Page 12 of Only a Duke (Ladies Who Dare #6)

The lady in question snorted, pursing her lips to hold back a smile, no doubt. “He has a point.”

“What if I am no mere servant?” Oliver asked the lad.

The boy glanced at Lady Louisa before looking back at him. “You look like a servant and you dress like a servant. Therefore, you are a servant.”

Lady Louisa chuckled. “Well said, brother.”

“Did you not call me an imposter earlier?” Oliver asked him.

“That was then, this is now.”

Amusement filled him. Even his own right-hand man had remarked that he could dress like a servant but would never deceive anyone into thinking he was one. Apparently, ducal arrogance couldn’t be concealed by livery or even potato sacks. His attention turned back to Leo.

“So then, I am correct in saying that you, little lord, perceive me as a servant?”

The boy nodded.

Oliver smiled then. “Let me ask you this: Do servants look like me?”

The boy started, but then considered him, carefully trailing his gaze over every inch of him. Slowly, he shook his head. “They are not as big.”

“Just my size sets me apart?” What a strange conclusion to draw. He was tall, but so were many other people.

“And you are rather insolent.” The boy pursed his lips. “If you are not a servant, who are you?”

“I am someone your sister brought here to protect her.”

Leo’s eyes widened, and Oliver felt heated blue eyes light upon him.

“Protect my sister?” The boy swiveled to Lady Louisa. “Are you in danger?”

“Of course not!” Her burning look turned into a glare she directed his way before she softened and reassured her brother. “I am not in any danger, Leo.”

“You are not lying to me, are you?”

“No, I...” she started but Oliver cut her off.

“Not imminent danger, but that doesn’t mean there is no danger at all.” Saville, Lady Selena, and Warrick were proof of that, given what had happened back in London. There had been blackmail in abundance, and the two men had even been kidnapped, leaving it up to Lady Selena to rescue them.

“Will you stop!” Lady Louisa hissed at him. “He is just a child!”

Leo stepped forward, fisting his hands at his sides. “Does this have to do with the book you are searching for?”

“Correct,” Oliver said bluntly. “Did you hide it from your sister? Perhaps as a prank?”

“Yes, out with it, Leo!”

Leo wrung his hands together. “They said the book was dangerous. They said if I retrieved it for them then they would make sure it’s danger didn’t touch our family. They also gave me sweets.”

An exclamation of shock left Lady Louisa. “Who are they ?”

Oliver tensed, every muscle coiled as a jolt of foreboding gripped him. He kneeled before the boy when he wouldn’t meet their gaze. “Do you know who those men are?”

The boy shook her head. “There were two of them. They looked terrifying with scars on their faces.”

Louisa joined Oliver, lowering to look him in the eyes. “Where did they approach you?”

“At the bookshop when Miss Hale took me to purchase books,” he answered honestly. Then he hastily burst out, “It wasn’t her fault! She was busy speaking to the shopkeeper about a book we couldn’t find!”

“We are not blaming anyone,” Oliver said steadily, trying to reassure the boy. “We merely want as many details as possible.”

Oliver’s mind raced. Could it be their stepmother’s henchmen?

But according to what he understood about the secret organization, they only hired women, and the men who were involved were limited.

The evidence seemed to indicate that it stretched no farther than their husbands and sons.

However, Lady Ridgeland had kept a hulking man at her side back in London, so he couldn’t completely disregard the possibility.

“Is there anything else you can remember about them?” Lady Louisa asked her brother.

Her brother bit his lip and looked away.

“Leo,” Lady Louisa said softly, “we need to know.”

“They said the book is dangerous. Is that true? Did I make a mistake?”

Oliver felt sorry for the child. None of this was his fault. “No, you are not to blame. You didn’t approach them. But we do need to find the book before it falls into the wrong hands.”

The boy looked at Oliver. “You are our protector?”

“Yes, I am.” And he would be, no matter what.

“Just who are you?” Leo asked with a bit more confidence now that he’d been reassured. “I don’t even know your name.”

“He is a man from Bow Street.” Lady Louisa inserted. “His name is...” She glanced at him, prompting.

“Oliver, and yes, you could say I am from Bow Street.” It wasn’t a lie.

And it was best if they didn’t reveal too much of his identity—too many eyes and ears in this house.

And the boy himself, depending on the influence of his father, might clamp up if he learned the truth.

“I’ve been looking for the book for a while now. ”

“Why? It’s just a bunch of strange entries.”

Oliver nodded. “They are wager entries, but many of them are written in code. It’s evidence that I need to capture a group of bad people.”

The boy’s face suddenly paled. “Do you mean that I gave the book to the criminals you are trying to catch?”

“Not exactly.” Though he could not honestly say. “The people I am looking for are women. You said you gave it to two men who had scars on their faces?”

The boy nodded enthusiastically. “They were big. One had a nasty scar cutting through the left side of his lip. The other man’s scar lined the right side of his jawline.

” Leo traced the pathways of their scars on his own face.

“They both had dark eyes. Almost black. Black hair as well. Brothers, they looked like.”

Oliver’s blood chilled.

“Oh, and the one with the scar on his lip had a very low voice. Almost scratchy. And they didn’t wear fashionable clothes. But they weren’t commoner clothes either. They wore everything in black. And decent boots. Polished.”

His blood turned even colder. “I see.”

“Do you know these men?” Lady Louisa asked.

“I can’t say for sure.” And he couldn’t, though everything in him roared that his fear was right.

A scar that split one of the men’s lips, dressed in all black, dark features, brothers, along with interest in a book tied to an organization that smuggled goods.

.. If his suspicion proved correct, this whole affair had just spiraled into something far worse than he’d expected.

“When did you give them the book?” Oliver asked.

“The day after my sister’s friend visited,” Leo admitted. “They said they would be watching, and I should put the book in a satchel and place it on the street. They would pick it up.”

“Did they say anything else that you can remember, anything that might give us a clue to where they are from?”

“One of the men was impatient. He wanted to get back to the Brighton.”

Brighton.

Bloody hell.

He had hoped against hope that his blooming suspicion would turn out wrong, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

If what the boy said was correct, they were not dealing with any ordinary men. They were dealing with a group of brothers that might even be worse than the duchess and her female organization.

The Bastards of Brighton.

Or so they were known. They ruled the underground of Brighton. It was even rumored they owned more than half the buildings and shops in town. Nothing happened that they weren’t aware of.

“You do know, don’t you?” Lady Louisa asked. “And it’s not good, is it?”

Oliver had hoped that she wouldn’t be as perceptive with her brother about, but her senses were as sharp as ever. “It’s not good. But it’s not necessarily bad.” Maybe. It certainly wasn’t hopeless. At least it hadn’t been the duchess’s people.

“What does that mean?” Lady Louisa demanded from him.

Oliver rose to his feet. “It means I may have an idea who they are.” It also meant his time in Ashford was over. He had to get to Brighton, post haste.

She rose as well. “And?”

“They might hand over the book, they might not.”

“Surely, you jest.”

“I assure you, Lady Louisa, I do not.” Not if these were the men he believed. They were unpredictable. Difficult. Dangerous. No jesting about that.

“That’s not reassuring at all.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “How did they ever learn of the book’s whereabouts?”

How, indeed. And did they know that the Duchess of Talbot was the head of the female organization? They must suspect. They must have had their eye on the betting book from the very start, as well.

Oliver glanced at the boy, his mood darkening. “What did they give you in return? Just a promise that your family would no longer be in danger?”

Leo nodded, wide-eyed.

Oliver scowled. He hadn’t known this little boy for long, but a protective instinct as old as time rose within him. Like a lion sensing hyenas closing in on his cub. It didn’t make sense, but he didn’t need it to.

Those blackguards.

Playing on a boy’s fear of his family being harmed and handing him some sweets.

If they had approached a Talbot once, they could do so again, especially if the duchess’s involvement became known and they wanted more leverage over this family than a book.

Then it might not just be an object they took, but a person.

His gaze found Lady Louisa.

Or two.

The danger for them hadn’t passed because they no longer had the book. He was afraid it had just begun.

“Lady Louisa—”

“You are going to Brighton, aren’t you?” Her back straightened. “I’m coming with you.”

Instant resistance welled. “No, you are not.”

“I’m the one who lost the book. I shall help retrieve it.”

“You didn’t lose the book, and it’s best if you stay at home with your brother while I handle this matter.”

“Why?” Her eyes narrowed on him. “Because you’re a man?”

Yes. “Because I’m experienced in such matters.”

“Who says I’m not?”

Oliver arched a brow.

“Well, you can’t know until you experience it, can you?”

What reasoning. “The answer is still no.” He bowed. “I shall take my leave.”

His back prickled as he strode from the library. It wasn’t until his feet cleared Talbot property that the tension unraveled from him—and only then did he realize how tightly it had coiled around him in the first place.

Around her.

But now it’s all over.