Page 18 of Lady Isla and the Lord of Rogue (Merry Spinsters, Charming Rogues #6)

Chapter Eleven

Isla found Algie in his study, in his leather chair in front of the fire, as always, peeling oranges as he went through the dispatches of the day.

He looked up and, at a glance, saw that something was the matter. He set the orange aside.

“So, the fellow you met at the Angel wasn’t who you expected him to be,” he concluded.

Isla stumbled. Trust Algie to always startle her in the most unexpected moments.

She furrowed her brow. “How did you know I went to the Angel Inn?” She’d taken such care not to use any of Algie’s carriages, none of his retainers had accompanied them, and she’d not breathed a word to Algie about her exploits.

“My dear.” He folded his hands over his stomach and looked at her in a self-satisfied way. “You should know by now that I know everything.”

“Yes. But, how? Which of your spies did you send after me this time? Or wasn’t that necessary? Wait.” She placed a finger on her nose as she thought. “You have informers at the inn.” Only one other person had been there with her and Teddy. Her eyes widened. “The innkeeper? That scoundrel!”

Algie chuckled. “I shan’t reveal that. But rest assured, I have my sources.

Why do you think I allow you to scamper off into the most scandalous areas of London?

Because I know you are safely surrounded by my men.

Of course, my informers always keep you, and that Linwood fellow, within their sights. ”

Isla settled on the ground beside his armchair and felt foolish. Of course. She should have known that. She’d always thought her brother’s lack of concern to be a tad unnatural every time she’d scampered off into the rookery. He had no reason to worry since he’d had her shadowed by his men.

“You won’t have to do that anymore. Your informers will find themselves twiddling their thumbs in the future. I have decided not to visit the rookery anymore.” She paused before continuing. “Not even for charity purposes.”

She would never set foot in St Giles, or the Angel, or any of those places ever again.

Algie looked at her, and a glimmer of sympathy flickered through his watery, pale blue eyes. “That bad?”

She felt a lump rise in her throat, and she swallowed bravely before retorting. “I am merely disappointed, that is all.”

“Tell me about it.”

She did.

Algie frowned. “That is a shame. But I suppose it was inevitable. Life has hardened him. And as you know better than most, life among the Rom is never easy. I do sympathise with their plight, truly. But as you also know, there is little appetite in the House of Lords for more lenient legislation. Society’s prejudice against the Romani runs far too deep. The time simply hasn’t come.”

Isla agreed with a sigh.

“If you consider what he must have gone through, everything which he hasn’t told you, it is understandable that he would no longer be the same person. He is no longer the Jem you remember. That boy is long gone.”

Isla lowered her head, for he’d spoken the truth. “It was important for me to see him, even if realising that he was not the boy I had enshrined in my memory all these years. It was that glorification of a memory that kept me going.” Her shoulders slumped. “How very silly of me.”

“Maybe not.” He patted her hands. “You’d make an excellent agent for my office, with your ability to find people.” He proceeded to stuff his pipe.

Isla looked at him, her eyes growing into big, round saucers, as something else dawned on her. “Algie. Never say. Never say you knew that I met—Lucian Night.”

The expression on his face spoke volumes.

“Of course I knew,” he said, as he lit his pipe.

Isla fell back on her heels, stunned. “But I don’t understand. You said you had a devil of a time finding Night. And there I was, finding him without any problems.”

“I never said I couldn’t find him. I said it was difficult to arrest him. There is a difference.” He stuck the pipe into a corner of his mouth.

Isla digested that.

“Besides, it isn’t entirely disadvantageous for him to still be free and to attract the attention of the Mudlark Skulls, who are currently wreaking havoc on the Thames, and are thereby in direct conflict with Night, for they have encroached on his territory.

We can catch two flies with one swat if we play them out against each other. ”

The butler arrived with more dispatches, and that was the sign for Isla to remove herself. She got up from the floor, shook out her skirts and said, “I’ll leave you to your work.”