Read Online Somewhat Scandalous (Brambridge Novel 1) by Pearl Darling - Free Book Online Page A

collecting, analyzing and dissemination. Before he could start on the latter three, he needed to focus on the first—his target, their strengths, location, likely intentions and indeed, their capabilities.
    “Hmm. What information has been passed?”
    “That’s just it, it’s random; sometimes it’s little secrets, like the type of delicious cream bun they were serving in Hartley Place on a Tuesday,”
    Henry raised his glass and studied the light as it curved through the brandy, his mouth watering as his stomach gurgled even louder than before. “Delicious cream bun?”
    Granwich put out his hands and stretched. “Ahem. Yes. Belgian fancies apparently. A light cream center with jam on the top surrounding by a slightly salty dough…” He scratched at his head. “At least that is what I’m told.”
    “And why is that dangerous?” Henry took a sip of the brandy. It did nothing to soothe his hunger.
    “Blighter found the bakery that was supplying the war office and put a bottleful of laudanum in every cream bun they could find.”
    “I didn’t hear of anyone being affected.”
    “They weren’t. Somebody had requested that they served Danish pastries on that day instead.” Granwich coughed. “Can’t think who that person was. When we used to get the cakes from Lord Foxtone’s outfit we never had the same problems.” He studied his blank desk and rolled his shoulders. “The bakery was paid for the Belgian buns anyway so they gave them to the paupers in gin alley. Poor souls were out of their heads for days.”
    “Good grief, if that had happened to the staff of the War Office—”
    “—someone could have assassinated them, stolen the secrets, done something despicable right under our noses and no one would have been able to do anything about it.”
    “What about the seemingly important pieces of information?”
    “Fashington found a list of all the people that worked in the War Office. Yours, his, the new boy Lassiter, even my name was on it. It was a bloody list of targets. If they know who we are, they can get at us.”
    Henry frowned. He’d prided himself on operating in the shadows. Outside of the war office no one knew that he worked for the crown. Whichever way he looked at it, the list of names and the Belgian buns, neither of the pieces of information tied together or gave him any more of a clue about the French spy.
    He drained the glass of brandy and, leaning forward, pushed it back onto Granwich’s desk. “You called him Monsieur Herr . Mister in French, Mister in German. Why the double emphasis?”
    “It was Earl Harding that chose it. Apparently it amused him. It was the last word at the end of the list that Charles gave us. Blue ink that had run slightly. But it very clearly said ‘ihn’ in German which means ‘him’ in English. We’ve no idea if it’s connected. But we went ahead and called the spy Mister Mister in German and French anyway, just to cover all bases.”
    “That could be the spy’s mark.”
    Granwich nodded. “Or it could be that it was the name of someone on the list that the spy was thinking about but he couldn’t remember his name. You know when you say oh him .” He drew in his chin. “I seem to be doing that a lot at the moment.”
    “Where did Charles find the note?”
    “Rather strangely, he said it was tucked into his clothes.” Granwich sniffed. “Bit of an unusual set up if you ask me, meticulously making a list of Crown people and then losing it in one of their pieces of clothing.”
    “And Charles—”
    “—no reason to doubt his loyalty. Strange cove but fairly cunning. Has found us some interesting stuff about the French until now. No whiff of scandal.”
    Henry stood. The word scandal reminded him of the chaperoned Victoria and, more importantly, Agatha who, no matter what he said, always seemed to find some way to create an experiment that ended in a hoo haa. More fool him, he had let them loose for the first time since Lord