Page 99 of Marigold and the Marquess
Lorcan grinned when he spotted Leo. “I’ll be damned. I was hoping I would catch up to you before you reached Exeter. Seems I needn’t have worried. What happened? Why are you here? I was sure you would be a half a day’s ride ahead of me.”
“I was. Come inside and I’ll buy you a drink. Are you hungry? I hear the food is excellent.” He pointed toward an empty table at the back of the inn. “Let’s sit there so we can talk without being disturbed. I suppose Ian’s pretty much fed up with me. Did he give you orders to shoot me on sight?”
Lorcan chuckled as they walked to the table and shifted their chairs slightly to keep their backs to the wall. “No, he just told me to tie you up, stick a bag over your head, and toss you onto the next mail coach back to London. You are going back to London, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” He kept his eyes trained on the travelers coming and going from the busy establishment. “I give you my word.”
“Good. I don’t want any trouble when I bring your cousin in for questioning.”
A maid brought over two tankards of ale.
Lorcan drank thirstily and then set the tankard down on the rough-hewn table. “I have my tracking dogs with me,” he said, taking another swig of his ale. “They haven’t picked up your cousin’s scent at all.”
Leo did not think this was surprising or of particular cause for concern. “He might have taken a longer route home for just this reason. He has to be worried Crown agents or Denby’s cohorts are after him. Not to mention, he knows I am out for his blood.”
“Maybe. Do you think he is clever enough to throw us all off the scent? I’m not sure. It seems to me, this is a man who is in over his head and has made mistakes. If he were running home, I think he would simply make a desperate, mad dash for it. My sense is that he might have left that pigsty of a tavern where he had been holing up, but he stayed somewhere else close by.”
Leo frowned. “You think he never left London?”
Lorcan shrugged. “I’ll continue to Exeter anyway. However, it is a good thing you are returning. If he is still in London, you don’t want to leave Marigold unguarded.”
“I have footmen with her everywhere she goes,” Leo said, more to convince himself he hadn’t been a fool. “And my Bow Street runner has assigned his men to watch who comes in and out of Chipping Way. They stand on guard around the clock.”
Lorcan glanced into his now empty tankard of ale. “But it isn’t the same as having you there, is it?”
“I know,” Leo admitted. “That’s why I’m heading back. Finally using common sense instead of allowing rage and anger to control me. But what about you? What will you do if my cousin is not in Exeter?”
“I almost prefer that he is not. Then I can search his home and anywhere else he might have hidden incriminating evidence without his interference or attempts to destroy that evidence.”
Leo grunted. “He probably destroyed all traces years ago There’ll be nothing left to find.”
“Maybe, but I’ll find it if there is. Rafe Quinton is my cousin and the magistrate there. He’ll help me out.”
Leo grinned. “I’ve heard about Rafe. Apparently, my wife is related to just about everyone in England, including this cousin of yours.”
Lorcan laughed. “Same can be said of my wife. Lord save us, but these Farthingales are everywhere. I suppose this makes us family.Blessed saints.Ian, too. Anyway, Rafe will fill me in on all that is going on in his town. He’ll know where I need to search and will issue whatever local warrants necessary.” He patted his breast pocket. “This warrant issued by Ian ought to be enough to scare the blazes out of Cummings. Ian gave me a cursory briefing, but tell me everything that happened in the past, Leo. I know there is a whole history between you and your cousin.”
As they awaited their meal, a hearty rabbit stew, Leo filled him in on all that had transpired four years ago and more recently. Lorcan may have learned much of it already from Ian, but it did not hurt to go over the details on the chance something had been overlooked.
Once they parted ways, Leo spurred his mount to a gallop. He was eager to reach London, but he still had a full day of riding tomorrow, as well as the rest of today.
The weather held up, allowing him to make excellent time.
He reached London at the twilight hour on the following day, pausing a moment on the outskirts to look at the shimmering rooftops and the murky Thames in the distance. Smoke spewed from chimney stacks and the city seemed to go on endlessly. Somewhere within that sprawl, Cummings could be lurking and hatching new plans. “We’re almost home, Archimedes. How are you holding up, old boy?”
Archimedes stamped his hoof on the ground, a signal he was eager to be back in his stall in the Chipping Way mews.
Leo was just as eager to be home and take Marigold in his arms. “All right. Let’s go.”
Sterling cried out in surprise when he opened the door and saw Leo standing on the other side of it. “My lord! Welcome home!”
“Good evening, Sterling.” Leo strode in covered in dust and sporting a four day’s growth of beard.
“Good gracious.” His butler bowed and clasped his hands together in worry. “We did not expect you. I’ll let your valet know you have returned.”
“Just my valet? And how about my wife? Where is she? I think she would appreciate knowing I am here.”
“Oh, yes. I have no doubt she would. But she’s gone off to Lord Finchley’s ball.”
