Lord Cavendish Returns (3 page)

“
He did, but he was a reprobate who hated society so never
used it. Your mother insisted that Harper have something of hers in
addition to her fortune, so your father agreed that the title of
Earl of Hopswich would be bestowed upon Harper, and Harper would
inherit Hopswich Hall as well as your mother’s fortune. The rest of
the Cavendish estate was split between you three.”

“
Hopswich Hall?” Dominic frowned. It was a beautiful Jacobean
mansion on the edges of the Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire border.
He was shocked that a house belonging to the family was so close
and nobody had ever told him. “Who lives there at the
moment?”

“
Nobody,” Harry sighed. “I agreed to ensure that it was
maintained, repaired if needed and the grounds kept in order. The
farms and grounds are all rented out to local farmers, but the
house has been closed down.”

“
Does Harper know about any of this?”

Harry
sighed and shook his head. “I tried to contact him several times
since he grew into maturity but he hasn’t answered any of my
letters. My son, well, my other son, Harry, travelled to Yorkshire
to ask him to come to the London office, only to be told that
Harper had joined the army and was away fighting somewhere only
nobody knew where.”

“
Does Harry know about Harper?” Sebastian asked with a
frown.

“
Not yet but now that you know about him, I can see no reason
not to tell Harry that he has a half-brother. It will become common
knowledge once Harper takes the title and I would prefer Harry not
to find out from gossips.” Harry resumed his seat and shook his
head. “Trying to find Harper is like trying to harness a ghost, I
don’t mind admitting to you. I have left direction for him to
contact me several times but he has not done so. Whenever I do find
out from Sir Hugo where Harper is, I am told that he is undercover
and cannot be contacted. I have asked Sir Hugo to pass Harper
several letters but Harper doesn’t reply to them. It is hardly news
I care to impart via quill and ink, especially given the
entailments, but it is darned near impossible to get near him.”
Frustration rang clearly in his voice.

Dominic
blew his cheeks out and stared down at the cold tea and cake in
front of him. He had little appetite for either now. The urge to
rush down to Cornwall and visit his old friend Hugo was strong, but
he knew that it would be futile if he didn’t at least write first.
Sir Hugo still worked with the Star Elite and travelled the length
and breadth of the country frequently. It was going to be difficult
to get in touch with him. He knew that if Harper was working
undercover somewhere then none of them would know where he was
until it was safe for Harper to leave his mission in the shadows
and return to London. They just had to speak to Sir Hugo and be
patient.

He
sighed as he settled back in his seat. They exchanged small talk
for an appropriate length of time before he nodded to his brothers
and they took their leave. They were at the door when Harry’s voice
rang out.

“
Would you do something for me when you find him?”

“
Of course, what?” Dominic replied warily.

“
Tell him that I wish to meet him. I have seen him grow up,
but I have not met him since he has become an adult and I do so
wish to see him again.”

Dominic
heard the longing in the old man’s voice. All of the disquiet he
had previously felt over the situation that had arisen all those
years ago suddenly drained away and he nodded briskly “Of course. I
will tell him.”

Moments
later, the men stood on the side of the street and studied the
steady stream of passing traffic.

“
Good Lord, he is working with Sir Hugo,” Edward whispered.
They had most probably already met him and not realised who he
was.

“
I cannot remember being introduced to a Harper before,”
Sebastian muttered and studied Dominic’s thoughtful expression.
“What are you thinking?”

“
What?” Dominic jerked and turned to look at him. “I think
that I need to make contact with Sir Hugo and find out where Harper
is. I do seriously consider that we have to think very carefully
about how we approach our new half-brother with the news that he is
not only wealthy, but entitled, and has a second family to boot. He
has been working with the Star Elite, and you know how dangerous
they are. We need to be careful.”

Sebastian’s thoughts immediately turned to the house back in
Leicestershire that was full to the rafters with children. He
couldn’t help but wonder how a bachelor; a fighter who worked with
an organisation like the Star Elite, would adjust to life under the
same roof as three couples, sixteen children, five dogs and at
least eight cats.

“
God, poor bastard,” Sebastian muttered, and hurried after his
brothers.

CHAPTER
ONE

Harper
winced as a loud blast of raucous laughter reverberated off the
walls of the dingy tavern. The tepid brew the inn keeper had
slammed down before him moments earlier did little to hold his
interest and he began to wonder just what the hell he was doing
standing in a tavern when he could be in lodgings somewhere
enjoying a nice hot bath, some food and a shave. He was tired,
hungry and desperately needed some peace and quiet to allow his
mind to settle, but it was evident that he wasn’t going to get any
of it standing in this particular hovel.

He ran
the palm of his hand over the liberal smattering of bristles that
covered his cheeks and chin and winced at the roughness he found
there. He had stopped shaving a couple of weeks ago because he had
needed a beard to help with his disguise. Now that his mission was
over, he couldn’t wait to get rid of the itchy facial fuzz, and
wished to hell that he had chosen to change out of the workman’s
garb he had put on yesterday because he was certain that he could
smell himself now, and that was most disconcerting.

A dark
frown settled over his brow. He should be immensely relieved to
have his part in the Star Elite’s latest operation finished at
last. Everyone who worked with, or alongside, the Star Elite, had
put in many tireless hours of hard labour to bring about the
downfall of the quite sophisticated operation that had been set up
by a group of French spies. The English traitors who had supported
the purchase of numerous safe houses, identity papers and provided
finances had all either been captured or killed, and the last of
the French spies had been captured earlier that afternoon and was
now languishing in the Tower of London. It should have been a time
of celebration, but all Harper could feel was annoyance that he
only had one day off before he was supposed to leave for his next
mission.

He
glanced cautiously around the bar as he took a sip from his mug.
Something was amiss only he couldn’t figure out what. The strange
sense of disquiet had settled over him as he had watched the
prisoners’ cart turn out of the road earlier that afternoon, and
had dogged his every footstep since. He had thought it was because
of the tension that had swept through him and his colleagues prior
to their confrontation with the French spy, but Fornier was now
behind bars, yet the feeling of discontent still
lingered.

His
thoughts turned to the day after tomorrow when he had to report to
the War Office to receive the details of his next mission. He could
only hope that the next job Sir Hugo sent him on wouldn’t involve
standing around in the middle of the night watching other people go
about their lives. Right now he didn’t feel as though he had a
life. It was more of an existence.

Now that
he came to think about it, without his work he had nothing. He had
no home and, apart from his brothers in Yorkshire, nobody he could
really call family. His thoughts turned to Rupert, Angus and Joseph
back in Hambley Wood. He missed his brothers and the warm welcome
they always gave him when he managed to snatch a couple of days to
pay a visit.

He
frowned and studied the bar top while he mentally calculated just
how long it had been since he had returned to Hambley Wood, his
childhood home. One long finger trailed over a dirt-darkened rut on
the bar top as he worked out that it had been at least four years
since he had been anywhere near Yorkshire, and even longer since
had called in to see any of his brothers. He had written once or
twice over the years, and had received several letters in return.
All of them had asked him to go home when he got the chance, but he
was always at work with the Star Elite and he had never really set
aside the time to make the journey north.

“
Well, ‘ello ‘ansum,” a husky voice drawled in his
ear.

At first he didn’t move. When he did, he turned his head to
look at the oval face of the buxom woman who was brazenly pushing
her bosoms against his arm. He studied the deep groove of her ample
cleavage in consideration for a moment and tried to remember how
long it had been since he had indulged in any of
that.
The grubby finger
she slid slowly up his arm immediately quashed any thought of
exchanging sexual banter with her though. Instead, he removed her
searching hand from his shirt and gave it back to her with a rueful
twist of his lips. He pushed away from the bar and drew himself up
to his full height when he saw the immediate flash of anger in her
eyes. His smile vanished and he glared down at her; challenging her
to screech at him. To his relief, she took a hasty step back and
looked panic stricken for a moment as she glanced around the bar in
search of support.

“’
Ansum, ain’t interested, thanks all the same,” he drawled in
a voice that mimicked hers. He heard the man beside him chuckle but
didn’t take his gaze off the heavily painted woman before him.
Instead, he lifted his brows at her and received a glare in return
before she stomped off in a huff. As he turned his attention back
to his ale he half expected a jug to whack him on the back of his
neck. When nothing happened, he waited a couple of minutes before
he took a sip of his ale and turned to study the tavern behind him
again.

Everything seemed perfectly normal. The woman had found
another customer, one who appeared to be more willing than he was,
and the rest of the patrons appeared engrossed in either
conversation or drink. On the surface, there was nothing wrong, but
Harper couldn’t shift the feeling that something was not right
about the entire scenario.

For one,
albeit brief, moment he wondered whether he had made the right
choice in turning the woman’s offer down. It had been a long time
since he had managed to find the time to indulge in pleasures of
the flesh and even then it had been with a quick one with a tavern
doxy somewhere near Padstow. Or was that Hastings? He frowned at
the wall opposite the bar while he tried to remember the last time
he had enjoyed a woman.

“
Summat wrong?” The inn keeper demanded with a fierce
scowl.

“
Where’s your pot?”

“
Outhouse out back.” The man nodded to a door beside the
bar.

Harper
drained the dregs of his ale and slapped the empty mug back onto
the bar top before he disappeared through the narrow door. He
followed the corridor that led to the yard at the back of the inn.
At the far corner of the small square space stood a narrow brick
building which contained nothing more than a bucket. He dropped the
front placket of his breeches and was barely there more than a few
seconds when the sudden rush of movement behind him warned him that
he was not alone. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to
defend himself. Pain exploded the back of his head and the world
went black.

“
Jesus, Sebastian, you could have waited,” Edward snarled as
he shook his leg out.

“
What? You said to nab him while he was in there.”

“
He was still peeing,” Edward cursed and glared at his brother
who tried to smother a smirk, and failed. “I
will
get you back for that one,
brother mine, of that there is no doubt.”

“
Promises, promises,” Sebastian replied with a
snort.

“
When you two children have quite finished, do you want to get
him the hell into this cart before we have half of the tavern onto
us?” Dominic drawled in a voice that was heavily laden with
mirth.

“
Go on then,” Edward nodded and turned away to get his
horse.

“
Go on then, what?”

Dominic
rolled his eyes. He buried his guffaws in the thick woollen scarf
around his neck. He waited with Edward to see what Sebastian would
do.

“
Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Sebastian snapped and stared down at
the unconscious man at his feet. He rubbed a weary hand down his
face and wondered why he had ever agreed to this stupidity in the
first place. “Are either of you going to lend a hand?” He tried to
ignore the gap in the man’s breeches. “If you think for one second
that I am going to be caught in the yard of an inn with my hand
anywhere near another man’s breeches then you both have another
think coming.”

“
You hit him on the head before he had put it away, now you
deal with it.”

Sebastian growled low in his throat. He knew that neither of
them would lend a hand. The mutinous way Edward had crossed his
arms warned him that his brother wouldn’t budge, and the wry
amusement on Dominic’s face told him that there would be no help in
that quarter either.