Page 86 of Her Scandalous Pursuit

“You’re drunk!” Thisbe exclaimed.

“No, not drunk.” Theo dismissed her words with an airy wave of his hand. “We had to blend in, you see.”

“You smell like the inside of a barrel.”

“Oh, that.” Desmond lifted the lapel of his jacket and sniffed. “Someone tried to crown me with a mug, and it spilled all over me.”

“Master Theo!” Smeggars rushed through the door, and in his agitation he slipped back to their childhood names. “And Master Reed. What have you done now?”

As he fussed over them, a maid entered with a basket of supplies, followed by another with a pitcher and a washbowl, with the twins’ nurse bringing up the rear.

“Hallo, Katie,” Desmond said cheerfully.

“Hallo, yourself.” She looked over the men with an assessing eye. “Ah, well, not so bad.” She turned to Thisbe. “No need to worry, miss. I’ll fix ’em up, right as rain. Used to patch up my own boys often enough, didn’t I?”

“That should stand you in good stead with Alex and Con,” the dowager duchess commented.

“Aye, my lady. They’re going to be corkers, right enough.” Katie grinned at Cornelia. “Best sit down, gentlemen. This may take a bit.”

As she set to work cleaning and doctoring their wounds, Theo began a recital of their evening, punctuated by comments from his companions, ending with a description of the fight. “So then this other chap jumped me from behind before I could pick the villain up off the floor—”

“Desmond cracked the man with a cudgel he took off the other ruffian,” Reed interrupted, a faint note of pride in his voice. “But then one of the guards tackled him, and I had to go after that fellow.”

“I kicked ’im in the shins,” Tom inserted.

“So you did.” Reed frowned faintly. “I suppose we should have taken you back to the orphanage.”

“That’s all right,” the boy assured him. “I can get one of them breakfasts like I had ’ere last time.”

“He’s right. A bit of food would do nicely now,” Theo commented. “Now, Thiz, don’t growl.”

“I’m not.” Thisbe bit off her words. “Much as I am enjoying hearing all about you three brawling in a dockside tavern, it would be nice to learn the result of your adventures. Did you find out anything from this man you went to find?”

“Oh. Well.” Theo glanced at his brother, then Desmond. “As to that...”

“He slipped out in the middle of the fracas,” Desmond admitted.

“Men!” Cornelia said with disgust, rapping her cane on the floor and standing up. “Absolutely useless, the lot of them. It’s clear, Thisbe, that you and I will have to take care of the matter.”

THISBE WAS AT breakfast the next morning when the dowager duchess walked into the dining room. “Grandmother. I’m surprised to see you up so early.” The dowager duchess usually had only tea and toast in her room before she began the long process of her toilette, coming down for a full breakfast much later.

“We should make an early start of it,” Cornelia replied.

“Start of what?”

“Finding out what the boys did not.”

“You really mean that?” Thisbe stared at her.

“Of course I meant it. I said it, didn’t I? We’d have gone last night except that the boys would have made a fuss. No doubt they left the place in such a shambles we wouldn’t have been able to get any information, anyway. Better to start fresh this morning.”

A smile spread across Thisbe’s face. “You’re right. We’ll show them what women can accomplish.”

It took some time to start off, as her grandmother did not believe in “gulping her food—bad for the digestion,” and it took the duchess a lengthy time to don hat, gloves and fur muff, as well as change her cloak twice. There was a further delay when it was discovered that Alex and Con had climbed up to hide inside the baggage compartment of the carriage—their presence revealed by their giggles—and had to be returned to their nurse.

The coachman looked startled when the dowager duchess directed him to drive to the Double Roses tavern, but he knew better than to question Cornelia, and the carriage rolled off.

“It’s rather early for tavern customers,” Thisbe ventured mildly. “And surely he wouldn’t be so daring as to return to the same place, anyway, knowing that we are searching for him.”