The Devil You Know (5 page)

DeVere’s expression seemed to change, yet he continued his

narrative. “The scandals that followed our young prodigal were

sordid enough to have inspired Hogarth’s
Rake’s Progress
had he

lived a generation earlier. As I said, Frederick travelled extensive-

ly and always with a grand entourage. He also gambled away a

great deal of his wealth and was in need of a boost to his coffers

upon his return. Thus, he wed a younger daughter of the Duke of

Bridgewater. It was considered an advantageous match on both

sides, but they were constantly at odds with one another. ‘Tis no

great surprise, of course. No man loves his fetters, be they made

of gold.”

Caroline slanted DeVere an inquiring look. His lashes flut-

tered briefly, he seemed to tense for a moment, and then he

slumped back in his chair. Her hand returned to the table.

“Perhaps she just didn’t care for his philandering ways?” Di-

ana suggested tersely, feeling more than a slight affinity to the

duke’s daughter.

“But it is a man’s world.” DeVere gave a smug smile and

raised his glass.

Diana felt her hackles rise. “So you believe all women should

blindly accept profligacy and faithlessness in marriage?”

“Let us say, she would be much more content who does.”

“I differ with you on that score, my lord,” the duchess re-

marked. “I say the sauce for the gander is just as good for the

goose.”

DeVere’s expression hardened. “Speaking as one with no per-

sonal inclination toward monogamy, my answer is then why wed

at all?”

Caroline gave him a petulant look.

“More wine!” DeVere called out, breaking the strained si-

lence. He took another great draught, and then his genial mask

returned. “Where was I now? Ah! Conjugal felicity! This is pre-

cisely where the story gets interesting. Five years into their less-

than-fruitful marriage, Lady Baltimore took a fatal fall from her

husband’s phaeton.”

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Victoria Vane

“I remember hearing of this!” Caroline declared. “He was

highly suspected of foul play. After all, how can one possibly
fall

from a moving carriage unless it has overturned?”

“No charges were filed against him?” asked Annalee.

“None,” remarked DeVere. “One of the many privileges of

being a well-connected peer of the realm. Yet suspicion lingered,

so Baltimore left the country again, hoping the scandal would die

down. He spent an extended period in Italy and then went east-

ward, living amongst the Turks until he was forced to leave Con-

stantinople for fear of his life.”

“Why would his life be endangered?” Hew asked.

“Because a Christian there is regarded in much the same

manner as Jews here. Their existence is tolerated, but their rights

are few. They are not permitted to own property, buy slaves, nor

inter-marry with the Mahomedans. The penalty for any of these

is death.”

Ned sat back, swirling a finger around rim of his glass with

a puzzled expression.”Why would Baltimore need to buy slaves

when he travelled with a full retinue?”

“Did I say he bought slaves?” DeVere asked with a sly smile.

“You don’t mean to say he married a Turk?”

“Not one, dear Ned, but a half-dozen of them,” DeVere cor-

rected.

“The devil you say!” Ned exclaimed.

DeVere laughed. “I assure you ‘tis true! He set up his own

private seraglio.”

“Seraglio?” Annalee turned to her husband. “What is a sera-

glio?”

Ned flushed. “It is a polygamous arrangement, my love, fa-

vored by many in the uncivilized world. Also known as a harem.”

DeVere grinned. “Now perhaps you understand why this

house is constructed with so many separate living apartments?”

Ned was incredulous. “You can’t mean he kept a harem
here?
”

“I can, and he did,” DeVere replied. “Though the tale grows

more illicit still.”

“How is that even possible?” asked Annalee.

“Apparently, even a half-dozen concubines were not enough

to satisfy Baltimore’s carnal appetite. He ordered the construction

of another house in London to better accommodate his adopted

27

lifestyle and then secured the services of a number of...procuress-

es to keep him supplied with fresh conquests.”

Diana was aghast. “It’s illegal and immoral! I’ve never heard

anything so shocking!”

“Because you live in the country.” The duchess chuckled.

“There is all manner of intrigue in London. It is a most diverting

place. But polygamy and private prostitution? Flouting the law

on such a grand scale? How deliciously dissolute. I marvel that

he got away with it.”

“Only for a time, my dear. For our bold Baron Baltimore be-

came obsessed with a young woman he could not procure for any

price, a comely Quakeress who reputedly kept a milliner’s shop

at Tower Hill.” He paused in his narrative, his lips curving at his

guests’ rapt expressions.

“Finally, a bit of virtue enters into this sordid tale,” Hew re-

marked.

“Though virtue and vice divide the world, vice has by far the

better share,” quoted DeVere.

“None can argue that,” said Ned dryly.

“Well, what happened to the girl?” demanded Annalee.

“He abducted her, of course,” DeVere said.

“Impossible!” Edward scoffed. “This is melodrama worthy of

the Drury Lane Stage. Surely you have fabricated this entire story

just to entertain us.”

“I wish I were making it up. But since you doubt me…” De-

Vere stood and strode from the room, leaving his guests with puz-

zled frowns. He returned a few minutes later, with a yellowed

news journal in hand. He dropped it in front of Ned.

“Why I’ll be…hung,” his friend murmured at the headline

dated March 1768. “So the devil was caught red-handed.”

“He was tried for abducting and ravishing one Sarah Wood-

cock, but acquitted after less than two hours deliberation. It is all

there in sordid detail in the
Gentleman’s Magazine.
”

“What then happened to the girl?” Annalee asked.

“The jury believed she made no sincere effort to escape her

captor. The broadsheets further claimed that while Baltimore was

undoubtedly guilty, neither was she truly innocent.”

“How horribly unfair for the victim to be painted with the

same brush as the perpetrator of the crime!” exclaimed Annalee.

DeVere shrugged. “As I said, it is a man’s world.”

28

Victoria Vane

“I marvel that you have taken such a very keen interest in this

Lord Baltimore,” Diana remarked.

“I am so easily bored that you might say he has become my

hobby,” DeVere said. “His life has provided me endless enter-

tainment. I have acquired his diaries and travel journals, and

my agent even now seeks to purchase the notorious Bloomsbury

House from the Duke of Bolton.”

“Why on earth would you desire such a tainted thing?” Diana

asked.

DeVere cocked a brow. “Must I have a
reason?
”

“But what happened to him in the end?” Annalee asked. “You

said the scoundrel was acquitted. Was he never held to account

for his crimes?”

“Can one ever truly escape one’s sins?” DeVere asked, waxing

philosophic. “No doubt you ladies and my entirely-too-upright

brother will be relieved to hear that our hero did come to a bad

end. Upon his acquittal, he found himself in dire financial straits.

He sold off everything and left England with eight women, a phy-

sician, and two Negro servant—presumably eunuchs,” he added

in a laughing aside. “He travelled thusly for three years until his

death in Italy. He was eight and thirty. And so ends our tale of

woe.”

“What a wasteful life!” Annalee declared.

“Indeed,” said Hew. “It only serves to demonstrate how idle-

ness can lead to a man’s destruction. Speaking of which, might I

remind you that we have a gentleman to rescue from the devil’s

own abode at Clay Hill.”

“The devil’s abode? What on earth do you mean?” said An-

nalee.

Hew’s face flushed. “Mayhap I said more than I should have.”

“Nevertheless, you must now explain,” said Diana. “Is my

husband in danger?”

“Only if he has a predilection for hard drinking, deep gam-

ing, and low company,” DeVere answered with a smirk.

“Dear God.” Diana cast all three men an accusing look. “Why

on earth have you waited so long to retrieve him?”

“Because he has already been there three days, madam,”

said DeVere. “I assure you the damage is already done. Besides,

one must make allowance for a gentleman’s dignity. To have ap-

29

The Devil You Know

peared immediately upon your known arrival to fetch him here

would have implied...”

“What?” she demanded.

His lips twitched in obvious amusement. “To put it politely...

that he is less than master of his own domain.”

Diana’s met DeVere’s mocking smile with a look of reproach.

“And thus, does the devil look after his own.”

30

Victoria Vane

Chapter Four

“It appears our Colonel is entertaining,” Hew remarked.

Though the hour was advanced, the scene was much as they had

envisioned it would be when they arrived at O’Kelly’s mansion.

Grooms milled about, horse-drawn vehicles overflowed the court-

yard, and every window was ablaze with the glow of candles.

“His house is always full when he comes down for the races,”

said DeVere. “He and his consort, Mrs. Hayes, are a notoriously

cunning pair of adventurers who use such lavish entertainment to

gain the confidence of their guests.” He lowered his voice. “While

Madam Hayes provides the carnal delights of her
filles de joies

straight from her London brothels, our good Colonel, who keeps

as deep a cellar as my own, plies his intended dupes with drink.

When the time is right, the dice boxes and faro tables appear.”

“But I’m confounded how Reginald fell in with them,” said

Ned with a frown.

31

The Devil You Know

“Perhaps I can enlighten you on that score,” Hew said. “A

few days ago, when I came in from a training run on the downs,

I encountered three gentlemen—and I use the term generously—

one of whom I recognized as our neighbor, O’Kelly. I gathered

from snippets of conversation that the fellows were previously

acquainted with one another and had met up quite by happen-

stance at a tavern in Ewell. While there was some talk of breeding

one of the mares to our Snap stallion, the Colonel convinced the

chap that he would be better to look at Eclipse instead. I now have

no doubt in my mind that O’Kelly accompanied Lord Reginald as

a convenient excuse to spy upon his competition.”

“They paid me no heed at all, likely presuming I was the sta-

ble master, and unaware that one of the three was your expected

guest Lord Reginald, I was not inclined to undeceive them. The

three shortly departed, presumably to Clay Hill.”

“And thus did our good neighbor prime his pigeon for the

plucking,” remarked DeVere.

“I wish I had spoken of this earlier,” said Hew with a frown.

“Don’t blame yourself,” said Ned. “You are not the man’s

keeper. And if they were previously acquainted as you say, there

is nothing you could have done without insulting O’Kelly.”

When the trio rapped at the door, the footman only had to

glance at their rich dress before shepherding them straight into

the main reception room, hazy with pipe smoke, redolent of the

free-flowing liquor, and resounding with raucous laughter and

the rattle of dice boxes.

Ned heaved a great sigh as his gaze skirted the room. “I must

say my sympathy is with Diana. All we can do now is serve her

best interests by extracting the hapless sheep from the wolf’s den.”

Ned and Hew circulated the rooms in search of Lord Regi-

nald while DeVere sought out the master of the house. He found

his quarry, O’Kelly, presiding over the hazard table. He sketched

the shallowest of bows. “A private word with you, sir?”

“By Jaysus,” O’Kelly exclaimed, slapping his thigh. “If isn’t

his
eminence
the Viscount himself paying a call on his lowly neigh-

bor!”DeVere ignored the sarcasm. “If I have been negligent, sir, I

meant no slight. I am only just come down from London and have

been much occupied with guests of my own, one of whom ap-

pears to have gone astray.”

32

Victoria Vane

“Astray? An interesting choice of words, your lardship.”

DeVere’s gaze casually tracked the room.”Perhaps we could

speak of it in a less public sphere?”

“Why, anything to oblige my
neighbor,
” said O’Kelly with

obsequious joviality. “Like any fine jontlemen, I have a study to

conduct my business affairs.”

“Then pray, let us repair to it.”

Nodding to the groom-porter, O’Kelly gave up the dice box

and beckoned DeVere to follow. They entered the man’s private

study. “Perhaps you would care to have a drink with me, Lard