Page 13 of A Relentless Rake

Alec grimaced. Now was definitely not the time for an update on the mission, especially when irritation still sizzled inside him that Clayton had forced him together with Reed in the first place. If Alec had known that his half brother would be involved, he never would have gone to the Armory for that first meeting. And damn Clayton, because the man had certainly known that, too.

Captain Reed was the unacknowledged product of Rupert Sinclair and an upstairs maid. The man’s existence had been unknown to Alec until two years ago when the brothers had come face-to-face in Wellington’s drawing room.

Apparently, though, Reed had known about him for years.

The two sons of St James had both fought in the wars but at different times and in different regiments. Alec had been in the infantry, Reed in the cavalry. Alec had already left the army and was headed back to England when Reed purchased his commission. If anyone within the army or War Department bothered to notice how similar the two men stood in appearance and bearing—possessing the same hazel eyes as their father, same coloring, same jaw lines—no one had dared comment. At least not openly. The two men had never crossed paths.

That is until Wellington unknowingly invited them both to the same party to celebrate his return from Paris.

When Alec walked into the drawing room and saw Reed, he could have sworn he was staring at his father’s ghost. He knew then exactly who Reed was, and from that moment, he’d done everything he could to avoid his half brother.

He grimaced. Leave it to Clayton to thrust the two of them together.

As soon as this mission was finished, he would most likely never see Reed again. Which was perfectly fine with Alec. The last thing he needed was another reminder of his father’s depravity.

He arrived downstairs just as Bivvens was showing Clayton into his study.

“Clayton,” he greeted as he strode into the room.

“St James.” Clayton nodded, his face held carefully blank as he waved off Bivvens’s attempt to take his coat and hat. “I won’t be staying.”

Bivvens nodded and left the room, securely closing the door in his wake.

Alec circled behind the massive desk in the center of the oak-paneled room. Like every room in this house, he’d had it stripped and completely redecorated when he inherited it from his father. “You have news.”

“Henry Everett returned.”

His gut tightened. “When?”

“Last night while you were following his sister.”

On a wild goose chase…“Where was he?”

“No idea. But he’s back now as if he’d never left.” Clayton held out a handbill. “He’s giving a presentation today at the Royal Society.”

Alec took the announcement and scanned it. “About mathematics?”

“You should attend his talk.”

He repeated, deadpan, “About mathematics?”

Clayton sensibly refrained from giving that question the answer it deserved.

A Royal Society lecture.Christ.Alec would rather have spent the day in the pillory. “I would never question the wisdom of the Home Office’s investigators, but are you certain we’re on the right scent in this hunt?” He tossed the handbill onto his desk. “Why would a mathematician want to kill the prime minister? A poor schoolmaster isn’t at all the kind of man likely to be involved in an assassination plot. Or with Scepter.”

“And yet he is. I need you to find out how. He’ll point us to their leaders.”

Via the hell of a mathematics lecture first. Alec grimaced. “So what will you be doing while I’m sleeping away the afternoon at the Royal Society?”

The gleam in Clayton’s eyes shone piercingly. “I’m going mole hunting. I think I’ve found the Home Office employee who alerted Scepter’s men.” He sauntered toward the door. “Reed turned up nothing in his search last night for Everett except that handbill. But he did give me a message for you.”

Alec frowned. “What’s that?”

“Next time, don’t let the damned gel get away.” With a grin at Alec’s expense, Clayton exited into the hall.

Alec sank into his chair and picked up the handbill. An irritated curse passed his lips. They were back at the beginning, with nothing more to show for their work than a piece of charred building plans and the name of a mathematician.

Clayton believed Henry Everett held the key to unlocking the assassination plot, and Alec knew Everett’s sister possessed more information than she’d disclosed. But two schoolteachers involved with Scepter?Unbelievable.