One Taste of Scandal Read Online Free PDF

machines?”
    “He’s moved on to some kind of horseless carriage project now, but it is all machinery, correct?”
    He doubted Lewis Noble saw it that way. “I’ll write the note immediately.”
    “I’ll send someone with it straightaway when it is ready.”
    Judah went into the office he’d only seen for the first time yesterday and sat down at the desk. He found a fountain pen and unscrewed the cap carefully, in case ink had dribbled from the pen, and found himself rewarded for his caution. After he wiped up the ink, he pulled out a piece of paper and wrote a short note, then took it out to Hales.
    This note had better do the job properly. He was not going to be a failure his first day.
    A boy waited in the anteroom and Hales handed him the note as soon as he’d scribbled the address. After the boy left, Judah asked, “Can we open the tearoom today?”
    “The bakers will have to do the sifting and kneading by hand. It will slow them down but they’ll get something made.”
    Judah checked his pocket watch. He’d already lost nearly an hour and the bakery would be opening any minute. “I believe I’ll go downstairs and observe the bakery.”
    “If you would, Captain, I have a dozen or so papers that need your signature. Requisitions and the like.”
    “Didn’t the marchioness handle all that before she left?”
    “That was yesterday.”
    He sighed. At least Alys must have told the staff here not to call him “my lord.” He still felt a shudder every time someone called him that. Until his brother arrived home from his vacation though, he wouldn’t be able to dig into old family history and attempt to discover who his father really was. For now, he resolved to learn the business he’d been thrust into.
    Lewis Noble was not at his workroom when the boy called, but the next morning, as Judah was walking up to the loading dock at eight a.m., he heard a couple of shouts, then saw a small, open carriage moving toward him, without horses. Steam billowed into a nimbus behind and above as the wheels crackled over the pavement.
    He grinned. He’d heard of the existence of such things but had never seen a horseless carriage. Lewis Noble was a man he wanted to meet. What an imagination he must have, and such ability. Men scattered with alarmed cries as the contraption came through, belching smoke. It stopped between the back door of Redcake’s and the loading dock.
    One man stepped down from behind the wheel he’d been piloting and ran to the back to kick down a step. Another man opened the rear door and stepped to the ground. Steam dispersed as an engine shut down.
    Simon Hellman jumped down from the loading dock. “I say! Lewis Noble and Gawain Redcake! What a sight for sore eyes you two lads are!”
    Judah would have recognized that long, hawkish nose anywhere, though the eye patch and scar running down the left cheek were new. The other man had the same blond hair, and roughly the same build and height, but moved more easily. His hands had ground-in lines of black, probably from oil. Redcake, on the other hand, was well-dressed. Hat, gloves, and cane. You’d never know he’d once lived and worked in the harsh conditions of the Black Mountains of India, though the limp might tell you he’d been through a few serious scuffles.
    Judah moved forward, unable to contain his grin at the sight of an old soldier. “Sergeant Redcake!” He lifted his arm to clap his hand to the other man’s shoulder.
    Redcake glanced in his direction, his good eye narrowed. No sign of good will. “Before my cousin steps foot in that establishment, I want his fee made clear. He will not be cheated in future.”
    Judah lowered his arm and frowned. “When have you ever not known me to be a fair man?”
    “I do not know what orders you are under.”
    “None in particular, other than to keep this establishment from failing in the next couple of weeks while my brother and his wife are vacationing. Don’t you trust your own sister?