Duke with Benefits

by Manda Collins

  Her next words only confirmed his assumption. “That is impossible. There is no Cameron Cipher. It is just a myth.”

  Poor Daphne. She didn’t have a dissembling bone in her body. And it was evident that whatever she thought about the Cameron Cipher, it wasn’t that there was no validity to Foster’s claim. Rather the opposite. Though she was trying in her way to convince him otherwise.

  “You weren’t so skeptical when we first heard the legend, Daphne,” said Sommersby with a grin. “You were the first one to get out the map and trace the likely route Cameron took on the way to Dover with the chest of gold in tow.”

  Before Daphne could retort, Miss Sophia Hastings broke in. “But what is this Cameron Cipher? I must confess I’ve never heard of it. I am woefully ignorant about such things.”

  “I’m sure that’s not true, Miss Sophia,” Foster assured her. “The Cameron Cipher is a coded message that holds the secret of where the leader of clan Cameron hid the Jacobite gold meant for the Pretender in ’forty-five. He was on the way to France to deliver the gold when his party was set upon by the English army, and he took safety somewhere along the coast. He hid the gold nearby and trusted the coded message telling where it was hidden with someone hereabouts. Or, as the alternate theory goes, hid it somewhere nearby where it was subsequently found, but proved too difficult to decrypt. A letter was found among the papers of Cameron’s wife that said it was somewhere safe, but it was no more specific than that. And thus, a legend was born.”

  “That’s right,” Maitland spoke up as the memories flooded back to him. “Don’t you remember we used to search for it in the caves when we were boys, Kerr?” He and his cousin had spent countless summers hunting for the cipher without success. “I haven’t thought about it in years.”

  “Nor I,” the marquess said with a grin. “Those were fun days.”

  “Why wasn’t I included in these searches?” Serena asked crossly. “I should have enjoyed treasure hunting.”

  “Because you were a girl, Serena,” Kerr said with a roll of his eyes. “It was just us lads.”

  “I want to hunt for treasure,” young Jem piped up from beside his mother. “Will you take me, cousins?”

  But Daphne it seemed, was still determined to dissuade the men from their quest. Over the sound of Quill assuring Jem that they would indeed go search the caves for treasure soon, she spoke up. “I am sorry you both came all this way for nothing. But it is highly improbable that the cipher exists in any of the libraries hereabouts.”

  “I had heard that the library at Beauchamp House is quite impressive,” Sommersby said with what to Maitland’s eye looked like calculation. “You wouldn’t care to allow us to examine it, would you, Kerr? Just for our own amusement if nothing else. You are no doubt right about the cipher not being there.”

  “You’ll need to ask all four of these ladies,” Lord Kerr said amiably. “My wife, Lady Daphne, and the Misses Hastings inherited Beauchamp House from our aunt. But you likely know that already.”

  “Indeed, I do,” Sommersby said with a grin, making no attempt to hide the fact that he’d just dissembled. “It was the talk of town for weeks. The four bluestocking heiresses of Beauchamp House. Congratulations to all of you.”

  “I’m afraid it will be quite impossible for us to allow you to search the library,” Daphne said before any of the others could speak up. “We are all quite busy with our respective studies. I’m sure you understand.”

  A hard expression flitted across Sommersby’s face before he masked it with one of affability. “We understand perfectly, of course. Perhaps one evening after you’ve finished your studies for the day, then?”

  Something about this fellow was putting Maitland’s back up. And it wasn’t his ingratiating manner with Daphne. At least, that wasn’t all of it. Aloud he said, “Perhaps you both can come by tomorrow evening for dinner, gentlemen? I, for one, would enjoy hearing about your travels. And I know Kerr will wish to question you about them.”

  At his words, Daphne gave him a glare. But the duke wanted to know more about Sommersby, which he would prefer to do when the man was on familiar territory. Besides, he was curious about the man’s relationship with Daphne. And he could hardly seek him out at the local inn and demand to know what he’d done to make her distrust him so.

  Of course, he could just ask Daphne outright, but they weren’t exactly on the easiest of terms at the moment. He thought back to that moment in his aunt’s bedchamber with a pang of regret. He couldn’t have handled it worse if he’d tried.

  “Capital,” said Sommersby, his triumphant grin, showing he was unaware of the direction of Maitland’s thoughts. “We’ll see you all tomorrow then.”

  And after making their farewells, the two continued on their journey to the beach.

  “Why were you so rude to him, Daphne?” Sophia asked with a frown as they began walking again. “He seemed quite friendly. And I should think you of all people would be intrigued by this Cameron Cipher. You’re just the person to unravel its code, I’d think.”

  Daphne looked as if she would simply refuse to respond for a moment, but finally she said with a sigh, “Because I do not wish him to find the Cameron Cipher.”

  “That much was obvious, I think,” Gemma said wryly.

  “But why, Daphne?” Ivy asked, her expression concerned but not angrily so.

  Maitland watched as Daphne blinked several times. Were those tears? His own chest constricted at the very idea.

  “Because it’s mine,” she whispered. “Lady Celeste promised the Cameron Cipher to me.”

  Chapter 2

  Daphne felt the ribbon of her hat brush against her cheek in the wind as she listened to the others’ silence following her announcement.

  All were silent but Jem, that is.

  “What a Cam’rn Sife, Mama?” he whispered loudly from where he skipped along the path to Little Seaford beside Lady Serena.

  “Hush, Jem,” she said in an undertone. “Why don’t you see how fast you can run to that dandelion up ahead?”

  With a squeak of delight, the boy lifted his legs and ran ahead of them.

  “When were you going to tell us this?” Ivy asked, once the child was out of earshot. “We’ve been here for three months, and this is the first I’ve heard of this cipher.”

  “Is that what you’ve been searching for in the library every day?” Sophia asked, her head tilted in exasperation. “You told us you were especially interested in the mathematics volumes, but I knew you had been through the art books, too.”

  “Well, I don’t blame you a bit,” Gemma said firmly. “I know very well how difficult it is to maintain your credibility in the sciences as a woman. If it got out you were treasure hunting, your academic reputation could be ruined. Unless, of course you were keeping this quiet because you didn’t wish to share your gold with us, in which case, I am quite put out.”

  But it was obvious from Gemma’s grin that she was nothing of the sort.

  “Perhaps you would like for Maitland and me to leave you ladies to discuss this on your own,” said Ivy’s husband with a speaking look at Maitland. The duke, Daphne was relieved to see, looked only concerned for her, which she couldn’t quite fathom after how she’d been treating him.

  “No,” she said with a wave of her hand, not meeting any of their gazes—not that she was particularly fond of eye contact at the best of times. “You should stay, since Ivy will tell you whatever I say anyway. And then you’ll tell Maitland, who’ll tell his sister.”

  Since none of the named gossips denied the accusation, she took that for their agreement with her assessment.

  “Perhaps we should wait until we reach town and can safely sit down to a nice cup of tea in a private dining room at the inn?” she asked. It was illogical, she knew, but she feared Sommersby might somehow overhear them out here in the open.

  “If that’s what you wish,” Maitland said, taking her arm in his and leading her past the others and toward the village,
which they could now see as their party approached.

  A more subdued group, they made the short trek into the village and had little trouble procuring a dining room at the Pig & Whistle. Serena, aware that what Daphne would say was perhaps not something Jem should overhear, made an excuse and took him back to Beauchamp House.

  Once they were seated around a large table, full teacups before the ladies, pints of beer for the gentlemen, and two plates of sandwiches and an assortment of cheese and fruit for all of them, Daphne began her story.

  “There isn’t all that much to tell,” she said staring into her teacup. “Like the three of you, I received a letter informing me that I’d inherited a quarter of Lady Celeste’s estate, and telling me that per the terms of the will I needed to remove to Beauchamp House at once and remain there for a year or I’d forfeit my share.”

  The other ladies nodded. This was information they’d exchanged before.

  “But I also received a letter from Lady Celeste herself, which I didn’t tell you about.”

  The fact that only the gentlemen expressed surprise at this news told Daphne that they had also received personal letters from their benefactor.

  “What did it say?” Maitland asked. He’d refrained from peppering her with questions on the way to the inn, as would have been his usual wont. But now that they were enclosed and away from prying eyes and ears, he seemed more relaxed. At least his posture seemed so to Daphne. She wasn’t very good at reading his expressions.

  Quickly, she told them about the line of the letter that was pertinent to the discussion at hand. They didn’t need to know the other parts of the letter, where Lady Celeste talked about how lonely she had guessed Daphne must be, and hoped that she could find friends among the other bluestockings at Beauchamp House. That was personal. And for once, Daphne stopped herself from blurting out exactly what she was thinking. “So,” she concluded, “I knew she was telling me that the Cameron Cipher was somewhere at Beauchamp House. And since she mentioned the library several times in the letter, I guessed that it was probably hidden there. It’s taken me longer than I thought it would however, because I keep getting distracted by the other treasures there.”

  “All those summers of searching for the blasted thing and it was in the library all along,” Kerr said with a shake of his dark head. “Aunt must have known what we were up to but she never said a thing.”

  “She would hardly have put the things into the hands of a couple of grubby schoolboys,” Maitland said with a shrug. “And it was the chase that was fun. I sincerely doubt either of us would have been able to decipher a code like that. Try though we would have done.”

  “It’s possible that she didn’t find it herself until later on,” Ivy said reasonably as she peeled an orange. “Or perhaps she acquired it from someone else and then secreted it in the library herself.”

  “She did spend a great deal of time in the library,” Kerr said thoughtfully. “I always thought she was reading or writing letters or whatnot. But since I had an active boy’s loathing for staying indoors, I never joined her there if I could help it.”

  “Nor did I,” the duke agreed. “She might have been trying to solve the puzzle herself for all we know. Though I suppose she wouldn’t have told Daphne about it if she had done so.”

  Daphne gave a nod of thanks to Gemma, who had just poured her another cup of tea. “She gave no indication one way or the other in her letter. Though my guess is that she was unable to unravel the cipher because if she had done so, she would likely have told someone about it. She knew as well as anyone how much of a coup being the woman who solved one of the greatest puzzles in a generation would be. Woman being the operative word. As someone who valued women’s contributions to scholarship and the arts, she’d have found a way to use the accomplishment as a means to further the cause.”

  * * *

  “That is my thinking as well,” Sophia said, her dark brown hair showing chestnut highlights in the light from the window. “I knew who Lady Celeste Beauchamp was long before I received my own notification that I was one of her heirs. And it was always in reference to some way she was celebrating the accomplishments of other women. Perhaps I misinterpreted her actions, but despite her own modesty, I think she’d have felt duty bound to report her feat if it meant shining a light on just what sort of things women were capable of.”

  “So, she chose to leave it to the one person she knew would be able to solve it,” Ivy said with a nod in Daphne’s direction. “The winner of the Ladies Gazette editor’s prize.”

  Two years ago, the editor of a prominent ladies’ magazine had printed a series of ciphers in its pages, promising a free year’s subscription to the person who could solve them. Though not a reader of the publication, Daphne had been unable to resist the opportunity to use her ciphering skills to unravel the puzzles. She’d always been fascinated by codes and secret messages and had studied some of the more famous ones with her tutor. She’d quickly dispatched her solutions to the editor and had won the contest handily. According to her letter, Lady Celeste had taken note. And so she had chosen Daphne to inherit the Cameron Cipher.

  “So.” Kerr sat his now empty pint glass on the table. “If we’re agreed she didn’t solve the thing herself, why didn’t she just tell Daphne in her letter where to find it so that she could decipher it? Why go to the trouble of hiding it again?”

  “I think I know,” Daphne said, grateful that none of them seemed angry with her for keeping her own counsel on the matter up to now.

  Because there was something else Daphne was keeping from her friends. There had been another note waiting for her once she reached Beauchamp House. And its contents she would keep to herself. Not only because its contents were somewhat personal. But also because they pertained to another member of their party.

  In full, the second note had read:

  My dear Lady Daphne,

  I cannot tell you how pleased I am to welcome you to Beauchamp House. I have long admired your intellect, and mathematical genius, as well as your facility with solving equations of other sorts, like the ciphering contest in THE LADIES GAZETTE. What joy it gave me to see an intelligent young woman do that which scores of men could not, by solving their nonsensical coded phrases. I knew I had to include you amongst my Bluestockings in that moment. And I hope you will sharpen your ciphering skills for a much more difficult task now that you’re here.

  You will find Romance—and enough intrigue—to Riddle with envy even the most unschooled of ladies among the Treasure of my collections. And as you peruse them, I hope that you will accept the assistance of my dear nephew, Maitland.

  His father, my sister’s husband, was a devilish creature and I am happy to say that not one drop of the scandal attached to his father’s reputation has splashed onto dear Dalton. His happy disposition might make you question his intellect, my dear, but do not be fooled. He is quite as clever in his way as any man. (Though not, of course, as clever as you—but who among us is, dear Daphne?)

  I hope you will do your benefactress the favor of allowing him to provide any assistance you might need as you begin to plumb the depths of mystery to be found within the many wonderful shelves of my library.

  You see, I think as much as adventure, you need a friend. I’ve seen too many brilliant minds brought low by the more emotional toll of loneliness. And if nothing else, I think dear Dalton’s sunny humor can give you a bit of light.

  I have every faith that you are the special one I’ve hoped for. And I know you will dazzle the world when your quest is complete.

  Yours in intellect,

  Lady Celeste Beauchamp

  Now, feeling a pang of conscience over her deception, she tried to explain the contents of the note without actually disclosing its existence. “I believe all that Lady Celeste wished was to make an adventure of it. A sort of real-life puzzle, as it were, to lead me to the cipher. She told me as much in her letter.”

  That the lady had also wished for her to let the
Duke of Maitland be her assistant in the matter was something that they didn’t need to know. Besides, after her indecent proposal, and his perfectly respectable one, she considered that she’d done a creditable job of attempting to let Merry Maitland ease her loneliness. Perhaps they were even friends now. Whatever the case, it was not a matter for the ears of the whole of Beauchamp House.

  “There is a certain logic to it,” Gemma said with a nod. “A puzzle that leads to a puzzle.”

  “And Aunt Celeste was fond of mazes, riddles, and all sorts of games,” Maitland said with a grin. He turned to Daphne. “You rather remind me of her in that way.”

  “I can see that,” Kerr said with a tip of his head to his cousin.

  * * *

  “Then why are we waiting?” Gemma demanded with excitement in her eyes. “We need to get back to the house at once and start looking for this cipher!” It was ironic how quickly she’d turned from skeptic to true believer, Daphne thought with an sigh. Which was quickly followed by another as she thought about the consequences of having their entire household pawing through what she’d come to think of as her own territory.

  But, there was no time to waste. Sommersby was here now, and he was going to find a way into the Beauchamp House library whether she liked it or not.

  * * *

  The walk back to the house seemed to pass more quickly than the one into the village.

  Maitland had watched Daphne as she carried on a lively conversation with the other ladies, an unruly blond curl bouncing against the sensitive skin of her neck. He’d never really considered the back of a woman’s head to be particularly enticing before, but he supposed there was a first time for everything.

  To his relief, Kerr left him to his own thoughts and when they filed into the front entrance of Beauchamp House, he managed to separate Daphne from the others without being seen.

  She must have recognized the need for discretion, because she made no protest as he led her by the arm into the small antechamber his aunt had used as a waiting room for unwanted guests.