4 A Plague of Angels: A Sir Robert Carey Mystery Read Online Free PDF

what I was so worried about,’ he said to Dodd.
    Dodd himself was still worried. Magnificent and palatial though Carey’s family house was, it didn’t look very defensible, with no proper pele tower, no battlements, no moat, no mound, no visible ordnance. There didn’t seem many men around either.
    ‘Ay,’ he said. ‘But how long before we have your…creditors around our ears like flies?’
    Carey laughed. ‘Well, they won’t have pikes and muskets like the Grahams’ debt-collectors.’
    ‘Oh? What then?’ asked Dodd, interested to know what weapons Londoners preferred.
    ‘Writs,’ said Carey. ‘Blizzards of paper.’
    Dodd began wondering irritably what all the fuss had been about. Barnabus took Simon off with him to see to the small amount of luggage they had brought with them in their saddlebags and Carey wandered familiarly round the room with another goblet of wine in his hand.
    ‘Place seems deserted,’ he commented. ‘Where the devil’s Father gone?’
    On that instant there was the sound of a female voice raised in argument outside the door which opened to let the owner of the voice come in. It was a young woman trailed by a maidservant and a young man in Hunsdon’s livery who was still arguing with her back.
    ‘Mistress, this is unwise, this is very very foolish, my lord Hunsdon will…’ droned the servingman in a voice that sounded as if it had been flattened with a hot iron. The maidservant elbowed him and he finally fell silent, looking crestfallen.
    Dodd gawked. For all the cunning cut of her green velvet English gown, it was quite obvious the lady was pregnant. She was also tall, lushly built with a haughty expression on her face, light hazel eyes, skin creamy and hardly painted at all, and magnificent rich glossy black hair tumbling down her back in a proudly maidenlike display, only slightly controlled by a rope of pearls and emeralds wound about it.
    Dodd felt quite pleased to see something so restful to the eye, especially as her neckline was cut temptingly low. He heard Carey’s breath check infinitesimally beside him. A second later Carey was on his feet, sweeping a tremendous bow. Dodd’s eyes were trapped by the velvet valley above the short bodice as she curtseyed in response. Then the lovely view was cut off because the lady had opened her arms, put her head on one side and Carey had folded her to his chest with a most disrespectfully thorough kiss on her mouth.
    ‘Mistress Bassano,’ he said caressingly when he had come up for air. ‘What a splendid joy to see you again.’
    Mistress Bassano laughed, put up a hand to stroke Carey’s cheek. ‘Whatever are you doing in London, Robin?’ she asked. ‘I thought you’d run away from me forever.’
    Good God, thought Dodd in despair, not another loose bitch, and then bitterly, and not for the first time, how the devil does he draw the women to him like that?
    ‘I could say that my despair at being parted from you so poisoned my meat and drink that in order to survive I was forced to return,’ Carey suggested.
    Mistress Bassano tossed her head haughtily. ‘And I would say you were lying to me.’
    ‘Well, I am,’ Carey admitted, his blue eyes sparkling. ‘My blasted father ordered me south.’ A worrying thought obviously struck him. ‘It isn’t…er…He hasn’t…er…?’
    Mistress Bassano shook her head. ‘No, no. I’m sure he doesn’t know.’
    Dodd caught the knowing glance from the maidservant to the servingman and felt his heart sink even further. What the hell was going on here?
    ‘His lordship was in Chelsea this afternoon,’ put in the manservant. ‘We expect him at any minute. He…er…didn’t leave any orders about you, sir.’
    ‘Mm,’ Carey smiled kindly on the man. ‘How is it with you, Will, any luck?’
    Will shook his head, looking doleful. ‘No, sir. If it weren’t for your father giving me his livery, I’d be in the Fleet.’
    ‘Bit of a comedown, isn’t it, after this