The Reluctant Reformer by Lynsay Sands Page A

released from service right away.”
    Robert nodded. Just because Gerald had died did not mean the whole unit was released; they had continued to fight old Boney until just a month ago.
    â€œWell, by the time I returned, Wentworth’s estate had been settled. The title and castle are going to some cousin or other who went off to make his way in America. At the time of my return they had not yet found the fellow, though they probably have by now. At anyrate, while the estate’s solicitors could tell me that much, no one seemed able, or at least willing, to give me Gerald’s sister’s whereabouts since leaving Clarendon—the seat of the Wentworth title—or in aiding me to find her. I had to hire a Bow Street runner named Johnstone to locate the girl.”
    â€œAnd you found her at Dubarry’s?” Robert interrupted in outrage. “My God, lawyers are such cold-hearted bastards! To dump the woman out on the road without a second thought, leaving her to take up—”
    â€œNay,” James interjected before Lord Mullin got too carried away. “Johnstone, the Bow Street runner I hired, did not find her at Dubarry’s. Well, not at first.” He heaved a sigh and shifted in his seat. “He found her at Gerald’s town house in London. It seems that while he could not leave her the title and castle, he could and did leave her his personal property: his town house, a few small investments, his servants.” James shifted again and took another drink. It gave Robert the opportunity to speak.
    â€œBut if she has the town house in London and money, why take up—”
    â€œGreed, I suppose,” James answered, staring into the swirling liquid in his glass with a morose expression. “Gerald’s investments weren’t enough to run the household for any length of time without the funds that are now going to Margaret’s cousin. Had she sold the town house and purchased a small cottage in the country, then invested the money left over from the sale, she most likely would have been fine. But it seems such…rural living is not to her taste. Or at least that is what I must presume from the choices she has made. She settled in the London town house and, apparently, set towork at Madame Dubarry’s to supplement her income.”
    â€œGood Lord,” Robert murmured with consternation. “Who would have believed it of Gerald’s sister? He always made her sound so sweet and naive.”
    â€œYes, well, I could hardly believe it when Johnstone came to me with the news.”
    Robert’s eyebrows rose slightly. “How did he find out?”
    James shrugged. “He found her at the same time he learned the contents of the will. Which should have been the end of his investigation, I suppose, but it did not go unnoticed by me that financially she should be in a bad way and yet she had retained all the servants. I was…curious as to how she was managing, so I asked Johnstone to look into the matter.”
    â€œAnd he discovered she was Lady X,” Lord Mullin finished.
    â€œAye.” James took another drink. “I hadn’t heard from him for a week or so; then he came to me the other night and announced, rather proudly, that he had sorted it all out. He’d had a man watching her, but the fellow hadn’t come up with anything. Suspecting his comrade was slacking on the job, he had watched her himself and followed her to Dubarry’s. I am ashamed to admit it was already his supposition that Margaret is Lady X, though he had no proof of it. Of course, the only way to find out if it was true was to unmask Lady X.”
    Robert stiffened. “You didn’t! ”
    â€œWhat? Sample her favors and unmask her that way?” James asked sardonically, then shook his head. “Nay. I arranged a…er…meeting. But I never intended to sample anything, just to get her out of there and unmaskher. Which I did. We