Read Online It Takes a Hero by Elizabeth Boyle - Free Book Online

of manners and all." He swiped at his chin with his sleeve and went back to his dinner, as if suddenly embarrassed to have all eyes upon him.
    Rafe glanced at Lady Finch and found her studying Cochrane once again, her expression maternal and something else, as if she were making notes to herself.
    Poor lad
, he thought.
That woman is going to take you under her wing
. Cochrane may have learned his trade from the spymaster, but he was about to meet the master meddler. He didn't stand a chance.
    Better him than me
, Rafe thought, before returning to the subject at hand. "I think you might be on to something, Jemmy. The author would have to be someone who knows India, or is well enough read to have a good command of the locale and customs. A nabob's daughter, perhaps."
    "Cits and mushrooms," Lady Finch said. "Nuisances, one and all. Buying up every sort of manor and acting like kings. No manners, no breeding, just an obscene amount of money that allows them to think they should be included with the gentry."
    Jemmy shot Rafe an arched glance.
Now, you've done it
.
    "Are there many of them about?" Rafe asked, realizing this was as good a place as any to start. Maybe he'd find that infuriating Miss Tate once again. He'd like to see if her blue eyes still held that mocking skepticism once he'd unmasked his quarry. Without her witty aid.
    "How many? Too many, according to mother," Jemmy told him. "Take you at least a week, most likely two just to call on all of them. But I doubt just making a social call will work, for whoever it is must be very good at keeping their scribbling a secret if mother hasn't discovered them before now. Besides, to get into their houses, you'd have to take mother along with you."
    Lady Finch groaned, looking as if she were about to be ill at such a prospect. But she was saved from that horrendous fate by her husband.
    Lord Finch glanced up from his end of the table. "Why not just invite them all here? All the likely suspects and that sort of rot. Have one of those supper parties you're always pestering me about. Ought to be able to winnow your likely author from the field."
    Rafe and Jemmy glanced down at Lady Finch. She looked about to choke on a forkful of cheese tart.
    "Here? To Finch Manor?" she managed to sputter. "You want me to invite those… cits into my home? Preposterous!" She shuddered. "Why, if word got out that I had lowered myself to entertaining nabobs and mushrooms, my good opinion would hold no continence with anyone of any social standing."
    "All anyone will remember, my lady," Rafe told her, warming to the idea since it would expedite his time in Bramley Hollow, "is that you assisted in unmasking the author of the
Darby
tales. In that light, your heroic sacrifice will be regarded as merely another indication of the great lengths you will go to aid your peers." He added a charming smile and a wink to his plea.
    The lady picked up her fan and fluttered it at him. "Go on with you, Raphael Danvers. You are as silver-tongued as your father once was. And I'll have you know he was quite a favorite of mine when I was out."
    There was another snort from the baron's end of the table.
    Lady Finch ignored him.
    "The idea of a supper party does have merit," Rafe said. "For I couldn't call on these people without you accompanying me and you did say you would help me." He glanced over at Jemmy. "How many visits would it entail?"
    "Weeks worth," he said, clearly enjoying the idea of his mother being sidetracked for a good fortnight or so.
    Glancing over at Mrs. Radleigh, Lady Finch asked, "How many likely families are there?"
    "Fifteen at least," the young woman replied. "And I imagine they would all come if you invited them to dinner."
    "Fifteen?" Now it was Jemmy's turn to express disapproval. "Why not just invite the entire Indian subcontinent and be done with it? No, I think you two should go out and visit each one. Uncover them in their own lair, so to say."
    Jemmy wasn't getting rid of his mother