Page 79 of Too Many Beds
Jeremiah brushed his lips across Evan’s, it was the barest of touches and the tickle of his moustache thrilled him. Evan tried to deepen the kiss but Jeremiah chuckled and moved away.
Evan sat dazed as Jeremiah stood. “I look forward to your next visit, Evan. There’s a masquerade ball in a few weeks, I think that might be the best opportunity.”
“A few weeks?” he croaked. He thought he might explode if he had to wait so long.
“Yes. Patience is a virtue. And once I’m done with you, it might be the only one you have left.”
Clarissa picked an imaginary speck of dust from off Evan’s lapel. “I dare say you’ll pass. You do make a rather fine Napoleonic soldier.”
After three long weeks, he had received the invitation he’d been so desperate for, but he had not expected Jeremiah to have stipulated his costume. “I daresay there are worse things I could go as, but I can’t say I’m particularly comfortable being dressed this way.”
His cousin rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I think you can never be happy.”
“I am more than happy, I just would prefer not to be so stiffly dressed.”
“You know I do worry about you, Evan. First you broke your engagement with Bea, then you refused to court Jaqueline, and now you are getting friendly with a gentleman whose reputation is somewhat risqué.”
“We can’t all be well-settled. But you must see it would not be fair for any young woman to be shackled to me. I haven’t got it in me to be devoted to one individual for any real amount of time. Better for me to stay a committed bachelor than risk ruining the life of a dear girl like Bea.”
Beatrice Myers was too good a soul for the likes of him, and he’d been delighted to hear she had mended her broken heart and was now engaged to the Earl of Cleveland.
Clarissa clicked her tongue. “That does not explain your interest in Jeremiah Redbourn.”
“It’s not as if I can bring shame upon my father, he’d have to admit I was his to begin with. Besides, I am still young, some fun will serve me well.”
She handed him his mask. “Just be careful, I don’t want to see you hurt.”
He kissed her cheek as he left. He’d been staying with Clarissa and her husband at their townhouse in Hertford, and acarriage would take him to Crofton Hall. The distance being less than twenty miles gave him plenty of time with no need to rush. He passed the journey reading, once again enjoying the spoils of his father’s fortune as he had no need to share his transport.
He’d spent his childhood moving between boarding schools and houses like Crofton Hall, never considering himself to have missed out on anything, as his peers saw as much of their parents as he did, so when his carriage drew up outside the beautiful red brick Elizabethan stately home, it had an air of familiarity beyond him having visited before.
A footman opened the door to his carriage. “His lordship asked me to remind all guests that masks are compulsory from the outset, sir.”
Evan had no problem tying his mask in place, it covered most of his face, as he had been instructed to ensure. “Better?”
“Thank you, sir. I’ll arrange for your luggage to be taken to your room. Please follow me, all guests are mingling in the great hall for drinks before the pre-dinner games.”
When he’d been promised fun and games, he’d hoped they would be a more private affair, but he was one of a hundred guests in the great hall and he couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. Everyone was wearing a mask. He suspected he would be able to identify some of the people once he spoke to them, and several were easy enough to guess by their build alone, but in the main, he would not know who he was talking to. What he did notice was while there were other historical costumes he was the only one in the specific uniform he’d been instructed to wear.
He wasn’t the sort to be shy, and with an ample measure of red wine in one hand he joined a lively circle of guests who seemed to be enjoying themselves. He recognised one of the voices as the Marques of Somerset who was an interesting chap with a fondness for faeries. Before he had the chance to givehis opinion on a particularly juicy titbit he’d heard at a party in Mayfair, a hand curled around his elbow. “May I have a moment, sir?”
The hand belonged to a woman dressed as Bo Peep, or that was what he assumed as she was holding a shepherd’s crook and wore a featureless white porcelain mask. She didn’t give him a chance to answer and instead guided him over to the side.
“My name is Diana. Lord Crofton instructed me to give you this.” From her cleavage, which was quite lovely, she withdrew a slip of paper. “He said he hoped you were up to the challenge. And let me tell you, if you are, you’ll enjoy your reward.”
She must be one of Jeremiah’s collection of lovers. From what Evan knew, Jeremiah had two permanent mistresses, and two gentlemen friends, who all lived at the hall alongside Lady Crofton who was a lot younger than Jeremiah and had born him a son earlier in the year after giving him two daughters previously. As far as he could tell, all involved were happy with the situation, or at least he’d not heard complaints, and Jeremiah had several other female children from his mistresses through the years.
He took the piece of paper. “Is this a treasure map?”
“After a fashion.” She laughed and returned to the throng of guests. A man wearing a Harlequin costume and a blank white mask came to greet her with a glass of wine.
He left the great hall, and entered an empty corridor where he unfolded the paper. It wasn’t a map but instead a message. Jeremiah had alluded to an adventure although Evan had thought it more bravado than anything else, but it appeared Jeremiah was serious about Evan having to earn a place in his bed.
No one gets an easy path to my bed. Solve the clues and find the treasures to demonstrate your worth, and I will ensure you receive a welcome that fulfils your desires.
First up, retrieve an old friend of mine without disturbing some of my new ones. He might be a crocodile in a fine scaly hide, but he must be wearing a bowtie freshly acquired from a willing playmate.
Friends in white masks will help.