Page 21 of The Wordsworth Key (Regency Secrets #3)

Savouring his meat pasty, Jacob sized up the three men from the boat.

Captain Cooper was what Jacob recognised as a decorative officer– the sort who had a grand moustache and society manners but likely required a canny sergeant to do the work of his company.

His regiment was the 34 th Regiment of Foot, which recruited its soldiers in Cumberland.

He didn’t look much of a reader, probably shaping his taste by whatever the quarterly reviews were saying.

Mousey-haired Lieutenant Crawford was still to get his beard and had the fresh-faced looks of the painfully young.

Perhaps he had attached himself to Cooper, considering him a mentor?

Moss was the most interesting. Saturnine in appearance, heavy brows and jaw outline in stubble, dark intelligent eyes, a mass of wavy black hair, he looked Mediterranean in origin despite his English surname.

Intriguingly, he was reticent about what line of work he was in, venturing nothing but a vague mention of being an underling at the Alien Office in Somerset House.

Thanks to the Hellfire Club investigation in which they exposed the machinations of a highly placed civil servant, both Jacob and Dora had good reason to know that the Alien Office kept watch for enemy agents working in Britain, and it was also where the Home Office recruited many of its own spies in the émigré community.

Moss reminded Jacob of the government agents he had met in Portugal, watchful and with an air of danger.

Yet what would a spy be doing in the Lakes, unless even secret agents needed holidays?

More likely, it could be that Moss was simply an ordinary government officer who found his work too tedious to discuss. And yet…

Jacob returned from his thoughts to find the men were arguing over the poetic reputations of the local writers versus that of those who suited fashionable taste.

‘Is the only measure of worth the number of sales?’ asked Knotte plaintively. ‘Are there not many writers whose genius is only recognised by later generations?’

‘There are also many hacks in each age who disappear without a trace. I predict Wordsworth will be such a one,’ said Cooper. ‘Whereas Scott will go down as the second greatest poet of our era.’

‘The first being Byron by any chance?’ asked Dora.

‘Exactly. He is the perfect representative of our generation.’ Like so many, Cooper was enamoured of Byron as they looked at him as a more attractive reflection of themselves, thought Jacob.

‘Dr Sandys here has met Lord Byron,’ Dora said sweetly, thus throwing him to the lions. He shot her a look to say he would get her back for that.

All eyes turned to him– Dora’s sparkling with mischief.

‘Yes indeed, I met him at Angelo’s fencing club.’

They pressed him for details, even those who professed not to admire Byron’s work as much as the Lake poets. Jacob made a few anodyne remarks, keeping out any mention that he had been investigating the poet in connection to Elgin’s marbles.

‘And have you met the lovely Lady Caroline Lamb?’ asked Langhorne archly. ‘I understand she is an intimate friend of Lord Byron.’

‘Steady on,’ muttered Wright. ‘Ladies present.’

Jacob almost laughed at Dora’s look of wide-eyed innocence.

‘Is she not the lady who has revived the fashion for cropped hair?’ she asked. ‘No, I’ve not met her, though I’ve seen her likeness in the ladies’ magazines. Have you, Dr Sandys?’

‘She also revived the fashion for putting horns on husbands’ heads,’ added Langhorne, unable to resist the quip.

‘That’s enough,’ said Cooper, demonstrating he carried his army leadership over to this group. ‘Langhorne, if you can’t be civil, you’d better go out in the boat. It’s your turn in any case. Slipknot, do you want a go?’

The party broke up. Jacob and Dora thanked them for their hospitality, politeness meaning Jacob had to extend invitations to call in at his cottage.

He hedged by hinting that they should wait until after his brothers had departed.

Hopefully they would forget after that. He’d settled in the Lakes to avoid society, not find it inviting itself for dinner.

In return Dora and he received an invitation to join the gentlemen’s party for the Rush Bearing ceremony at Grasmere.

‘It’s a marvellous tradition,’ said Knotte. ‘A summer cleaning of the church.’

‘All the prettiest girls carry in the rushes for the church floor and all the ugly ones sweep out the old,’ said Langhorne. ‘You must bring a bundle in, Miss Fitz-Pennington.’

What a charmer, thought Jacob sourly.

‘I would like that. When is it?’ asked Dora.

‘Sunday.’ Langhorne kissed her hand. ‘Until we meet again.’

With Dora on his arm, Jacob strolled on until they were out of earshot.

‘Safe,’ he muttered.

‘What do you think?’ asked Dora, back to her usual forthright tone.

‘I think we can eliminate the three staying at the hall. I don’t get the sense from them that they are plotting any strikes against Wordsworth, and they wouldn’t care to hunt down a manuscript by him. They prefer to argue their case in the ordinary way.’

‘Except Moss. Did you not notice how he kept his mouth closed? What is he exactly? How did he become friends with the two army officers?’

‘You’re right– it is easy to overlook him. It could be that is how he prefers it to be.’ Jacob relayed his thought that the man might be in the intelligence service. ‘You’ll remember that Sir Fletcher Vane used his position at the Alien Office to recruit foreigners to spy.’

‘How could I forget?’ Vane had been an Illuminati who wheedled his way into a position of government influence. He had killed Dora’s brother in his attempt to destroy the Hellfire Club.

‘It could be Moss does likewise or is one of the spies himself. But why would he be here if he’s on duty? The excitement is all along the Channel or overseas. There’s no strategic value in the area.’

‘Unless he is investigating one of that circle?’

‘I can’t see Cooper being important enough in military circles to warrant someone shadowing him.

Who are the others? Junior officers or men with no observable occupation and probably little money living the life of the gentleman writer scraping by on family crumbs.

Tempting though it may be, we mustn’t add one and one and make a hundred. ’

‘The other three– Knotte, Wright and the charming Langhorne?’

‘I’d like it to be Langhorne, just so I can bring him down a peg or two.’

She laughed. ‘I thought you’d say that. Wasn’t he a pill? Knotte, by contrast, seems breathlessly devoted enough to want to ferret away a piece of his sainted poet.’

‘But would he want to damage Wordsworth in this way? He seems intelligent even if hopelessly awkward. It would be obvious such an act would harm the creativity of the one he wishes to encourage.’

‘Then what is our next step?’

‘Find out more about Wright, Knotte and Langhorne. I’ll add Moss to that as there was something about him that prickled the hairs on the back of my neck. But for today, I believe we can count ourselves as being off duty.’

Dora pulled him towards the stepping stones across the Rothay. ‘Then let’s climb Loughrigg.’ She pointed to the hill that lay between Rydal and his cottage. It was steep and the paths meandering, carved out by sheep. Usually, he returned via one of the valley routes that went around it.

‘You want to climb the hill? Is this to put off returning to my brother?’

She smiled up at him. ‘Definitely, but I also have this dream.’

‘What dream?’

‘Where you and I find a secluded spot and make love under the sky. I can’t see us getting up to much with your brothers and Ruby in residence, can you?’

Jacob felt a surge of desire for her. It was never far away and returned at the slightest pressure of her hand, the glimpse of her smile. She really was the most provocative woman he’d ever had the privilege to know. ‘You– me– the sky?’

‘Probably some sheep too– but I want you to find some place no one goes. No spying either, from across the vale.’

He squeezed her hand. ‘I think I can come up with something.’

‘I certainly hope you can.’ She brushed his groin teasingly. ‘My plan won’t work without that.’