A Christmas Charade (2 page)

After an early but substantial luncheon at the King’s Head in Rotherfield they continued with a hired team that might not be as good as the duke’s own but was by no means made up of laggards. By afternoon, they had penetrated the elevations of the South Downs and were bowling through the village of West Dean—five miles north of Stenton Castle as the crow flies, but twice the distance by road.

For the first time since he had agreed to reopen the castle, Clive felt a stirring of curiosity and excitement. Stenton, on the promontory of Beachy Head, had since medieval times been the Rowlands’ main seat, yet he had never seen it. What he knew of the castle’s history, he had learned from his uncle, Lord Decimus Rowland; for Clive’s father, the fourth duke, had spoken of Stenton as little as possible.

Clive flicked the whip over the leaders’ ears. “Less than an hour, Nick, and we’ll be there.”

Lord Nicholas, a sporting gentleman, cast his eye over the deep ruts, the sharp curves and steadily increasing steepness of the road. He also took into consideration that his friend had never before traveled to Stenton.

“An hour,” he said. “I’ll wager a monkey you won’t do it in under an hour.”

“Done.”

Nicholas pulled a watch from the pocket of his waistcoat. “It lacks ten minutes till three o’clock. Good luck, old boy.”

For almost a mile they drove in silence. Despite a sudden rush of impatience, Clive had no intention of pressing the horses and settled them at a pace he could easily control even on this abominable road that, from the looks of it, hadn’t seen repairs since his father abandoned Stenton forty-one years ago.

He cast Nicholas a sidelong look. “Think I don’t know you’ve been burning to ask questions about this Christmas gathering at the castle? Might as well come out with them, since I don’t plan to spend the rest of the trip in silence.”

“Hmm,” Nicholas said lazily. “I
could
say I didn’t want to distract you, but I know that won’t go over.”

“No, it won’t. The man—or woman for that matter—who can make me drop the reins or do something equally foolish has yet to be born.”

Digging his chin into the fur collar of his driving coat, Nicholas stretched his legs as much as was possible in the curricle. “Truth is, old boy, you closed up like an oyster when I asked a question or two in London. I got the notion I was sticking my nose into matters that don’t concern me.”

“I apologize. I did not mean to snub you.” Clive negotiated a hairpin turn around a rare stand of trees, then settled back against the squabs. “Unfortunately, I did not get word until this morning that it’s all right to take you into my confidence.”

“You sound like a dashed government official.”

“Not an
official
, Nick.” Clive gave the fur cap a nudge that put it at a rakish angle on his dark hair. “A government
secret agent
.”

The news would have startled anyone but Lord Nicholas, who was well known for his unflappable calm and his indolence.

“Suspected as much,” Nicholas said. “Matter of fact, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn you’ve been an agent for the past ten years.”

“The deuce!” Clive gave a bark of laughter. “Damn it, Nick, you have a nasty habit of taking the fun out of every bit of news I want to spring on you.”

“Gammon! May say I wouldn’t be surprised, but—Dash it, Clive!” Betraying a more than perfunctory interest by the removal of his chin from the warmth of the collar, Nicholas looked straight at Clive. “You admit it, then?”

“Yes, I admit it. I went to Whitehall after Rosalind’s death. Volunteered my services. Of course, what I really wanted was a commission, but, as my father pointed out, Harry was already in the army.”

“Aye. Was in Holland at the time, wasn’t he? Then came home on furlough and got buckled. And lost no time putting Lady Harry in the family way.”

Clive nodded, but absently. His mind was on the six brief months of his own marriage. Rosalind had contracted the smallpox—the dickens knew how or where! And two days before his twenty-fifth birthday, he had been a widower. With a slight shock, Clive realized that in January it would be eleven years since Rosalind’s death. No wonder his memories of her were blurred.

But, eleven years or not, he remembered the pain, the rage when she died, the desire to destroy something—someone. He had targeted those violent emotions on France, on the upstart Napoléon Bonaparte, whose armies had overrun Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy. When he approached his father, however, the fourth duke had blanched and begged him in an unsteady voice to reconsider.

The duke was a strong, powerful man who usually looked and acted as though he were fifty years old rather than seventy. His distress had brought Clive to his senses. He had remembered that he, his younger brother Harry, and their sister Fanny were the fourth duke’s second family. The only close family. Clive’s mother, the duke’s second wife, died in childbirth when Clive was eleven, Harry seven, and Fanny barely two years old. It was inconceivable that the duke, at age seventy, could remarry and start a third family should both his sons be killed in the war against France.

Quietly, Clive had given up his dream of joining the army and vanquishing Bonaparte. Then Harry had married Margaret Standish, and before he returned to his regiment the news was out that Lady Harry was
enceinte
. Clive did not doubt that his brother had sired a son—an heir, should something happen to both Clive and Harry.

Without telling his father, Clive went to the Secretary for War and volunteered his services. For six years he led a dangerous double life that, until Margaret’s confinement, cost him a pang of conscience each time he faced his father. He was Clive Rowland, Marquis Sandown, the son and heir of the Duke of Stenton; and he was the daring spy, using a number of different names to travel in France, Italy, and the Netherlands. Only during the brief Peace of Amiens did he visit Paris as the Marquis Sandown.

Clive was at home when the news arrived at Stenton House in Grosvenor Square that Harry was killed in a battle near Maida in Italy, but there was nothing he could do to soften the blow for his father. The fourth duke was seventy-six years old. He suffered a stroke from which he did not recover, and on the thirteenth of August, 1806, Clive was the Fifth duke of Stenton.

Nicholas, as though he had followed Clive’s thoughts, said, “I wager those cloth-heads in Whitehall made you resign when Harry and your father died.”

“They did, even though I pointed out that Harry left a son.”

“And a daughter,” Nicholas said wryly. “Had the pleasure of meeting them both. Twins. That must have been a surprise.”

“It was, although Margaret says it shouldn’t have been. Apparently, they’ve had twins in the family for generations.”

“Nothing has changed since Harry and your father died,” Nicholas pointed out. “
You
haven’t married and filled your nursery. So why the sudden change of mind at the War Office?”

“This past year, several important documents were lost or went astray at the Horse Guards.”

“The Horse Guards,” Nick repeated softly. “That’s where Wellington’s dispatches come in, don’t they?”

“Precisely. And Yorke of the Admiralty reported similar problems. Secret memoranda apparently lost for a day or so, then recovered in some file when they had no business being filed at all.”

“And the war’s been going badly for us.” Nicholas’s blond brows knitted. “A traitor … damn his guts! It fair makes my blood boil.”

Clive briefly took his eyes off the road. “I didn’t think there was anything at all that could ruffle your calm.”

“Well, you’re wrong. Got strong feelings about a lot of things. Just don’t show it. But how do you figure in that mess?”

Noting a stretch of fairly straight road ahead, Clive flicked the reins. “There are reports of a smugglers’ nest on the Sussex coast, where not only contraband is landed but also French agents. It is feared that copies of our most secret documents leave the country from—”

“Don’t tell me,” drawled Nicholas, reverting to his habitual languor. “This smugglers’ nest is at Stenton.”

“Unfortunately. Or, perhaps, I should say fortunately, since it was what rescued me from a life of boredom.”

“Yes, I see now why you’d leave town during the uproar about the Regency Bill. ’Twas what puzzled me the most about this whole business. What with the Whigs already celebrating their victory and all.”

“Let’s hope there won’t be a regency. The latest word from Windsor was that the king is getting better.”

Nicholas grimaced, whether at Clive’s optimism or because the wheels had hit a rut was impossible to tell. “King’s been ill since the Golden Jubilee in October. A bad attack. Doesn’t even know Amelia died. His favorite daughter, poor man! Heard he dreams she’s gone to Hanover.”

“Dash it, Nick! The mere thought of a regency, and Prinny’s Whig friends appointed to high posts, is more than flesh and blood can stand.”

“Aye. Let’s talk about your business in Sussex. Are you acting on Liverpool’s orders, then?”

“Yes and no. The War Office certainly has a hand in this scheme, but so does the Admiralty and the Foreign Office.”

“Smoky, if you ask me.” Nicholas cocked a brow. “Or so damned important that for once they put duty before their departmental bickering?”

“It’s important. And so secret that Liverpool, Yorke, and Wellesley did not even brief their aides. And neither would they risk sending me to a deserted castle. Someone might smell a bubble and start asking questions.”

“Dragoons!” said Nicholas. “Lots of ’em on the coast. Why didn’t—”

“Dragoons could clean out the smugglers’ nest, but chances are they’d lose the French agent in the fracas.”

“Aye, and it’s the spy Whitehall is after. He’s the one to point a finger at the traitor. Or traitors. And that’s where you and your castle come in. But why the house party?”

Clive slowed the horses as he caught his first glimpse of Stenton Castle in the distance. High walls concealing most of the main structure, four crenellated round towers … nothing fanciful, yet, somehow, impressive.

“Clive?”

“Ah, yes. The Christmas gathering. It’s my cover, Nick. If I had gone to Stenton on my own with nothing to do but patrol the beach, the smugglers might have smelled a rat and refused to land such a dangerous cargo as a spy. We’d have to waste time looking for the spy’s new landing place.”

“Quite. But I cannot help thinking that a houseful of guests will be a nuisance.”

“On the contrary. I have chosen my guests with care. They’ll be involved in solving their own problems, or feuding with each other. There won’t be any interference or unpleasant surprises—like one of them deciding to hang on to my sleeve.”

“That’s all very well, but your duties as host …”

Clive removed his gaze from the gatehouse and the open gate, which were now clearly discernible. He chuckled. “That, my friend, is where you come in. You’ll substitute for me when the occasion demands.”

Nicholas sat bolt upright. “The devil you say! You don’t think I’ll be left behind while you go after smugglers and spies!”

“
What?
” Clive did not drop the reins or even slacken his grip, but he did not check his voice. “Dammit, Nick! This is not the time to try one of your jests on me.”

“No jest. Want to have an adventure. And if that surprises you, it shouldn’t. Remember how we used to chase pirates and smugglers on the pond at Belfort?”

Clive stared at the friend whose sudden hankering for an adventure threatened to overset his carefully laid plans.

“That was when we were boys. Cut line, Nick! I know you’re having me on. First thing you said when I asked you down to Stenton was that you don’t like the coast. You don’t like the water, the damp, the sand, the cliffs, the wind, or anything about the coast. I had to beg you to accompany me. And now you want to catch a French agent? Doing it much too brown, old boy. You don’t catch a spy while drinking punch by the fireside.”

Nick’s cheerfulness had faded during the recital of discomforts that must be expected outside the snug castle walls, but he said obstinately, “I don’t give a straw. I’ll survive a night or two on the beach while we wait for the spy to land. Besides, main reason I didn’t want to leave town had nothing to do with sand or water.”

Clive cocked a knowing brow. “A new charmer?”

“Thought so, but in the end she preferred Sylvester Throckmorton. So you needn’t think I’m pining to go back to town. And now, tell me who else will be gracing your Christmas party.”

Knowing full well that Nick’s indolence was surpassed only by his mulishness, Clive resigned himself to his fate. With a certain amount of relish, he informed his friend to definitely expect Lord Decimus Rowland, his uncle, whom Nick considered the greatest bore on earth. But Nicholas only nodded absently, his mind obviously on the spy he planned to catch.

Nettled by this lack of response—although that was just what he should have expected—Clive guided his team through the castle gate. “Check your watch, old boy. I think you owe me a monkey.”

“Hmm.” Nicholas cast a look at his timepiece. “Made it with ten minutes to spare,” he confirmed, still with that air of absentmindedness about him. “Who else is coming?”

Clive’s thoughts as he named the rest of the party were glum. He was damnably out of practice as a government agent, else he wouldn’t have slipped up so badly when he chose Nick as his substitute host. But who would have thought his indolent friend hankered after an adventure? He could only hope none of the other guests had a surprise in store for him.

The duke’s sister and her husband arrived at Stenton the following afternoon. They had left their snug manor house near Chilham, Kent, at the crack of dawn to reach the Sussex coast before the early winter dusk would obscure Lady Fanny’s first view of the castle.

Lady Fanny, dark-haired and gray-eyed like many of the Rowlands, was as vivacious as her spouse was quiet. She could not and would not hide her excitement at the prospect of spending the Christmas holidays at the place that might have been her childhood home.

“Just look at this, George!” she cried, stepping into the Great Hall, a vast chamber two stories high and topped by a domed roof, which, in the early eighteenth century, had been embellished with stained-glass panels. “It’s even grander than Uncle Decimus described it.” Lord Wilmott gave her a fond look. “Yes, my love. It is something quite out of the ordinary.”