but he can trace his lineage back to the Norman conquest.”

Juliet sent Georgie a horrified glance. Mother had clearly been studying herDebrett’s.

“And there’s nothing wrong with him showing an interest in Juliet,” Mother continued. “His attentions will only make her other suitors, like Upton, more ardent.”

Juliet winced, and Georgie have her arm a sympathetic squeeze. “Oh look,” she said brightly. “Is that your friend Lady Cowper?”

Mother twirled. “It is indeed! I haven’t seen dear Caroline in an age. Would you justlookat that ostrich feather? Why, it’s monstrous!” She waved merrily. “Why don’t you two head toward the rotunda and see if you can find Mr. Wylde? I’ll catch up with you in a moment.”

Juliet sent Georgie a triumphant look. “Yes, Mama.”

Benedict was standing under the trees in a shadowy corner of Vauxhall waiting for his informant when he feltan almost imperceptible nudge in the region of his coat pocket. He turned, caught the perpetrator’s slim wrist in a punishing grip, and spun the potential thief into the light—then grinned when he saw the boy’s familiar, grimy face.

“You’ll have to be quicker than that, Jem.” He chuckled. “Best stick to smuggling and selling information. Picking pockets isn’t your forte.”

Jem Barnes’s lips split into a gap-toothed grin as he rubbed his abused wrist to restore the circulation.

“Easy, guv. I’m out o’ practice, is all.” He slunk back into the shadows out of habit and gave a low, impressed whistle as he took in Benedict’s evening clothes and silver-topped cane. “Ho, look at you, dressed up all fancy,” he cooed. “What you do? Rob a bank? Take up the High Toby?”

“Won a shooting contest,” Ben said lazily.

The boy’s gaze sharpened. “Sounds like you can afford to pay me a little sum’fin for what I know, then, don’t it?”

Benedict hid a smile. Jem was a sharp one. He’d been one of the few members of Hammond’s gang to escape the Gravesend raid. They boy was as slippery as an eel. “I’ll pay you,” he said evenly. “If you have anything worthwhile to tell me.”

Jem wiped his nose on his ragged sleeve. “Shame about Peters and Fry. I ’eard they’s ’eaded for Van Diemen’s Land.”

“They were lucky they didn’t swing like Hammond, or die in the cells like Silas.”

Jem spat on the ground, an eloquent dismissal of the vicious ringleader. “Ain’t nobody gonna miss ’Ammond, that’s for sure. But how comeyouain’t on a prison ship?”

“I bribed the Newgate turnkey.”

The youngster shrugged, unsurprised by the fickleness of man. Ben withdrew a guinea from his waistcoatpocket and idly flipped it over in his fingers. Jem watched it like a starving dog at the butcher’s shop window.

“So, what do you know?” Ben asked gently.

The boy smiled. “Being the enterprisin’ cove what I am, I’ve found it pays to listen at doors.” He puffed out his chest. “I always know what’s goin’ on, me. Listened in to ’Ammond, I did.”

Ben nodded approvingly. “And?”

“Just before the Gravesend job ’e met with a cove called Johnstone.”

“Go on.”

“Well, this Johnstone was trying to get a crew together. Said ’e ’ad a job that’d make us all richer than the pope. Told ’Ammond to find ’im men who could sail anyfink and not ask too many questions, like.”

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