September Awakening (The Silver Foxes of Westminster Book 4)

by Merry Farmer

  The November chill that swirled through the streets of London brought with it a sense of excitement and the dawning of a new era. Gladstone’s new parliament had been in session for a fortnight, but for Lavinia, the excitement of the new came more from the vast, echoing rooms of the townhouse she and Armand had bought less than a month before.

  “It still needs a lot of work,” Lavinia told Marigold as they sipped tea in the front parlor. “And Armand doesn’t have much time to help me. Besides Parliament, he has his new position as a consultant at the New Hospital for Women to attend to.”

  “I heard about that,” Marigold said with a bright smile. “You must be so proud of him.”

  “I am,” Lavinia beamed. “Although it means I’ve had to call on Mama to help with this house after all.”

  “But that’s a good thing, isn’t it? To reconcile with your mother so quickly?” Marigold sent her a cautious smile.

  “It is,” Lavinia admitted. “But who would have thought that Mama would dither so much over wallpaper. I thought she already had designs for fifty rooms.”

  “She’s probably drawing the process out so that she can spend as much time as possible in the house of a viscount,” Lady Stanhope said, arching a brow as she glanced across the parlor to Lavinia’s mother.

  Lavinia turned to look as well. Her mother was deep in conversation with Lord Dunsford’s friend, Captain Tennant, and his wife, Domenica. It came as a surprise to Lavinia that her mother would behave herself so well at the informal gathering, but she hadn’t caused a single scene since Lavinia and Armand had arrived in town for the opening of Parliament.

  “I think she’s learned her lesson,” Lavinia said with a thoughtful look. “She was telling the truth when she said she only had my best interests at heart all these years.”

  “She certainly had a strange way of showing it,” Lady Stanhope drawled.

  Lavinia laughed. She couldn’t help it. She was too happy not to laugh. “We all have strange ways of showing those we love that we care, wouldn’t you agree, Katya?” Lavinia arched a brow of her own and shot a sideways glance to where Armand, Alex Croydon, and Lord Malcolm were chuckling over something a member of the opposition had been reported to have said at an event the night before. Since returning to London, Lavinia had felt bold enough to begin calling Armand’s friends, her friends, by their given names, even though her mother would faint at the informality.

  Katya hummed, mischief in her eyes as she stared Lord Malcolm down. “Strange indeed.”

  “You realize there aren’t many of us left to succumb to marriage,” Marigold told Katya. “So when are you and Malcolm going to work out your differences?”

  “Oh, we’ll work things out, all right,” Katya said in a purr.

  Lord Malcolm chose just that moment to glance up at her. Lavinia expected to hear a thunderclap to follow the lightning that passed between the pair. She’d learned more about the sparks of sexual attraction in the six weeks since her marriage had started in earnest—the first two weeks didn’t count, as she and Armand both agreed—to know there was much more going on between Katya and Malcolm than met the eye.

  “As soon as he begs forgiveness for what he’s done, then possibly I’ll consider his proposal,” Katya went on.

  “His proposal?” Lavinia blinked. “You mean, he’s already asked you?”

  “Ten years ago,” Katya said. “I haven’t given him an answer yet.”

  Lavinia exchanged a glance with Marigold. The two of them burst into laughter. It was too delicious a story not to laugh at. Whatever was keeping Katya and Malcolm apart must have been mighty indeed to battle against the force of attraction between the two of them.

  Lavinia was about to ask more when the freshly-hired butler she and Armand had just employed, a youngish, eager man named Mr. Resnick, appeared in the doorway of the parlor and caught Lavinia’s eye.

  “Do excuse me,” Lavinia told her friends and crossed to see what Mr. Resnick wanted.

  “A letter has come for you, my lady,” Mr. Resnick said before Lavinia could ask what was wrong. He presented a silver salver with a small, thin envelope on plain stationery.

  “For me?” Lavinia asked.

  Mr. Resnick nodded. “Specifically, my lady. The boy who delivered it said it was to be delivered to you and not Lord Helm.”

  “I see,” Lavinia said with a curious frown. She took the letter from the salver and opened it with her finger as Mr. Resnick returned to the hall.

  Inside was a single, plain sheet of paper with the initials MG embossed in small, black letters at the top. The text was short and written in an impeccable hand.

  “Dear Lady Helm,” it began. “I would like to thank you once again for the hospitality you showed to me at Broadclyft Hall, hospitality I was not entitled to, in spite of what others might have insisted. Hospitality such as that has rarely been shown to me, and so, I would like to return the favor. Below are some names my cousin and his friends might find of interest should they wish to remove the protections on a certain establishment. I only ask that if action is taken, I might be warned so that I would be unavailable to aid the proprietor of the establishment. Yours, Mark Gatwick.”

  Lavinia stared at the list of six names at the bottom of the letter. She didn’t recognize any of them. She read the letter again, understanding enough to know Lord Gatwick had come to her with an offer to help those opposing Shayles and that he didn’t want Shayles knowing which side he was on, but not much else.

  “I saw Resnick give you a letter,” Armand said, walking up to Lavinia’s side.

  Eyes wide, without a word, Lavinia handed the letter to him. Armand took it and read. His brow shot up at the end.

  “Malcolm,” he called across the room. There was enough urgency in his voice that not only did Lord Malcolm come running, the rest of their friends did too. As soon as Lord Malcolm reached them, Armand handed him the letter. “Those names. They’re Scotland Yard, aren’t they?”

  Lord Malcolm snatched the letter and read through it, his eyes going wide. “Bloody hell,” he growled. “He’s handed us the holy grail.”

  “What do you mean?” Lavinia asked, heart pounding.

  Lord Malcolm glanced up at her, then to Katya as she joined the group. “It’s Gatwick,” he told her. “He’s just given us the names of the cabal at Scotland Yard who’s been keeping the Black Strap Club away from the law.”

  “Are you sure?” Katya asked, taking the letter from him.

  “Who else could those names belong to?” Malcolm asked.

  “But why would Gatwick hand this information over, and why now?” Katya asked.

  “Because of Lavinia,” Armand said, smiling at his wife. “Because, unlike the rest of us, she showed him kindness in spite of his connection to Shayles.”

  “But Lord Gatwick is Shayles’s man, isn’t he?” Captain Tennant asked from the edges of their group.

  Armand shook his head. “We have reason to believe he’s not.”

  “It’s a long story,” Alex added. He turned to Malcolm. “You’ll have to research these names before you act,” he said. “If Gatwick is being honest with us, these are the men we need to remove in order to go after the Black Strap Club for its crimes.”

  “And if he’s trying to pull one over on us,” Katya said, “then interfering with these men will land us in more trouble than we want.”

  “Then we’ll have to investigate,” Lord Malcolm said. “Quietly.”

  “Leave that to me,” Katya said, handing the letter back to Lavinia. She turned to Lord Malcolm. “We’ve got work to do.”

  “Agreed.” Lord Malcolm nodded.

  “Oh, Lord,” Marigold laughed. “If Malcolm and Katya are working together, things must be dire indeed.”

  “They will be,” Lord Malcolm said. “For Shayles.”

  He and Katya stepped back into the parlor, putting their heads together. The rest of the gathering wandered back to their tea as well. That left Lavinia in the hall w
ith Armand.

  “I have a feeling as though something big is about to happen,” she said, tucking the letter back into its envelope.

  “It is,” he said, taking her hands. “And if and when it does, we’ll be there to help in any way we can. Even if that means my medical skills will need to be put to use once more.” There was a seriousness in his eyes that both frightened Lavinia and excited her.

  “We’ll beat Shayles,” she said, full of confidence. “Together, I’m sure we can beat anything.”

  “We can,” Armand agreed. He leaned in to kiss her, filling Lavinia with the sense that whatever happened, however dangerous things became, her wonderful husband would keep her safe.

  I hope you’ve enjoyed Lavinia and Armand’s story! You might not know this, but I’m actually an internationally certified cricket scorekeeper! So I’d like to give a shout-out to the guys on the team I score for, British Officer’s Cricket Club in Philadelphia…many of whom may or may not have ended up in this book. … Okay, pretty much every cricket player I mentioned by name is one of my BOCC guys.

  The story of the Silver Foxes and their fight against Lord Shayles isn’t over yet! In fact, things come to a head in Book 5, April Seduction. Are you ready to get the full story of what happened between Katya and Malcolm? How did two people who are so obviously meant to be together end up so much at odds? And can they put aside their differences to take on Shayles and defeat him once and for all? Find out on December 7th! But you can pre-order April Seduction now.

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  Click here for a complete list of other works by Merry Farmer.

  About the Author

  I hope you have enjoyed September Awakening. If you’d like to be the first to learn about when new books in the series come out and more, please sign up for my newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/cbaVMH And remember, Read it, Review it, Share it! For a complete list of works by Merry Farmer with links, please visit http://wp.me/P5ttjb-14F.

  Merry Farmer is an award-winning novelist who lives in suburban Philadelphia with her cats, Torpedo, her grumpy old man, and Justine, her hyperactive new baby. She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn't have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always have something to write about. Her books have reached the Top 100 at Amazon, iBooks, and Barnes & Noble, and have been named finalists in the prestigious RONE and Rom Com Reader’s Crown awards.

  Acknowledgments

  I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my awesome beta-readers, Caroline Lee and Jolene Stewart, for their suggestions and advice. And double thanks to Julie Tague, for being a truly excellent editor and assistant!

  Click here for a complete list of other works by Merry Farmer.