The Fortune Hunter

by Jo Ann Ferguson

  Annis’s intense color became ghostly as she pressed her fingertips to her lips. “Mr. Windham, I had no idea … I mean, I meant nothing …”

  “Of course you meant something.” His smile softened his words, as he added, “You have every right to come to the defense of your bosom bow, and I must tell you that your fervor is admirable. My brother and I have been haunted by the horror of the injuries Miss Dufresne has suffered.” Taking Annis’s hand, he shook it gravely. “It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Ehrlich.”

  Annis looked at Nerissa for assistance. Nerissa tried to think of something to fill the troublesome silence. She knew her words sounded strained when she said, “We are doing errands, Mr. Windham. What has brought you out on this dreary day?”

  “The hope of finding something more pleasant than my own company.” His smile broadened, and Nerissa realized this Windham brother had been given a share of the charm his brother possessed. “I believe I have.”

  Mrs. Peach called, “Miss Dufresne?”

  Nerissa hesitated, then realized that Annis was laughing at something Mr. Windham was saying. The tension had vanished with his candor. Leaving them to talk, she gave her order to the shopkeeper. Nerissa watched Mrs. Peach measure out the snuff from the clay jar behind her counter. The sharp smell tickled her nose, but she struggled not to sneeze as the older woman prattled on about what a fine young man Nerissa’s brother was to recognize the qualities of Martinique snuff.

  “And a packet of Spanish Sabilla, too,” Nerissa said when Mrs. Peach had wrapped the package for Cole.

  “Your brother is trying some of that brand again? When you did not order it upon your last visit, I thought he had decided it was not to his taste.”

  Nerissa smiled rather than answered. She guessed Mrs. Peach, who was an avid user of the snuffs she sold, would be outraged if she learned that Nerissa used the finely ground, reddish powder to clean her teeth. Taking her package, she turned and gasped.

  Neither Annis nor Mr. Windham was in the shop. Was Annis all about in her head to wander away with a man she had only just met? After the dressing down she had given Nerissa, it seemed impossible.

  Rushing out onto the street, Nerissa grimaced when water splashed from a puddle over her half-boots. Her frown became astonishment when she saw her friend standing next to Lord Windham’s brother and pointing to something in the shop window next to Mrs. Peach’s store. With their heads tipped toward each other, they were chatting as if they enjoyed a deep amitié.

  Nerissa released the breath she had been holding. Walking to them, she said regretfully, “We told your mother we would return immediately, Annis, so we must bid Mr. Windham adieu.”

  “I trust I shall see you again,” Mr. Windham hurried to say as he shook Annis’s hand lingeringly. “Mayhap at Rowland’s gathering this evening?”

  Before she could answer, a laugh sounded behind Nerissa. It sent a trill of pleasure cascading through her. Looking over her shoulder, she hoped her reaction was hidden. It would be cockle-brained of her to allow Lord Windham to discover that she was finding it difficult to ignore how the warmth of his voice and his devilishly charming smile affected her.

  “Is this to become a habit, Philip? I am constantly finding you in the company of Bath’s loveliest ladies.” Lord Windham smiled.

  “Hamilton, I don’t believe you know Miss Ehrlich,” Mr. Windham said. “Miss Ehrlich, my brother.”

  The viscount greeted Annis, and they shared the proper nothing-sayings for such a meeting. Only then did he turn to Nerissa. “I did not realize that purple was becoming the shade of choice for a lady’s cheeks, but it is most becoming, Miss Dufresne.”

  “Hamilton!” gasped his shocked brother.

  “Do not let him disturb you with his tactlessness, Mr. Windham,” Nerissa said as she met the viscount’s smile with a steady stare. “He thinks only of trying to send me up to the boughs with his backhanded compliments, but I can assure you that he has failed. I have found that I enjoy being purple-faced to being a red-faced rider who cannot see past the tip of his mount’s nose.”

  Mr. Windham chuckled, ignoring his brother’s glower in his direction. Annis laughed lightly, again putting her fingers to her lips, but she was unable to try to halt the merry sound.

  “I deserve that trimming, Miss Dufresne,” Lord Windham said as he watched his brother stroll with Annis toward the next shop window. “Even after our brief acquaintance, I should know better than to cross words with you. Now I suppose I should ask Miss Ehrlich’s pardon. She has certainly caught Philip’s eye. I hope that she has not taken snuff at my crude words.”

  Nerissa could not help laughing when he glanced at the tobacco shop as he apologized. “Fortunately Miss Ehrlich does not take insult easily, my lord, but you would be wise to delay your amends until later. I think Annis is quite as taken by your brother as he is with her. Little we say or do will penetrate the song created by two innocent hearts.”

  “How astute you are! However, Miss Dufresne, if I may be so bold as to speak of your health again, you should be off your feet. Purple is the sole hue on your face. I have seen dead men with more color in their cheeks.” He offered his arm.

  She gratefully put her hand on it. Although she had not wished anyone to guess, her head ached as if a dozen gnomes pounded hammers against her skull. His shoulder was tantalizingly close, but she did not dare to rest her cheek against it when they stood on the busy street. She wondered if it would be as soft as she recalled it being when they sat side by side beneath the tree beyond the hedgerow, or if it would be as hard as the muscles in his arm.

  If Lord Windham noted how she leaned on him as they walked, he was kind enough to say nothing of it. She was glad, for she had little energy left to engage in another dagger-drawing with him.

  When they passed Mr. Windham and Annis, the viscount tapped his brother on the shoulder. Upon getting Philip’s attention which had been focused on Annis’s charming tale of her sister’s latest fête, he motioned for them to follow. “It is quick, is it not?” he mused as they continued toward where her carriage waited by the curb.

  Nerissa glanced back to be sure that Annis was not lagging behind, becoming so caught up in the first flush of a flirtation that she forgot herself. “If you mean the warmth of attraction, I must agree with you in the case of your brother and my friend. They seemed overmastered by it from the moment they first spoke.” She laughed. “Almost from the moment they first spoke.”

  “Almost from the moment? Did Philip bowl her over as I did you?”

  Nerissa explained the meeting in the shop, then added, “Annis is a dear friend, and she leaps to my defense at every chance.”

  “I see Philip has set her worries to rest about the accident, and you have to own that he chose a more charming way to meet her than I did to meet you.” His voice softened. “I am truly glad to see you out of your house. I trust that means you soon will be regaining the pretty pink in your cheeks. Savage that I am, I have endured the jesting of my good fellows which I so rightly deserve for failing to watch where I set Cirrus. No doubt I shall be forced to suffer their well-placed gibes this evening.”

  “If you would as lief that I did not attend …”

  “What a rapper! Of certainty you must attend, Miss Dufresne. There have been cruel rumors of your untimely demise circulating—at my expense, if you wish to know the truth. I beseech you to make your high health known before I find myself in deadly suspense at the end of a hangman’s noose.”

  Nerissa laughed. “My lord, humility doesn’t come easily from your lips.”

  His grey eyes twinkled with mischief as he took her gloved hand between his. She gasped at his forward motion as they stood in the middle of the walkway. A pulse of the same, delightful warmth she had felt when he stood so close to her in the parlor raced along her limbs, coiling through her middle. The slow smile on his expressive lips stirred the gentle heat to a flame.

  Without speaking, he brought her hand t
o his mouth. His ashen gaze threatened to overwhelm her with the passions she could see within it. Her eyes closed when he touched her hand so fleetingly with his lips. All of her being focused on that spot where his breath seeped through her gloves to set her skin afire.

  Something struck her sore face, and Nerissa choked back a moan. She opened her eyes to see Lord Windham looking skyward. Lazy drops of rain splashed into the puddle at her feet.

  “Allow us to see you and Miss Ehrlich home and out of the storm,” he said, his voice once again unemotional.

  “That is unnecessary. My carriage is right here.” She watched as Annis hurried to climb into the tired-looking carriage with Mr. Windham’s assistance.

  Lord Windham handed her in as graciously. “Then I bid you a farewell until this evening, Miss Dufresne.” He released her hand as his smile included both women. “If you did not believe my words before, I hope that you will now when I say that I look forward to that hour with great anticipation.”

  “So do I,” she answered softly, so softly she was unsure if he heard them as he urged his brother to hurry toward their own carriage. Not that it mattered, for she suspected Lord Windham already had discerned the longings of her rebellious heart which pulsed faster at the thought of spending the evening with him.

  Chapter Five

  Hamilton watched Miss Dufresne’s carriage drive away through the rain. Stepping back under an awning, he motioned for his brother, who was staring after the vehicle as if his eyes were tied to it.

  “Philip!” he called, then laughed. “Miss Ehrlich will have little use for you if you prove you don’t have the sense God gave a goose and stand out there in the rain.”

  With a sheepish grin, his brother trotted beneath the awning. “She is wonderful.”

  “I am sure she is.”

  At Hamilton’s distant tone, Philip turned to face him. “Is something amiss? I thought you were having a pleasant conversation with Miss Dufresne.”

  “You can take the carriage home. I will join you later.”

  “Hamilton …”

  He forced a smile he hoped would soon be genuine. “I have just a bit of business I need to attend to while you think of what you wish to say to Miss Ehrlich in the note I’m sure you are composing in your head even now.”

  “I had hoped to ask her to join us this evening at Rowland’s,” he said in an almost shy voice.

  Hamilton cursed silently. After seeing how low love had brought him, his brother should know better than to get so moony about a woman after a single meeting. He would have to set Philip to rights, but it must be later. He was already late for his meeting.

  Bending his head into the drizzle, he strode along the street. It had been a pleasant conversation with Miss Dufresne, and he had been honest when he said he looked forward to seeing her this evening, but that would be the end of the matter. Once the “Polite World” discovered she was up and about, his duty to her would be ended.

  If only her blue eyes were not so lustrous and her laugh so enticing.… He shook his head. He was no pup like Philip, who was ready to embark upon his first tangle with love. After Elinor had betrayed him, he had forsworn any such webs of sweet deception again. Better it would be for him to concentrate on the true reason he had come to Bath.

  The vegetable stalls near the bridge were almost deserted, so Hamilton was able to spot his man immediately. Mallory, if he recalled the name correctly, looked as out of place among the few shoppers as a saddle on a sow. The man, who was bulky and cut off like a weathered stump, did not pause to look at any of the offered wares. Nor did he seek shelter under the roof of one of the stalls from the increasing rain. He stood, as resolute as a street lamp, and stared at the people passing him.

  His eyes became dark slits in his full face as Hamilton walked toward him. In lieu of a greeting, Mallory simply nodded. Hamilton motioned toward the street. They would attract less notice if they walked through the surprisingly chilly rain while they talked.

  “Arrived on the Mail yesterday,” Mallory said with an accent that labelled his birthplace as the heart of London. “I know what ye want me to be doin’, milord.”

  “You are familiar with what has been unearthed so far?”

  He spat into the street and snorted. “Nothin’ worthwhile. Can’t find a man when all ye do is ask about. Should have sent fer me months ago. Now it’ll be harder to find yer man.”

  “Townsend recommends you highly.”

  “I be one of ’is best.” Mallory hooked his thumbs into the lapels of his wet coat that strained across his full belly. “Not a thief whom I can’t take, milord.”

  Hamilton ignored the round man’s boasting. Whether it was true or not mattered little to him. Townsend’s Bow Street Runners had an excellent reputation for finding their prey, especially as thief-takers. The last man Hamilton had hired had proven to be a miserable failure. Mallory could be no worse, and there was a chance he might do better, even though the trail had grown cold in Bath.

  “I shall expect regular reports on your progress,” he said coolly.

  “Ye’re paying, milord. What ye wants I’ll get ye.”

  “I will let you know where we can meet. Understandably, it would not do for you to appear on the doorstep of my house.”

  “Understandably.” He rubbed his fingers against his unshaven jaw. “As fer an ’ouse, milord …”

  Hamilton withdrew a handful of coins and dropped them in the man’s palm which was lined with dirt. “This should be enough for you to hire a suitable lodging. Send me an address where I can reach you.”

  “Aye, milord.”

  The man appeared to be waiting for Hamilton to add more, but he had nothing else to say to the Runner. Mallory’s smile faded when Hamilton remained silent, and the shorter man edged away. Hamilton brushed past him to find a hired carriage to take him back to Queen Square. He did not look back.

  Mrs. Ehrlich flowed into the room, clicking her tongue at the bedraggled state of her least daughter. With her blond hair, that was laced liberally with silver, half-hidden beneath a frilled mob cap and an elegant gown of white cambric, which displayed her still superb figure, she always delighted in making a grand entrance, no matter how small the audience.

  “Annis, look at you! As drenched and bedraggled as yesterday’s newspaper.”

  “Mama!” She ran forward to take her mother’s hands. “I have had the most wondrous afternoon.”

  Mrs. Ehrlich looked past her, still frowning. “And, Nerissa, you are as wet! Have you misplaced every lick of common sense? You both should be soaking in warm tubs before you catch your deaths of cold.”

  “Mama!” Annis refused to be ignored. “I met a charming man while we were about on our errands.”

  “How nice for you, my dear. Do bid Nerissa a good afternoon so you can get freshened up before Mr. Oakley calls upon your sister.”

  “He asked if I would like to join him for a soirée this evening.”

  Nerissa hid her smile when Mrs. Ehrlich opened her mouth to give her daughter another order, then slowly closed it, surprise widening her blue eyes. The startled woman gasped, “You met a man and let him offer you an invitation? Just like that?”

  “Mama, Nerissa introduced us.”

  Mrs. Ehrlich’s smile returned, but it was calculating. Nerissa could almost hear the thoughts in Mrs. Ehrlich’s head. With Annis’s oldest sister married satisfactorily and Janelle soon to be if Mr. Oakley proposed as they expected, a chance meeting could prove a boon to a mother who had anticipated difficulty in finding a man to buckle himself to her youngest, most stubborn daughter.

  “How sweet of you, Nerissa,” she cooed, all dismay gone from her voice. “You are so kind to do this for Annis when you are in the market for a beau yourself.”

  “Mama!” Exasperation spilled from every pore of Annis’s indignant body. She flashed Nerissa an apologetic smile. Nerissa wanted to tell her not to worry. By this time, she was accustomed to Mrs. Ehrlich’s single-minded pursuit of
a husband for each of her daughters. Nothing else—not even friendships—must be allowed to stand in the way of finding suitable matches for her daughters.

  “Hush, Annis,” her mother said. “Calm yourself and then tell me about this lucky encounter.”

  “We were at Mrs. Peach’s shop when Mr. Windham—”

  “Windham?” Her smile became a furious frown. “Where was your head, Annis? Do you think I would let you be seen in his company?”

  “Not Lord Windham, Mama. His brother.” She sighed and closed her eyes, joy burning brightly on her face. “He is a gentleman, Mama, even forgiving me for my unthinking words about the viscount.”

  “Which are undoubtedly true.”

  “Which are no more than poker-talk,” Nerissa said quietly. She did not look away when Mrs. Ehrlich affixed her with one of her infamous glowers. Lord Windham had done nothing for her to cause her to disparage him or listen to his name ridiculed.

  “This was your idea, I take it.” Mrs. Ehrlich’s indignity burned in her eyes.

  “As Annis said, we met Mr. Windham at Mrs. Peach’s shop.” She saw no reason to complicate the conversation by adding that the viscount had been present as well. “He spoke with us and was most taken with Annis. You can be sure Annis did nothing to cause you alarm.”

  “Except considering this untoward invitation—”

  “Mama, Mr. Windham simply asked—”

  “—which, of course, you cannot accept until Mr. Windham has presented himself to me for my approval.” The devious expression returned to her face. “That should prove most interesting.”

  Annis turned to Nerissa, but Nerissa had no idea what to say. Mrs. Ehrlich would not change her mind on this, for she was determined that each of her daughters would marry a man of first respectability. Leaving Mrs. Ehrlich to contemplate that meeting, Nerissa went to the door with her friend.

  “Shall I inform Mr. Windham of your regrets?” she asked, wishing she could find a way to convince Annis not to drop down on herself. So seldom did she see her friend melancholy, she was unsure how to cheer her.