The new Earl of Fairchild sat with his head in his hands as he listened in astonishment to the lawyer’s words. He hadn’t planned on ever being the Earl, that was why he had joined the army. When they had found him in Portugal and told him he was now the Eleventh Earl of Fairchild he had sat down and laughed at them. He knew there were at least 3 people between him and the title, and the Earl wasn’t that old.

But after listening to the tale, he had to believe them. The earl had been dead for eight months at that time - it had taken them that long to find him. Of course in his work, he was rarely in one place for very long. It had taken another four months to finish his work and sell out his commission and return to England.

Now his was sitting in his rooms at the Claridge in Brooke Street, he listened in horror to what the tenth earl expected of him.

"Lady Serena is now three and twenty and unwed. The old earl has tied up her inheritance so she cannot receive anything but a small quarterly allowance until she is wed.: The lawyer, Ian Bickford, droned on. "If she does not wed before she turns 25 the entire amount will be donated to charity and she will no longer have an allowance. The earl has further tied your portion of his estate to her marriage."

At that Robert’s head jerked up and his friend Will whistled softly under his breath.

"What do you mean that he tied the new Earl’s portion to her marriage? I thought it was entailed."

"Part of it is entailed," the lawyer explained patiently, looking over his glasses at them like they were some kind of simpleton students. "But that is mainly the estates and houses. The money is not entailed as it came from the Earl’s maternal grandmother. He split it into two equal portions of 100,000 pounds each. One to go to Lady Serena on her marriage and the other to go to you on her marriage. If she does not marry, neither of you receives the money."

"That is ridiculous!" Will exclaimed. "How can he do that to his only daughter, let alone to his heir."

"He seems to feel that if she didn’t have an incentive that Lady Serena would not marry. She would molder away at Fairchild Court scratching away at her silly stories until she died. He wanted more for her than that. This was his way of insuring she moved on with her life."

"But if she is three and twenty, she is pretty much firmly on the shelf. She is not a sprightly young miss ripe for the marriage mart. Did she not have a season? I remember her from years ago before I went away to Oxford, red hair, long, gangly, ungraceful, freckles and clumsy. She must have turned into a real antidote if that kind of dowry did not bring in a suitable candidate for her hand."

"She never had a Season."

"Oh No, That bad!"

"Not at all, they were preparing her for a season when her mother fell ill. She refused to leave her. Lady Fairchild died 4 years later and she had still not had her season. Then before her mourning for her mother was over, her father died, and she has just completed her year of mourning for him. Now she is free to have her season."

"I guess I really have no choice in the matter."

"None whatsoever. If you do not want to see her thrown out on the streets alone, and yourself practically penniless, you need to see her married. Or you could marry her yourself." Mr. Bickford smiled slyly.

"Not on your last dollar! I have no desire to marry just yet. Maybe never!" Sighing deeply, he continued. "Have the staff of Fairchild House prepare for Lady Serena and her companion’s arrival. What is the Butler’s name?"

"Huntley, My Lord."

"Good, have Huntley prepare the house and hire whatever staff he feels is necessary to get the job done by March 15th. I should have Lady Serena back here by then."

And on that note he nodded to Mr. Bickford and signaled his batman, McCloud, to show the lawyer to the door.

"Now what are you going to do?" Will, also known as William Henry Ashford Walport, Marquess Allendale, the heir of the Duke of Halford, asked, as he leaned back in his chair and studied the brandy in his glass. "I suppose you could just ignore the entire thing and leave her to her own devises. You do have a fortune of your own, you really don’t need this one."

"No I can’t leave her sitting like this. If she truly is an antidote, or a bluestocking or anything else that makes her difficult to marry off, I will have to bribe someone to marry her so she will have her money."

"Not an auspicious beginning to wedded bliss, don’t you know." Will drawled.

"No but it is better than the alternative of starving to death. Come, lets go to Whites and have some dinner and play some cards. I need to get this conversation out of my head. No wait, I need to send Lady Serena a note to tell her I will be there to pick her up in a fortnight to bring her to London for her season. Then we will go to Whites."

Hurriedly scratching off a note and franking it, he thought quickly, and wrote out a note to his great aunt, Lady Winthrup, telling her he would call tomorrow. Handing both notes to McCloud with instructions for them to be delivered immediatly, he set off with Will.

As they exited the door to the hotel, he was in front and stooped to had a small raggedy boy a penny, when the brick beside his head shattered from a bullet and he heard the crack of gunfire. Pushing the child to the pavement and covering him with his body, he listened to the screams of others in the street. When there was no more gunfire, he grabbed the child and checked him to see if he was unhurt. Then he quickly scanned the street for anyone hurrying away, but saw nothing suspicious.

"What was that all about?" Will asked.

"I can’t be certain, but I think someone was shooting at me?" Robert said thoughtfully. "You know that is the third incident since I returned from Portugal. The street pads three nights ago, and the highway men on the road to Richmond last night. It begins to make me wonder if someone is out to get me. I wonder why. I’ve been out of the country for eight years, why would anyone here want me dead."

"Maybe is isn’t someone from here." Will said softly. "Maybe it’s someone from there."

Richard looked at him carefully, shook his head, but said nothing. Looking down at the young urchin still standing by his side, he thought about how close they had both come to death today and this young one had never had a chance to live.

"What’s your name?"

"Tommy, sir."

"Do you have a family?"

"No Sir, me mom died last winter, don’t know where me Da is, didn’t come home one day."

"How old are you?"

"Don’t know exactly, Sir."

"How would you like a regular job, helping me."

His face lit up, but then he said, "It won’t be anything to get me in trouble with the constable will it."

"No." Robert laughed. "No I think you could be very useful to me. Here, take this to room 204 and give it to the man who answers the door."

With that he scratched out a quick note on a piece of foolscrap and handed it to Tommy.

"Off you go now." He nodded to the doorman so he would admit Tommy, and walked off with Will toward Whites.

"What are you going to do with him."

"Use his street contacts to find out who is trying to kill me and why."

© 2002 by KayDee Ward
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