A Rogue of My Own Read Online Free PDF Page B

him, Nigel carried out the business of gathering information that might help or harm the country. Forewarned was forearmed, after all, for good or bad. Some people even thought he was one of the late King George III’s bastards, which would explain why he was always in residence with the monarchs. Royal spy just didn’t fit the chap, as unassuming as he was.
    There was no pay for the people who worked for him. Nobles were enlisted to serve for the good of the country. Pay was reserved for the riffraff who couldn’t be trusted unless a coin was placed in their pocket for their efforts. Unscrupulous, though not without some redeeming qualities, Nigel would go to any lengths for the sake of his country.
    With the unspoken apology in the air between them, Nigel broached the question again. “Did you find out anything yet?”
    “Do I look like a miracle worker? I only just got here.”
    The older man smiled at Rupert’s sarcastic reply. “I wouldn’t exactly call them miracles, though you have been known to produce amazing results from time to time.”
    “I still don’t see what warranted my taking up residence here. The prime minister isn’t stupid. He isn’t going to appoint anyone to the palace who will make him look bad.”
    With the Whig party in control for so long, Nigel had a long list of contacts among them. He’d even made use, on occasion, of some of the Whig ladies of the court for minor missions. But now that the Tories controlled the parliament, his life would be a little more difficult. Not that Nigel favored either political party. He couldn’t really afford to, in his line ofwork. He would just have to begin from scratch, making new contacts among the court ladies.
    “Of course they all come from good families. I have no concern in that regard—yet,” Nigel said. “But two of the ladies assigned to the duchess when she reconciled with the queen after the Princess Royal was born were firmly in my camp. They understood the necessity of reporting anything out of the ordinary concerning the duchess. Having lost them—”
    Rupert cut in, “Don’t tell me you’re still worried about the Duchess of Kent? That’s old news, under the carpet. She and the queen get along famously now, don’t they?”
    That had been quite an estrangement during which the queen had not allowed her own mother to live in her household. It was because of John Conroy, the duchess’s private secretary and adviser. He was reputedly also her lover, though that had never been proven. But even Victoria suspected as much. When Conroy had had the audacity to try to coerce Victoria into making him her personal secretary, she had had quite enough of the domineering pair and had banished them from her household.
    Prince Albert, the queen’s husband and a nephew of the duchess’s, had patched up the rift between the two women after Victoria gave birth to her first child last year. It also helped that Conroy had left the country by then. Rupert was surprised Nigel hadn’t just arranged for the man to be assassinated. But Rupert didn’t doubt Nigel had had a part in encouraging Conroy’s self-proclaimed exile, though Nigel had never admitted as much.
    Now Nigel agreed with Rupert’s assessment. “By all accounts, the duchess has become a doting grandmother and she and Victoria are close again. But I wouldn’t be doing my jobproperly if I just assumed there is no need to keep an eye on that front—particularly since Sarah Wheeler is not being replaced with the rest of the Whig-appointed maids of honor. Smart woman not to declare her politics.”
    “Did she gain a new position in the transition?”
    “Not an official one, but since all the other ladies are new, the duchess has given her authority over the new maids of honor assigned to her.”
    Rupert knew very well that Nigel had been suspicious of Lady Sarah since she’d first arrived at court. An impoverished noblewoman, the last of her line, she had been part of the