Page 41 of A Duchess to Fight For
“Hey,” Frederick said.
“Hey,” Hobart answered. “Take a seat. Tea?” At Frederick’s nod, Hobart brought over a pot and poured for his brother.
“So, what did you find out?”
Hobart blew out and sat heavily in his chair. “They were hired to take out the guards and burn the place down. A man who never gave them his name hired them in a backroom of a pub. They didn’t care. They were to be paid well for their efforts.”
“Any way to get to the man in the pub?”
“I brought the six of them to an empty warehouse outside town. They were all separated and have been without food or rest since we found them. If they’ve left anything out, we should hear about it soon.”
“Do you think Barton could have hired someone to hire these six?”
“Most likely. But I’m not sure we’ll be able to track these six back to the man at the pub, and if so, track the man at the pub to Barton.”
Hobart continued, “Our best bet is still at Tattersall’s, but it seems suspicious to me that they haven’t done any of their side business in the past fortnight. Do you think there is someone watching us like we’re watching them?”
“What do you think we should do? It may be impossible to ferret out a snitch.”
“We give each person we work with a piece of information that is incorrect and exclusively theirs.
“When the information comes back to us, we’ll know who can’t keep his mouth closed.”
*****
Hobart walked his warehouse every night before he closed up, and he kept six guards on overnight every night.
The man who hired the six thieves was never found. Hobart wasn’t surprised.
When Hobart cut the six thieves loose, he had them followed for a week. They did not lead him anywhere. He stopped the tail.
What he was surprised about was the false information he spread around didn’t come back to him. And to top off a week of the bad news, there was no horse-trading off the books at Tattersall’s.
Since the warehouse incident, everything was quiet. Time was ticking.
Frederick was restless. Barton’s note had said, ‘It’s not over,’ and he was sure Barton wouldn’t give up just because six men were found lurking around a warehouse.
He went through all the scenarios in his mind of what he might do to keep Louisa out of Barton’s hands. Does he send her to their country estate? Does she stay home indefinitely? Does Percy take her to Gretna Green? Is there another man out there she has interest in to take her to Gretna Green? Does she get back into the marriage mart?
Hitting the warehouse was an obvious attempt at striking a blow to Frederick’s finances. If the shipment were ruined, the insurance would cover it but wouldn’t cover all the fire damage to the equipment in the warehouse or the damage if the warehouse burned down. And it would take months to rebuild the warehouse and even longer to put another shipment together.
He felt helpless. They were trying to fight an invisible monster. He had never felt as on edge as he did at this moment.
*****
Percy took the ladies to Hyde Park again. Just as with their first visit, the ladies enjoyed good weather and beautiful flowers. Percy didn’t bring the birdseed this time. Attracting so many birds caused a mess he hadn’t anticipated.
They went further through the winding paths this time. Each turn in the path brought another garden expertly planned and groomed. The colours dazzled. And unlike St. James’s Park, the park opened into a large expanse bathed in sunlight throughout the day.
“Hyde Park must be three times the size of St. James,” Percy noted when he looked across the gardens.
“Why doesn’t anyone know about this park?” Louisa asked.
“St. James is within walking distance to most residences of the nobility. You remember how long it took us to get here. It really is out of the way. Both times we’ve come, it has been almost empty.”
“Ah, benches,” Amelia said. “You two continue. I’ll sit for a moment.”
Percy shrugged.
