The Charlotte Series: Book 3: The Pretender's Gold

SECTION VI- A PLAN 15

Chapter 15

"Stu!" cried a familiar voice as he climbed from the viscount's coach.

"Richard?"

The last time he'd been in Richard's company was the year The Charlotte sank. No. That wasn't right. Stu shook his head. Richard arrived at Dovesdale shortly after the duke's entourage. Richard arrived with Bailey, Izzy, and now that he was thinking on it, he seemed to remember them mentioning something about Biggs and Daisy too. Funny how you can forget things...

Richard only raised a hand as he walked forward. Stu sincerely liked the man, but an Earl had little time to mingle company with a Sailor that was forever in and out of port. Richard had a great sense of humor, as he recalled. Stu fought to hide his smile as Richard reached them.

"Am I to be surrounded by rakes then?" he tossed his hands up in the air in a frustrated gesture as he lost his battle and broke into a grin.

"Surrounded?" Richard pressed a hand to his heart and looked around as if he were anxious, though he too was fighting his grin.

"He means me." Freddie chuckled as he slapped a hand on Stu's shoulder.

"Richard, this is his lordship, the Viscount of Bentfield. Freddie, this is his lordship, the Earl of Wrentmore."

"Lord Wrentmore." Freddie dipped his chin.

"Lord Bentfield." He smiled as he extended his hand. "Please, call me Richard."

"And you must call me Freddie." Freddie shook said hand with a smile.

"Right." Stu clapped his hands as he looked from one to the other of his friends. "Now could we please get down to the business of finding my sister?"

"That is precisely why I've come!" Richard altered his voice to a fairly remarkable imitation of his sister which had Stu covering his mouth to smother his laughter. "Dizzy allowed as there is no one in the world better qualified, I was to come at once."

Stuart lost it when Richard shoved a hand on his hip and flipped his other hand palm down as he finished. Freddie joined the laughter. Though he didn't know the object of the mockery, it was remarkably funny for a richly dressed Earl to speak and gesture so exactly like a woman.

"And of course, there is no denying that woman anything when she has set her mind upon it." Richard finished with a chuckle.

After he managed to catch his breath, Stu turned to Freddie to offer the explanation the man was to polite to ask after.

"Richard is the older brother of Lady Hartwood. Years ago, when she was a girl of fourteen, they got into a spot of trouble." Stu offered a very condensed version of the story, figuring that Izzy or Richard could fill in the blanks at their leisure, or not at all. "They were forced to part, but he promised that he would find her. It took him eight years, but he kept his promise."

"He found her then?"

"Obviously." Stu rolled his eyes. "But when he finally found her, Richard had to rescue her from-"

"-From a demon in human form!" Richard growled as he picked up the tale. "He's been dispatched back to hell where he belongs! But I'd gladly give the rest of my leg if I could go back to kill him before he orchestrated the death of our parents."

At the puzzled look on Freddie's face, Richard grinned and hiked up the leg of his trouser to reveal the lower half of his calf. It took Freddie a moment to register that part of the calf and foot were made of wood. Freddie would not have noticed the handicap if Richard hadn't shown him. To Freddie's credit he only nodded.