Read Online Regency Spymasters 01 - Spy Fall by Diana Quincy - Free Book Online Page A

Viscount Darling were confirmed during the meal. He was a courteous friendly presence, taking care to engage with everyone, even Cosmo, who remained uncharacteristically silent and was almost churlish at times. Maxim and Marcel were now taking their meals at the cottage, ostensibly so they could continue working. But Mari suspected it was because while Mrs. Godfrey’s delicious food was to their liking, the formality surrounding meals at Langtry was not.
    Cosmo drank heavily during the meal, and although he said nothing overtly rude to Darling, his dislike of the viscount was obvious. Aldridge was another matter entirely. The marquess’s obvious warmth made it clear he had an abiding fondness for the man who’d been a regular presence at Langtry since boyhood.
    “Tell me,” Mari asked once the main course had been served, “did you all often find yourselves in trouble as children?”
    “Rosie rarely joined us. She was too busy searching for those fossils of hers.”
    “They found me very boring,” Rosie said cheerfully.
    “You have never been boring,” Cosmo said, draining another glass of wine.
    Darling exchanged a twinkling look with Cosmo. “But the two of us did manage to get into a few scrapes.”
    Cosmo sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “What Darling here is too polite to say is that he played the saint to my sinner.”
    “I fear that characterization is far too flattering to me and much too harsh to you.” The man practically glowed, yet there was a remoteness to his radiant male beauty. By contrast, Cosmo seemed darker, earthier, and more rugged. While Darling’s sunny nature brought to mind a cloudless spring day, Cosmo was an unpredictable summer storm, with all the wild roiling beauty found in thunderclouds and cracks of lightning. “You did pull me off that cliff.”
    Aldridge paused. “What cliff?”
    “I walked too close to the edge—”
    “In an attempt to impress Ellie,” Cosmo said.
    Darling nodded. “Only I slipped and would certainly have fallen to my death if Cosmo hadn’t pulled me up in time.”
    Aldridge glanced between the two men. “I’ve never heard that story. Cosmo, clearly you were to be commended.”
    Cosmo made a dismissive motion with his hand. “It was a momentary lapse.”
    Aldridge’s focus shifted to cutting his meat. “You did always have a bit of the devil in you.”
    “So Darling looked angelic in comparison.” Cosmo sat back in his chair, gesturing for Toby, the footman, to refill his glass. “Indeed, I was the one who dared Elinor to climb that tall tree in the back orchard. While Darling begged her not to, and then ran to get help when she couldn’t get down.”
    “But Ellie told me you are the one who climbed up to get her before help came,” Rosie said.
    Darling’s smile was gracious. “She constantly followed us, and Cosmo was always coming to her rescue.”
    “Not always,” Cosmo said.
    An uncomfortable silence blanketed the table, jarred only by the scraping of silverware against the plates. Aldridge remained focused on his meal, his movements stiff and precise.
    “What I mean to say,” Cosmo said, “is that you were the one to come to her rescue when it mattered.”
    All traces of laughter melted off Darling’s face. “Would that I could have had more success in that endeavor. Alas, I reached Paris too late.”
    Darling was the man who had gone to Elinor’s rescue in Paris in Cosmo’s stead? Hiding her surprise, Mari centered her attention on her plate pushing peas onto her fork and bringing it to her mouth. Chewing slowly, she mulled over the revelation.
    Aldridge picked up his glass and swallowed. Replacing it on the table in a careful manner, he said, “You did all that you could, Tristan, and for that we are eternally grateful.”
    Cosmo raised his glass in ironic salute. “Eternally.”
    Darling did not respond to the mocking tone in Cosmo’s voice. “I’d have given anything for it to have turned