What Angels Fear: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery

If you have any information which is pertinent, it would behoove you to provide it. So I ask you again, who was the challenger? Lord Devlin?”
    Sir Christopher hesitated a moment, then shook his head. “No. Talbot.”
    “When and where precisely was this challenge issued?”
    Farrell went to look out the window, his hands clasped behind his back. It was a moment before he answered, his words coming out jerkily, as if he begrudged the magistrate each and every one. “Tuesday afternoon. At White’s. Sebastian was standing near the entrance to the gaming room, holding a glass of wine. Talbot jostled him in such a way that wine from Sebastian’s glass splashed onto Talbot’s boots. He demanded satisfaction.”
    Lovejoy nodded in understanding. “That was the public justification for the duel. Now tell me the real reason.”
    Farrell swung around, one eyebrow arching in aristocratic affront. “I beg your pardon?”
    Lovejoy returned only a tight, bland smile. “There are those who say Lord Devlin was having an affair with Captain Talbot’s wife.”
    Sir Christopher met Lovejoy’s questioning gaze. And Lovejoy thought, the man must be hopeless at the gaming tables. Everything he considered, everything he felt, showed on his face. Lovejoy knew the precise moment when Farrell decided to let go of his resistance. Blowing out his breath in a long sigh, he came to sit in one of the chairs ringingthe center table. “Talbot certainly thought so,” he said, propping his elbows on the table and sinking his chin into his hands. “But it wasn’t true. Devlin’s relationship with Melanie Talbot never went beyond friendship.”
    “You believe that?
    Sir Christopher nodded glumly. “Last spring, at a ball at Devonshire House, Sebastian heard someone crying in the garden. He’s got the damnest hearing a body could ever imagine, you know. Anyway, he went to investigate and found Talbot’s wife. The bastard had taken exception to the way she was looking at one of the violin players and worked her over pretty bad before storming off in a fit. Sebastian took her home.”
    “But that wasn’t the end of it.”
    Farrell dropped his hands into his lap and sat back. “No. She needed a friend, and Devlin became one. I always thought she was more than half in love with him, but Devlin’s not the kind of man to take advantage of another person’s vulnerability.”
    Lovejoy eyed the other man consideringly. “How well do you know him?”
    A slow, unexpectedly boyish smile spread across Sir Christopher’s face. “Better than I know either of my own two brothers. Sebastian and I were at Eton together. And Oxford after that.”
    “But you didn’t join the army with him?”
    Sir Christopher’s smile faded. “No. I didn’t even know what he’d done until the day before he was set to leave England.”
    “A bit of a start, that. Was it not?”
    Sir Christopher fell into a troubled silence, as if considering his next words. Then he said, “About a year after we came down from Oxford, Sebastian fell in love with a woman the Earl considered unsuitable. He threatened to cut Sebastian off without a penny, if he married the chit.”
    “Lord Hendon objected to the lady’s birth?”
    Farrell rubbed his nose. “She was a Cyprian.”
    “Ah,” said Lovejoy. It was difficult to imagine the proud, arrogant young man he’d first met in the library at Brook Street doing anything so improper or foolish as to fall in love with an Incognita. But then, it musthave all happened long ago. One wondered how much, if any, of that impetuous, romantic youth could still be found in the cool, hard man Lord Devlin was today.
    “Sebastian swore he’d marry the girl anyway. Only, the lady in question had no interest in marrying a pauper. Once she realized Hendon meant what he’d said, she broke it off.”
    “So Devlin went to war to get himself killed.”
    “I’m not sure it was as dramatic as all that. Let’s just say he was anxious to get away from England for a spell.”
    “Understandable,” said Lovejoy smoothly. “Yet I gather he volunteered for some rather dangerous assignments.”
    “He was in intelligence, if that’s what you mean. He was good at it.”
    Lovejoy made a noncommittal humming sound. “So I’ve heard. Yet I understand he left the service last year under something of a cloud. What was that about, I wonder?”
    Sir Christopher returned Lovejoy’s questioning look with a mulish stare. “I don’t know anything