The Scoundrel and I - Katharine Ashe Page 0,61

of seeking your identity as assiduously as you seek ours. Say the word, madam, and I shall have my boat at your dock this instant.

Yours,

Peregrine

Secretary, The Falcon Club

~o0o~

Odwall Blankton Fishery, Billingsgate Wharf

Receipt of Purchase:

10 lbs Mackerel, Smoked

20 lbs Sole

1 doz. Lobsters, live

2 lbs Sturgeon Roe

3 doz. Oysters

20 Lemons

To Be Delivered To: Lady Justice, Brittle & Sons, Printers, London

Attached: My lady, with my compliments. Peregrine

~o0o~

Fellow Subjects of Britain,

The arrogance of the aristocracy never ceases to amaze. Consider the following, which I received yesterday from the Head Bird Man:

My Lady,

It is with great pleasure that I alert you to the news that Sea Hawk has returned to England and is forthwith available for you to run to ground. I fear that once you become acquainted with him you will have no use for the remaining members of our inconsequential little club; he tends to turn ladies’ heads. If this comes to pass, my heart will suffer for loss of your attention.

But I cannot regret that finally you may discover the identity of one of us. Therefore, if you should in fact learn his true name, pray do me the honor of conveying to me your meeting place and time so that I might hide in the bushes and sigh over the loss I am myself now bringing about. A lady must be given that which she wishes, however, and if I am able to fulfill your desires even in this manner I will eagerly do so, even though it is to my disadvantage.

Yours devotedly, &c,

Peregrine

Secretary, The Falcon Club

He teases as though I were a demi-rep he might charm with childish flattery. He imagines women bereft of the capacity to reason, susceptible to empty foolishness instead.

Note this, Peregrine: I am unmoved by your flirtation. I will discover Sea Hawk’s true identity and will reveal him and all of you to the poor citizens of Britain whose wealth you squander playing games like little boys at pick-up-sticks.

— Lady Justice

~o0o~

Dearest Lady,

I give to you now only that which any gentleman admirer might give to a lady: poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to be precise. I offer it because having received back all the gifts I have sent to you, I need guidance as to what you may accept from me as gift. Quoth the Ancient Mariner:

“If he may know which way to go;

For she guides him smooth or grim.

See, brother, see! how graciously

She looketh down on him.”

My lady, looketh down on me with gracious mercy and return not this humble gift.

Yours &c,

Peregrine

Secretary, The Falcon Club

* Editor’s Note: Among these gifts delivered to Brittle & Sons, Printers, was a life-sized statue of a mermaid. —G.M.

~o0o~

Peregrine,

You preen. You strut. You will be plucked. Then I will have only this to say to you, “The game is done! I’ve won! I’ve won!”

— Lady Justice

* Editor’s Note: Here Lady Justice also quotes from Coleridge’s Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. —G.M.

~o0o~

My Dearest Lady,

I write with unhappy news: Sea Hawk has quit the club. Thus our numbers are once more diminished. We are now a sorry small lot — only three. If you could see your way to resting your campaign against our poor little band of companions, I would nevertheless eternally count you the most worthy adversary and continue to sing your praises to all.

I admit, however, that should you do so, I shall regret the loss of you.

Yours &c.

Peregrine

Secretary, The Falcon Club

~o0o~

To Peregrine:

Your cajoling fails to touch me. I will not rest. Be you three, two, or only one, I will find you and reveal you to public scrutiny. Take care, Mr. Secretary. Your day of reckoning will soon be at hand.

— Lady Justice

P.S. Thank you for the salted herring. You ought to have begun with that. I simply adore salted herring. You cretin.

~o0o~

Dear Lady Who Calls Herself Just,

I have waited these months for news that would assure me of your continued interest in my club. Alas, none has come. Your latest publications say nothing of our humble band of friends. I grow uneasy that you have relinquished your project of uncovering us, and I find myself jealous of the regular subjects of your pamphlets. How can those unfortunates claim your attention when I cannot? And how unjust you are to have forgotten my friends and me, when you had promised to pursue us. Can your character be so inconstant? I will not believe it!

Continually yours,

Peregrine

Secretary, The Falcon Club

~o0o~

To Peregrine, at large:

Rather than my character, your intelligence is inconstant, or indeed non-existent. And how like an aristocrat to believe you