Page 47 of One Night of Scandal
He grinned at her. “Excellent timing.”
“No, no. I’ve already been inside, and Caldwell and Sir Humphrey have been banned.” She grabbed Jack’s elbow much the same as Caldwell had grabbed Sir Humphrey and started down the Haymarket.
Jack moved alongside her, and she dropped her hand. “What happened?”
“Caldwell and Sir Humphrey came in, and my brother and Cole expelled them. Forever. They told everyone he’d insulted you—and me, Viola me, not Tavistock—and were no longer welcome at the Wicked Duke.”
“That’s…very nice.”
“It was bloody brilliant!” She laughed. “You should have heard everyone. You are clearly far more liked than either of them.”
“That is unsurprising,” he murmured before leading her across the street to Charles Street.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
He stopped on the other side of the street. “I don’t know. I was simply walking the way I usually do when I leave the Wicked Duke—to my house.”
“Oh.” She suddenly wanted to go to his house. “Can I see it? I can tell you what I learned along the way. Then I can take a hack home.”
“Not alone, you won’t.”
“Fine. Anyway, I’m simply bursting with what I must tell you, so please stop interrupting.”
He laughed softly as they made their way into St. James’s Square. “I am hardly interrupting. You are not talking fast enough.”
She glared at him briefly before launching into her tale. “After Val and Cole threw Caldwell and Sir Humphrey out, I went out the back and went around to the Haymarket where I intercepted them.”
“Did you?” He shook his head. “Of course you did. You know no fear, Viola. And youshould.”
She exhaled in exasperation. “Can I please finish?”
“Please,” he said amiably.
“And don’t interrupt again, because you really are taking the fun out of it, and this is such a good story!”
“I am positively aquiver with anticipation.”
“Stop that. I queried them about how they knew you were at the meeting. And before you say that was dangerous, they are the ones who brought it up.” That wasn’t precisely what happened, but they’d certainly given her an opportunity to ask. “They were absolutely confident you were at the meeting last night, and when I pressed them about it, Sir Humphrey’s loose tongue got the better of him. He said they knew it for certain because they had aninformer.”
They’d crossed the square and were now at the juncture of King Street. Jack stopped and turned to stare at her. “He said what?”
She nodded vigorously. “That’sthe story, Jack. What do you think it means? What sort of man?”
He rubbed his hand along his cheek and jaw. “I don’t know. I’m trying to recall who was there last night, but I can’t think of anyone who stood out. But then if they’d embedded someone in the Spencean Philanthropists, I would guess they wouldn’t be conspicuous.”
“It’s not as if they’d wear a sign that reads ‘spy.’”
Jack gave her a wry look, his mouth twisting into a half smile. “No, they would not.” He was silent a moment, and she wondered what he was thinking. “This is going to take some pondering as to our next move. I think it may be time for me to solicit additional help from my colleagues. This seems to be a far bigger situation than I’d imagined.”
He gestured to the house on the corner. “This is where I live.”
Viola pivoted and took in the smart town house. It wasn’t large, but it was neat, and the green door and bow window at the front were most inviting.
“I’ll hail a hack,” he said, turning back toward the street.
She clasped his elbow again, and he stopped. “Can I see the inside?”
He hesitated before saying, “I suppose you could.”
