Page 102 of Rakes & Reticules
The door deftly shut before the prince sat back in his chair. His right hand went up in the air, but before he could say a word a servant was rushing over with a full glass of champagne. Prinny eyed the servant with a squinted glance before taking a sip. “Better.” He waved at the three other glasses in front of him, all half empty. “You may take these.”
Fitz’s leg bounced up and down as he tried to stifle his irritation at the entire scene. Beside him, Stonelake shook with laughter, coughing into his hand when Prinny looked over to him.
“Are you all right, man?” Prinny asked his cousin with a frown on his face.
“Yes, yes, just something caught in my throat. You were saying that you had a way to assist Fitz with the earldom?” a red-faced Stonelake asked.
Fitz contained his glee at his friend being caught; it served Stonelake right. He knew Fitz hated being around the prince and his many worshippers. The entire display made him sick to his stomach, yet he had become among the many with access to the prince.
The regent turned to Fitz, sipping his champagne lazily. “You must go to Brighton at once.”
He expected a great number of outlandish requests, but going to Brighton after all these years was not one of them.
Once, Fitz had been as close to happiness as one could get. He’d had the perfect woman, a secure placement as a solicitor, and his father was still alive. Fitz hadn’t had a care in the world, except for wondering if Patience Grant would accept his proposal. However, it never came to pass.
As a result, he hadn’t returned to Brighton in five years.
Tilting his head, he asked, “Why Brighton?” He was unable to hold back the suspicion in his voice.
Fitz was aware that not too many people knew of the small connection he had in Brighton. It had been years earlier when he was just a young man. Fitz had visited who he thought was an old school friend for a few glorious months in the summer.
Although he did not wish to see Patience and his former friend again as lovers, he had no choice but to do whatever it was that Prinny asked of him. There was no way to surmise what sort of thing the prince would be involved in, but Fitz was desperate and willing to do anything so long as it wasn’t nefarious.
“Not, what but whom…” Prinny paused, taking another sip as if he knew the anguish he was causing Fitz. “Maria Fitzherbert.”
Both Fitz and Stonelake sat up straighter. Fitz knew perfectly well who Maria Fitzherbert was to Prinny. Everyone in England knew that she was the regent’s first wife. A secret that Parliament tried to hide, but rumors always found a way to circulate.
Especially about a prince.
“What do you need me to do?” Fitz asked, trying to ignore the trepidation pooling in his abdomen.
He wasn’t precisely sure where the prince and Maria’s relationship stood at the moment. The last he’d heard they were feuding terribly over Prinny’s new mistress.
“I need you to attend Viscount Hightower’s ball in a sennight. There you will meet a young lady who will be in possession of a reticule—”
“I suspect most young ladies have reticules,” Fitz interrupted, not understanding how this would help him dissolve his debts.
“Indeed, but this particular reticule holds papers of a more delicate nature. Papers that cannot be published or found in the wrong person’s possession...” Prinny paused, his blue eye glaring at Fitz.
Understanding dawned on Fitz. As a solicitor he was very well acquainted with London society and the royal family’s history. “Your marriage papers?” he asked bewildered. “You want me to go to Brighton and retrieve proof of your marriage to Maria Fitzherbert?”
Fitz couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Those papers were hard evidence against everything Parliament wanted the public to assume. And he wanted to trust Fitz with them.
“Precisely. If these were to become public, it could ruin me. I need to stay in Parliament’s good graces to continue to receive my funds. Can I depend on you?” He sat back taking another sip of his champagne, looking over to the servant as he finished the glass.
Fitz looked from Stonelake to the prince. It had to be some sort of jest. Surely it couldn’t be this easy, retrieve a reticule from a chit? That sounded rather simple. “Who will deliver it?”
Prinny waved his fingers at Fitz as if the person was of no consequence. “A maid or a secretary of some sort. You are to meet in the library at eleven o’clock.”
“And once I return this reticule and its contents to you, what will I receive?” He needed to be clear. There was nothing but desperation that would take him back to Brighton. He was in debt up to his ears, having inherited his cousin’s and uncle’s debts. Fitz’s own mother was constantly complaining that his sister would never have a London season in their current state of poverty.
He needed this plan to work.
Prinny shrugged. “In return, I will see that all your debts are forgiven, and I will personally pay you fifty thousand pounds.”
Stonelake choked out a cough as Fitz sat stoically staring at the prince. He couldn’t believe it. With that sort of blunt, his children’s children would never be hungry. His leg began bouncing, his heart beating frantically in his chest. No, this could not be so easy.
“You and I both know you don’t have the funds,” Fitz challenged as it was well known that Prinny was in debt. He constantly borrowed money from Parliament to support his lavish lifestyle. How could he possibly have fifty thousand pounds?
