Deadly Engagement: A Georgian Historical Mystery (Alec Halsey Crimance) Read Online Free PDF Page B

of—er—highly spirited individuals.”
    “Whores and pickpockets,” Alec said flatly. “There’s no need to be coy.”
    “You made a bit of an exhibition of yourself givin’ one of those whores a diamond bracelet.”
    “I hope she was pretty enough to deserve it. If she has any sense she’ll sell the damned thing and retire on the proceeds!”
    “Alec—”
    “What does it matter? What does any of it matter now? So Olivia saw me making a fool of myself? Saw me in company with a pack of low-life. Rather an anti-climax I should think after the exhibition I made of myself at St. Neots House. She must be thanking the Gods her granddaughter chose the other brother. A bonus he comes with an earldom.”
    “Alec—”
    “She’d have avoided any outrage to her sensibilities by simply penning me a civil letter informing me of her granddaughter’s forthcoming nuptials. In fact, there was no need to go to that much trouble. An invitation to the engagement celebrations posted to my Paris lodgings would’ve more than sufficed. If one is to drink oneself into oblivion, Paris is a preferable watering hole.”
    “I wish you’d stop feelin’ so damned sorry for yourself!” the old man exploded. “I thought you had more spirit than that. Of all the stupid, inconsiderate, wasteful things to try and do! You not only scared a few more gray hairs out of that poor woman’s head but you had me sick with worry. And you almost did it too. By God, Alec, I didn’t raise you to see you throw it all away on a girl who has no more sense than to fall for the likes of Delvin!”
    “Obviously Emily is still too young to know her own mind,” Alec stated quietly. “Delvin made it up for her and Olivia stupidly permitted it because she thinks her granddaughter will be happy as Countess of Delvin. She won’t be, will she?” He pretended an interest in his porcelain coffee mug. “Your letters made no mention of Jamison-Lewis’s death…?”
    The old man’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “That’s ’cause he’s barely cold. Happened less than a month back. Accidentally shot himself in the head. Bloody fool.”
    Alec felt his uncle’s questioning gaze upon him. “Forgive me. I’ve been an inconsiderate ass. I didn’t think… I presumed… To come home and find Emily engaged to Delvin… It was a shock.”
    “Believe me, my boy, if I’d known I’d have told you long ago. And you do Olivia St. Neots an injustice. She had no idea Delvin was seriously courting her granddaughter until he asked for her hand in marriage.”
    Alec smiled crookedly. “Then I wonder when and how he discovered I was courting her?”
    The old man’s eyebrows drew together over his long nose.
    “You don’t think it a possibility?” asked Alec with surprise.
    “Possibility? A’course I do! He hasn’t been particularly subtle in his methods in wantin’ to cause you grief. He interfered in your courtship with Selina and tried to have you run out of the Foreign Department on a trumped-up charge, though we can’t prove it, so he’s more than capable of marrying Emily St.-Neots out of spite. Makes it all the more palatable that she is a granddaughter of the Duchess of Romney-St. Neots, and worth thirty thousand pounds.”
    “Is she? With that figure on her head it amazes me Olivia hasn’t had a house full of fortune-hunting suitors to contend with.”
    “Well—er—she told me in confidence.”
    Alec grinned. “Sharing confidences with a Duchess won’t help your republican cause, should it become public knowledge, Uncle. Olivia is about as steeped in aristocratic vanity and privilege as one can get.”
    “Don’t be absurd,” the old man said gruffly. “I’ve been civil to the woman, that’s all. She called on you yesterday, so naturally I invited her to have afternoon tea.”
    “Naturally.”
    Plantagenet Halsey met his nephew’s playful smirk with a characteristic stern expression. “Listen, my boy. The woman has been put through enough