The Miss Mirren Mission (Regency Reformers Book 1) Read online

  The Miss Mirren Mission

  Jenny Holiday

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Acknowledgments

  Connect With Me

  About the Author

  Other Books by Jenny Holiday

  An excerpt from The Likelihood of Lucy

  An excerpt from Famous

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by Jenny Holiday. Second edition 2019.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. Reviewers may quote brief passages in a review. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Author.

  Edited by Gwen Hayes. Cover design by Zack Taylor. Cover photos: Period Images (couple), Deposit Photos (background).

  ISBN 978-1-7753768-3-5

  For Gwen Hayes, founding member of Team Blackstone.

  Chapter One

  May, 1813, Essex.

  “Being the last surviving member of one’s family does have its advantages,” said Eric Woodley, the twelfth Earl of Blackstone, to his friend Trevor Bailey as the men slowed their horses on the final approach to Clareford Manor. “There’s the succession to worry about—supposedly—but there’s nobody around to harangue one over the matter, either.”

  The earl narrowed his eyes as he hopped off his bay gelding and surveyed the deep green expanse of lawn surrounding the ancestral home. The graceful house, built atop and around an ancient abbey, wore its centuries of accretion with aplomb, as if it had always perched atop this gentle slope. In the slanting late afternoon sun, the fading red-brick walls glowed.

  “My God, I hate the country,” he said.

  Bailey laughed. ‘It’s a beautiful house. A beautiful estate.”

  “Yes, well, to each his own. The more pertinent question is will it do?”

  “Judging by the number of creeks and estuaries we rode over, I’d say it’s perfect. He won’t be able to resist.”

  Blackstone turned toward the stables. “Since we weren’t expected until tomorrow, there isn’t anyone here to meet us. I imagine we can scare up a groom, though.”

  “You keep a groom even though you’re never here?”

  “Good point. I don’t know if I keep a groom. But regardless, shouldn’t there at least be one retained for the party?”

  Bailey shrugged. “It’s your party.”

  “I’m fully capable of seeing to my horse myself. And yours, too, if need be. It’s something we aristocrats learn, even the devoted city-dwellers among us.”

  Bailey rose to the bait. “I’ll have to take you up on that offer, then, won’t I? We commoners can’t be expected to know anything about the care of such fine specimens as these.” He slapped the withers of the black hunter he’d hired in Chelmsford, where they’d last changed horses. “Especially those of us in”—he paused for effect—“trade.”

  Blackstone smirked and threw open a heavy oak door to reveal an empty but immaculate stable. “Hmm. I’m a little concerned the place is looking too well. You could eat a meal off this floor. And did you see the house back there? All pink and aglow like a chit on the marriage mart?”

  “You’re overthinking this, Blackstone.”

  “I’m supposed to be the impoverished peer. Drowning in debt, encumbered by all this bloody beautiful entailed land. It won’t do to look too rich.”

  “Thankfully, you have me around to sully your reputation.”

  Yes, he did have Bailey. The one person in the world he trusted. His friend had been busy overseeing his expanding empire, buying up mines and planning to open London’s most modern and luxurious hotel. But no matter how engaged Bailey was making money, he always made time when duty called. Ever loyal to the cause—and to the captain—he understood what was at stake.

  “And,” Bailey added, “you look a fright.”

  “Thank you very much, indeed.”

  “Your hair is too long, and you appear not to have shaved in days.” Bailey’s gaze swept down to Blackstone’s dusty buckskin breeches. “In fact, I’d say you look exactly like a peer in need of a cash infusion.”

  “Do I look like I’d be willing to commit treason to get it?”

  Before Bailey could answer, a boy came running up. “My lord!” He bowed to Bailey, who shot Blackstone a triumphant grin. “You’re a day early.” The boy reached for the reins Bailey held. He threw Blackstone a passing glance. “I can take your horse, too, sir.”

  Blackstone scanned his friend’s neat appearance. With his close-cropped ginger hair, a deep burgundy coat, and perfectly starched cravat, Bailey showed no signs of having endured a hard, half-day ride. Blackstone cleared his throat. “I am master of this house.”

  The boy reddened and began to stammer an apology, but Blackstone cut him off. “Before you see to the horses, take my friend Mr. Bailey to the house and make his presence known to…” It seemed he had blocked out everything about this place. “What is the housekeeper’s name?”

  “Mrs. Sheldon, my lord.”

  “Yes.” He conjured the image of a reedy, unsmiling woman who’d seemed old, even when he was a boy. “I’m going to take a walk around the grounds.”

  “Would you like company?” Bailey asked.

  “No.” The single syllable came out sharper than intended. Blackstone knew the younger man worried about him, just as he always had on the peninsula. He closed his eyes and forced a softer, “Thank you, no.”

  As always, he preferred to face his demons alone. Tossing aside topcoat and cravat—he would not meet anyone on this excursion—he strode across the manicured lawns. When they met the rougher expanse of meadowland that lay between the house and the farms, he didn’t bother looking for an already trodden path. Though it had been three years since he’d walked this land, the terrain was as familiar as his own skin, so often did it appear in his fragmented, late-night imaginings.

  Concentrating on the sound of leaves rustling in the breeze, he strove to focus on something besides the roar of blood in his ears. He looked at the sky, having learned that anchoring himself in the physical sensations of the present was often the only way to move forward, to force himself to do what needed doing. An unbroken expanse of cloudless blue stretched as far as he could see, decorated only by the same sun that had painted the house in such a lovely light. Once he reached the crest of this last, little hill, that unforgiving sun would glint off the lake, illuminating it utterly.

  A few more steps, and he reached the apex. He had to squint to allow his eyes to adjust to the brilliant expanse of water. The bucolic scene was just as he’d expected. A small lake was bordered on the far side by a stand of birch trees and dotted in the shallows with lily pads. Birds sang, and a gentle breeze carrie
d the scent of honeysuckle.

  This is how demons work. Sometimes the hells they inhabited were dark and stormy, something out of a Gothic novel. Other times, hell was deceptively beautiful, aromatic, and bathed in sunlight.

  The sound of something breaking the water’s surface drew his attention. A head emerged. Instinct kicked in, and he hit the ground. The open meadow abutting this side of the lake offered nowhere to hide. The head moved toward the dock. Could it be? No, that was lunacy.

  Don’t be a fool. Alec is dead.

  As if to illustrate the absurdity of his thoughts, the figure hoisted itself up the ladder in one sleek, fluid motion. The swimmer was tall, lithe—and female.

  Unexpectedly, but most decidedly, female.

  She wore only a chemise that clung to her slight curves like a second skin. A pale, elegant ankle drew his attention as she shook her leg, trying to dislodge a leaf that had stuck to her skin, bold emerald in stark relief against alabaster.

  As she reached up to squeeze water out of hair that fell past her shoulders, the sodden linen of her chemise strained against her small breasts. She looked like she belonged in a painting, as if an Old Master had conjured her out of oil paints, but she, too vivacious to remain contained in two dimensions, had swum off the canvas and, inexplicably, into his lake.

  Ogling a local servant or the daughter of one of his tenants was unseemly. But it was good to be reminded that he was a man. He had sublimated much, sacrificed everything. The cause was his mistress. It was gratifying, if bittersweet, to remember that this was what men did. They admired the local ladies. Maybe they even wooed them. How would that happen, exactly? Picnics, he imagined. Country dances. A kiss stolen beside a lake very like this one.

  It was not a life he could have, but it was nice to pretend for a moment. He wrenched his gaze from the woman and forced himself to remember where he was. The lake.

  Yes, hell could be disguised as a sun-drenched paradise.

  And, it seemed, hell could even come complete with a golden angel.

  Chapter Two

  Emily stood by the open window in her room willing her hair to dry faster when Sarah rushed in to announce that the Earl of Blackstone had arrived a day early and that they were wanted in the drawing room.

  “Can you imagine?” Sarah exclaimed, breathless.

  Emily was unmoved. Her friend, ever susceptible to melodrama, often bubbled over with excess enthusiasm.

  “It is his house,” she couldn’t resist pointing out.

  “Yes, but he wasn’t expected until tomorrow.”

  Indeed. And now they would have to spend the evening making polite, mindless small talk. That was exactly why Emily avoided society. People chatting endlessly about nothing that mattered. And Sarah’s father was not even in attendance, and he was the whole reason she’d come. Without Mr. Manning, there was no reason for her to be here either. If she wanted to find Billy, Mr. Manning was the key.

  Sarah clapped her hands. “To think, our evening was going to be so dull, but now we’ll spend it with the Earl of Blackstone!” She threw open the armoire and began rummaging through Emily’s things. “He’s very mysterious, you know.”

  “So you said.” Sarah had talked of nothing but the inscrutable aristocrat since her family had received an invitation to a party on his Essex estate, a place that had taken on almost mythical status in the collective consciousness of polite society. No one had been to the estate since before the death of the current earl’s older brother nearly three years ago.

  “One sees him in London from time to time, but he’s so very…”

  “Enigmatic?” Emily supplied. “Unfathomable? Downright odd?” Sarah was a dear girl, and Emily felt the sharp tug of loyalty that only a shared childhood can inspire, but inside that pretty chestnut-tressed head was…not terribly much. It never ceased to amaze Emily that a woman with such a limited vocabulary could be such an expert babbler.

  “Mysterious,” finished Sarah with a decisive nod. “He appears at parties and balls from time to time, but he never dances—though perhaps that’s attributable to his injury. He’s not at all interested in female company, even with the question of succession looming. He’s almost a hermit. And yet in theory, he’s one of the most eligible bachelors in the realm. It’s very…”

  “Puzzling? Vexing?”

  “Mysterious. Because why a house party all of a sudden, if not that he’s decided to turn his attention to setting up a nursery? Why in the world would someone so, so…”

  “Antisocial? Misanthropic?”

  “…mysterious as the Earl of Blackstone suddenly open his home to a crowd of people he would seem to care nothing about?”

  “Perhaps we’ll find out. Did you not say we were wanted downstairs?”

  Emily grinned as Sarah shrieked and threw a gown at her head. Her lavender muslin. A little worn, but respectable enough. “I’ll have to put my hair up damp. It will take ages to dry.”

  “I’ll send Anne in.” Sarah scowled at what was no doubt the cacophony of curls emerging as Emily’s hair dried.

  “Don’t bother.” Her friend’s maid wasn’t up to the task. It was only through years of trial and error—and of walking around looking like she had a bird’s nest on her head—that Emily had learned to wrestle her hair into a state of submission. “Go ahead without me and tell them I’ll be down shortly.”

  Sarah gave a little hop of excitement as she departed.

  Emily pulled on her stays—short and laced up the front so she didn’t need a maid. As the light boning compressed her upper rubs, she imagined the garment as a suit of armor. She had to believe that Mr. Manning would show up. Going home to Sally and telling her she had no new information about Billy’s whereabouts was simply not an option, so she must be bold. Brave. Real reformers did more than write, more than talk. They acted.

  But first, an evening of meaningless conversation. Sighing, she upended a small box of hairpins and prepared to do battle with her chaotic curls, girding herself to meet the mysterious Earl of Blackstone.

  “Thank God,” Blackstone said when a sharp rap on the library door was followed by the appearance of Stanway, his London butler.

  The man began tidying, his white hair, shirt, and cuffs in sharp relief against the stark black of his attire.

  “How was the journey, Stan?”

  A single eyebrow lifted almost imperceptibly. “Pleasant, my lord.”

  Blackstone set down his newspaper. The butler shared his distaste for rusticating. “A bald-faced lie if I ever heard one.”

  The eyebrow traveled a little farther up the wrinkled forehead.

  Blackstone amended his earlier thought. There were two people in the world he trusted. Stan had served the family since he was a young footman, and he’d demonstrated his utter loyalty to Blackstone that night at the lake. He’d also proven to have quite the head for strategy. Tea, espionage—there was very little the man couldn’t oversee with aplomb.

  “Perhaps you’ve been able to find out why Sarah Talbot is here without her father—and a day early to boot?” he inquired, tracking the older man’s progress as he put the room to rights.

  “Mrs. Talbot’s father and husband had some unexpected business in Bristol that will delay their arrival at the party until at least the end of week and possibly preclude their attendance entirely. She was prostrate with disappointment, I am told. But she met a gentleman named Mr. Leighton—I gather he is a neighbor of yours here in Essex?” Blackstone nodded. “Mr. Leighton met the ladies in London and upon discovering they were bound for your property, offered his escort. The ladies wrote to Mrs. Sheldon asking if they might arrive a day early. Assuming you would not be here to be inconvenienced, she agreed.”

  Though Stanway delivered the story as if he were giving a staid lecture, Blackstone knew he did not approve of anything about the situation. The nerve of the ladies requesting an early arrival, as if Clareford Manor were an inn, lowering himself to pry information out of the servants, and t
hen having to deliver the absurd little report—it was all an affront to the very proper servant.

  “It’s not the day-early part I was concerned about, Stan, but the without-her-father part. This whole exercise is useless without Manning here. If Mrs. Talbot’s father doesn’t show his face, this will all have been for naught.”

  “Indeed.” The older man tugged Blackstone to his feet. Though the earl had taken Bailey’s criticism to heart and bathed and shaved, Stanway shook his head as he produced a brush and began vigorously grooming the shoulders of his master’s black evening coat. Blackstone endured the ministrations silently. Some years ago, when his previous valet retired, the butler had taken on the role himself. Though Stan’s sartorial duties were an excuse for the men to share private time to discuss whatever mission was underway, he approached all aspects of his job with the same degree of meticulousness.

  Only when he was satisfied with his handiwork did the butler say, “The ladies await you in the drawing room, my lord.”

  “You keep saying ladies, plural. Does Mrs. Talbot have a companion?”

  “Yes, she arrived with a friend. A childhood bosom friend, I am led to believe.”

  “Early and she’s brought a hanger-on. A smashing start. This must be Manning’s former ward.”

  “Indeed.”

  “Well, it will be good to meet her. Of course she won’t know anything about his dealings, but it’s good to get as complete a picture of Manning’s past as possible.” As he made his way downstairs, Blackstone surveyed the house. The corridors and stairways in the “new” wing, which dated from the middle of the last century, were oak paneled, and though twilight slanted in through the mullioned windows, there was not a speck of dust in sight. Everything was as immaculate as it had always been.