Let's Talk of Murder Read online

  They mistook Luten’s dragging step to be due to his sprained ankle. The cheer went up as he entered the room. Luten looked at the banner, then he hooked the handle of his cane over the bunting and pulled it down. He looked at his friends and shook his head. “Make that the Duke of Folly,” he said.

  “Duke?” Prance cried. “A dukedom as well! Then Byron was right.”

  “Not as well. A dukedom, period. That was the reward he meant. Or so he says. I’ll be damned if I’ll accept it.”

  “Any land or money to go with it?” Coffen asked.

  “No.”

  “Oh Luten, I’m sorry,” Corinne said, and put her arm around his waist. He smiled ruefully down at her and squeezed her fingers.

  “That will teach me to count my chickens before they’re hatched. Bad as it is for myself, I now have to confess my folly to my colleagues. God, I’ll be a laughing stock.”

  “No, no! We make the prince out an ogre, renegging on his promise!” Prance said. “Surely that’s the way to go.”

  “He never actually said he would boot out the Tories,” Luten said. “Although that is certainly what he meant–or what he knew I thought he meant. He can’t have been unaware of the rumors swirling around the House this past week. He did nothing to squelch them.”

  “It’s unconscionable!” Prance said, then added more leniently, “Though it would be fine to be a duke, too.”

  “Duke bedamned, that’s just politics to dilute his having created so many Tory peers to shoehorn their bills through the Upper House,” Luten howled. “He’ll not use me to whitewash his scoundrelly behaviour.”

  Coffen listened to their chatter, then spoke. “If you ask me, which you didn’t, I’d say he has another stunt up his sleeve as well. Breaking two eggs with one stone. He did it to drive a wedge between you Whigs. How would Grey and Grenville and the older members of the Upper House feel to see you suddenly boosted up to a duke? A bit of a slap in the face for them. Bound to cause resentment.”

  “By God, you’re right!” Luten said.

  “Dissension in the ranks! Divide and conquer,” Pranced added.

  Plans were afoot to counter Mouldy and Company’s latest stunt. Henry Brougham, Luten said, was the man to exploit this in print. Corinne poured the champagne and passed it around. She was not entirely unhappy with the prince’s trick, if it was a trick. Lord Luten was kept quite busy enough as a minister in the shadow cabinet. She would never see him if he were Prime Minister.

  “I’ll drop in on Brougham this afternoon,” Luten said. Then he looked at Corinne, and added, “He can attend to this little matter while Corinne and I are in Ireland for our wedding.”

  “Providing someone doesn’t murder someone else before we get away,” she added resignedly. “Meanwhile, a toast.” She looked around for someone to propose it.

  Coffen raised his glass. “To the best Prime Minister there ever wasn’t,” he said.

  Luten put his head back and laughed. At Coffen, at himself, at life. There would be other opportunities, and no doubt other murders, but he wouldn’t let them delay his wedding again.

  “To the Berkeley Brigade,” he said, holding his glass high.

  “To us,” Coffen added, and they all drank.

  About the Author

  Joan Smith is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the Ontario College of Education. She has taught French and English in high school and English in college. When she began writing, her interest in Jane Austen and Lord Byron led to her first choice of genre, the Regency, which she especially liked for its wit and humor.

  She is the author of over a hundred books, including Regencies, many with a background of mystery, for Fawcett and Walker, contemporary mysteries for Berkley, historical mysteries for Fawcett and St. Martin's, romances for Silhouette, along with a few historicals and gothics. She has had books in the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, had one book condensed in a magazine, and has been on Walden's Bestseller list.

  Her favorite travel destination is England, where she researches her books. Her hobbies are gardening, painting, sculpture and reading. She is married and has three children. A prolific writer, she is currently working on Regencies and various mysteries at her home in Georgetown, Ontario.

  Publishing Information

  Copyright © 2012 by Joan Smith

  Electronically published in 2012 by Belgrave House/Regency Reads

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No portion of this book may be reprinted in whole or in part, by printing, faxing, E-mail, copying electronically or by any other means without permission of the publisher. For more information, contact Belgrave House, 190 Belgrave Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94117-4228

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  Electronic sales: [email protected]

  This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.