The Mystery Woman (Ladies of Lantern Str - By Amanda Quick Page 0,6

at Richard Euston’s unconscious figure. “What about him?”

Joshua moved slightly in the shadows. “Do not concern yourself, Miss Pennington. I will deal with him.”

Daphne stiffened in alarm.

“You must not have him arrested,” she said. “If you do there will be a great scandal. Mama and Papa will pack me off to the country and I shall be obliged to marry some fat widower old enough to be my grandfather. That truly would be a fate worse than death.”

“Euston will not be telling any tales to the police,” Joshua said. “He is going to disappear.”

“But how can that possibly happen?” Daphne asked. “He moves in Society.”

Joshua looked at Beatrice. “Don’t you think that you and Miss Pennington should be on your way?”

She did not care a fig if Euston disappeared forever, Beatrice thought, but the fact that Joshua was confident he could make that happen was more than a little unnerving. Nevertheless she had other problems at the moment. Saving Daphne Pennington’s reputation was currently at the top of the list.

“You are quite right, Mr. Gage,” she said. “Come along, Daphne.”

She urged her charge toward the side door of the house.

“Later, Miss Lockwood,” Joshua Gage said quietly behind her.

She could not decide if the words were a threat or a promise.

—

A SHORT TIME LATER she stood in an alcove with Lady Pennington, a small, elegant, gray-haired woman, and watched Daphne take the dance floor with another young gentleman. In her new dancing slippers, her eyes sparkling with mystery and excitement, she was ravishing.

“Look at her,” Lady Pennington said proudly. “One would never know that less than twenty minutes ago someone tried to abduct her in order to compromise her. She came within a hair’s breadth of being ruined.”

“Your granddaughter is a very brave young woman,” Beatrice said. “Not many gently bred young ladies could endure such a close brush with disaster and manage to go straight back out onto the dance floor as though nothing at all had happened.”

“Daphne takes after my side of the family,” Lady Pennington said with an air of cool satisfaction.

Beatrice smiled. “I do believe she does, madam.”

Lady Pennington peered at her through a gold-handled monocle. “You saved my granddaughter tonight, Miss Lockwood. I am forever in your debt. Your employers in Lantern Street assure me that you are well paid for your services, but I wish you to know that tomorrow I shall send around a small, personal gift that I trust you will accept as a token of my gratitude.”

“Thank you, but that is unnecessary.”

“Nonsense, I insist. There will be no more discussion of the matter.”

“You must give much of the credit to yourself, madam,” Beatrice said. “If you had not become suspicious and contacted Flint and Marsh, there would have been a very different ending to this affair.”

“It was just a feeling that I got a few days ago,” Lady Pennington said. “Nothing I could put my finger on, you understand.”

“I believe that sort of thing is called a woman’s intuition, madam.”

“Whatever the case, I knew Euston was not what he appeared to be, but he certainly managed to conceal his true nature and the state of his finances very well, indeed. Daphne’s parents were completely fooled by him. My granddaughter is a great heiress. If Euston had managed to compromise her there would have been a terrible uproar.”

“But you control the purse strings in the family,” Beatrice said. “From what little I have seen of you in recent days, I do not believe that you would have insisted that Daphne marry Richard Euston, even if he had succeeded in his plan.”

“No, of course not.” Lady Pennington shuddered. “Euston was clearly only after her money. I was married for similar reasons, and I assure you, I would never put my granddaughter through such a hellish experience. I can only be thankful that my husband had the decency to get himself killed in a racing accident some years ago. Nevertheless, Daphne’s reputation would have been in ruins if Euston had been successful tonight. She would have been obliged to drop out of Society.”

“She did appear to be alarmed by the possibility of being sent back to the countryside. She was worried about the prospect of having to marry someone she described as an overweight widower who was old enough to be her grandfather.”

“Lord Bradley.” Lady Pennington chuckled. “Yes, I have done my best to terrify her with that threat in an effort to get her to be careful here in town. She is a very