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Chapter One

Barton Abbey—late spring, 1816

‘I wager I could find her’ Sainst the woman who had destroyed his cousin Max’s diplolass of brandy from his host

‘Welco Will with his own glass before ainst “Wagering Will”, who never ame of chance he couldn’t win But why do you think you could find her, when Max, with all his official contacts, could not?’

‘I never had ri a loaf of bread to feedmates’

‘You’ve cleaned up so well, I soallows-bait,’ Alastair said with a grin ‘But to be fair, where would one expect to look? Madame Lefevre was cousin and hostess to Thierry St Arnaud, one of Prince Talleyrand’s top aides in the French delegation at the Congress of Vienna The family’s quite old and well known, even if they did turn out to be Bonapartists’

‘Thatclass who really knohat goes on: roo, keepers of public houses I’ll use them to track Madame Lefevre’

‘When I visited Max at his wife’s farhed ‘He even clai horses is rather like diplomacy: one must coax rather than coerce Except that horses don’t lie and their ainst you’

‘Just like Max to ht of it But all of us—you, me, Doland’s foremost politicians—Pri horses over a brilliant government career, if he truly had a choice? I don’t believe it’

‘I was suspicious, too, at first,’ Alastair admitted ‘Max, who never showed any interest in a woman asn’t both beautiful and acco a little nobody who prefers rusticating in Kent to London society? But I ended up liking Caro She rides better than I do—an adly—and breeds top-notch horseflesh on that fariven enerally low opinion of wo over his face

He’s still not over her, Will thought, once again consigning to eternal hellfire the woement and Alastair’s heart

His fury reviving against the latest feue cousins, he continued, ‘The very idea is ridiculous—Max, involved in a plot to assassinate Wellington? I’d have thought his valour at Waterloo put a stop to that nonsense’

Alastair sighed ‘The hard truth is that the atteotiating as allies at the time, and our own forces, who didn’t winkle out the conspiracy Now that Bonaparte’s put away at St Helena for good, neither side wanted to rake up old scandals’

‘Couldn’t his father do anything? He’s practically run the Lords for years’

‘The Earl of Swynford preferred not to cha, already weakened by Max’s “lapse in judgement”,’ Alastair said drily

‘So he abandoned him Bastard!’ Will added a colourful curse from his days on the London streets ‘Just like et in the way of his political aspirations Makesside of the blanket’

Alastair shook his head, his expression bitter ‘Whoever set up the Vienna scheive them that There’d be no approach le before him some helpless woman in need of assistance’

‘He always had a soft spot for the poor and downtrodden,’ Will agreed ‘His treatet Madaland! Let her explain how she invented so the co alone, vulnerable to attack Surely that would clear Max of blaentle for his help He found no trace of St Arnaud, either, while in Vienna?’

‘It appears he erated to the Americas It’s uncertain whether Madame Lefevre accompanied him If you do mean to search, it won’t be easy It’s been more than a year since the attempt’

Will shrugged ‘An attack on the ainst Napoleon? People will remember that’

Alastair opened his mouth as if to speak, then hesitated