by Cheryl Bolen
"I'm confident dearest," Daphne said to Jack, "you've seen the last of the wretched man." She allowed herself a glimpse of the man she loved. Dark red stained the thick swath of linen that replaced his cravat. She would never forget the paralyzing fear that flooded her when she saw Jack standing atop the comtesse's stairs, a saber in his hand and blood flowing from just below his head. Even now, after the physicians had assured her and the regent that Jack's wound had been superficial, worry surged through her.
"Would that I could believe that," Jack lamented. "I've rather bungled things."
"You most certainly have not!" she protested.
"You heard the comtesse gloat that she'd outsmarted me," Jack said.
"It is entirely my fault that you did not know there was no city in South Africa named Rotterdam."
"I believe it was called Rotterwahl," Jack amended. "Not that it matters. There is no such city. It was just the woman's test to see if I really knew South Africa."
"But you, in your infinite capabilities as a spy, would never have selected South Africa as your place of origin," Daphne countered. "I thrust that ridiculous background upon you, a fact that disturbed you greatly at the time. It was I who bungled everything, I who foolishly got captured, and I who plunged both of us to almost certain death--a death which you most cleverly thwarted."
"Neither of you have bungled anything," the regent said, eying them like an affectionate father. "Remember the immortal words of William Shakespeare: All's well that ends well."
Jack and Daphne exchanged remorseful glances.
"Actually," the regent added, "things have ended in a supreme fashion. I knew when I saw you, Captain, that you were just the man for Lady Daphne."
Daphne could scarcely believe that she had bared her heart to His Royal Highness, but she had. She had told him everything. Of course Jack's excessive worry over her wounded knee had tipped off the regent as blatantly as a kiss. To assuage Jack's fears, the regent had Daphne's leg examined by his physician, who pronounced it sprained and ordered her to stay off it for at least a week.
"I think, your Royal Highness, that Lady Daphne could have done better."
"Nonsense, my dear man. You are the best spy in his majesty's army."
A broad smile enlivened Daphne's face. "See, my dearest, you really are the best! You cannot dispute what your sovereign says."
Just then a footman dressed in regal livery announced Lord and Lady Sidworth, who came strolling into the room.
Daphne's heart caught at how bedraggled her mother looked. Jack had told her that her parents had been frantic with worry over her disappearance the previous day. Now it was obvious that neither of them had slept, that they were still wearing the clothing they had worn the day before.
Lady Sidworth's eyes watered when she saw Daphne, and she flew across the room to embrace her daughter. "I've been out of my mind with worry," she said to Daphne. Then she turned to the regent. "Are we to be indebted to you, your Royal Highness, for restoring our daughter to us?"
"It is I who am indebted to your daughter," the prince said. "She and this young man have singlehandedly saved England."
Her parents, their eyes rounded, exchanged quizzing glances. "How can this be, your Royal Highness?" Lord Sidworth asked.
"After two assassination attempts were made upon me, I sent to the Peninsula for the best spy in his majesty's army. Wellesley sent this man." The regent nodded at Jack.
Lord Sidworth's eyes narrowed. "Do you mean to tell me this man is not Mr. Rich?"
"My name is Captain Jack Dryden, my lord," Jack said. "I'm the second son of a Sussex farmer of relatively modest means."
"Because this fine officer was not . . .of the ton," the regent explained, "I chose to pair him with a young lady whose intelligence and discretion I have greatly admired. That young lady is your daughter. While the two of them were investigating the wretched business, an attempt was made to assassinate my daughter."
Lady Sidworth shrieked.
"Fortunately, Princess Charlotte will recover. The attack on my daughter alerted Lady Daphne and Captain Dryden to the true culprit, the Comtesse d'Mornet who, you may know, is mistress to my brother, the Duke of York."
"Good lord!" Lord Sidworth exclaimed. "The Frenchwoman was foolish enough to believe she could persuade your brother to betray his country if he ascended to the throne?"
The regent shrugged. "She obviously does not know Freddie as well as we."
Lady Sidworth moved closer to her daughter and the captain. "Do you mean that all that affection you two showed to one another was an act?"
Daphne shook her head. "Of course it wasn't an act! What woman wouldn't fall in love with a man as sublime as Captain Jack Dryden?"
Lady Sidworth eyed the captain.
"No acting was needed, my lady," Jack said. "I fell deeply in love with your daughter."
Lord Sidworth looked from Jack to Daphne to the Prince Regent. "So you say Captain Dryden's the best spy in the whole army, your Royal Highness?"
"Unquestionably."
"Then may I suggest you make him a colonel? Can't have my daughter marrying a mere captain."
Daphne leaped from her chair and threw her arms around her father's neck.
Chapter 31
Daphne and Jack read of their exploits in each of London's newspapers the next morning. The papers had reported on the diabolical plot to kill the regent and his daughter, but untruthful additions had been made to the facts -- at Jack's as well as the regent's insistence. Credit for foiling the plot was given to the Duke of York, whom the newspapers said had grown suspicious of the Comtesse d'Mornet and enlisted an unnamed colonel to set a trap for her.
After Lord and Lady Sidworth had left the regent's, he had told Jack and Daphne he had something of a private nature to discuss with them. He lowered his voice. "I wish to have the two of you at my disposal to investigate things that threaten our country. You understand this would be clandestine. No one else -- outside of the highest government officials -- will know of the arrangement."
Jack's brows lowered. "Do you mean I won't be returning to the Peninsula?"
"If the talents shared by you and Lady Daphne are needed there, yes. But you will stay in London. Close to me. The two of you will be an enormous asset to our country."
Jack had been too flattered and too dumbfounded to refuse.
And Daphne was overjoyed.
Also in the newspapers the following morning was one notice about Lady Daphne Chalmers and Colonel Jack Dryden: a betrothal announcement.
Later in the day, Jack pushed Daphne in her invalid's chair through the gardens at the regent's Carlton House. She looked up at Jack and smiled. "Oh, my darling, I am so very proud of you."
"It was you who first suspected the comtesse."
"Not that, my dearest. I'm so very proud that you refused to accept the title the regent wished to bestow on you."
Jack shrugged. "I fail to see what's good about being a viscount if one has no money or lands."
"Still, it was one of the most noble things you've done, especially considering that my father plans to offer you a generous dowry. I'd vow not another man in the kingdom would refuse such an honor. Only a man of your supreme confidence could turn down a title."
"I wish you wouldn't use words like supreme when you're discussing me."
"But, dearest, can you deny the Prince Regent himself said you were the BEST?"
"As my wife," he said sternly, "I shall forbid you to discuss me in such terms."
"Whatever you say, dearest. I plan to be a very obliging wife."
A moment later, he said, "I shan't take your father's settlement."
"Oh, but you must. How else could we afford to live near my wonderful parents?"
Jack's eyes squinted with his frown. "We'll discuss this later."
"I love the sound," Daphne said with a sigh.
His head lifted, his ears perked. "What sound?"
"Colonel and Mrs. Jack Dryden."
"Are you terribly disappointed you won't be returning to the Peninsula?"
"Not now. Because of the regent's request."
"You know, my dearest Jack, I believe the regent already has something in mind."
"Then I daresay he does because I have learned that you do have, what did you call it? Right-on-the-money instincts?"
"Oh, Jack, you have the most brilliant memory---" She saw that he glared. "All right. I won't say your memory's the most brilliant, even though it is. I plan to be a most obedient wife."
He mumbled to himself. "Why is it I'm not convinced?"
Author's Note:
Though the assassination plot against the Prince Regent and his daughter is pure fiction, many of the persons depicted in this novel actually existed. Certainly not Captain Jack Dryden, nor Lady Daphne Chalmers. But the Prince Regent (later King George IV) and his estranged wife, Princess Caroline, are presented here in a manner consistent with historical accounts.
While the regent's brother, the Duke of York, was known to have mistresses, the Comtesse d'Mornet was not one of them. She is purely a fictional character.
Most of the women who are revealed on these pages as the regent's lovers have been documented as the regent's mistresses--or in the case of Mrs. Fitzherbert, his illegal wife. While Prince of Wales in 1785, the future regent did go through an Anglican marriage ceremony with Mrs. Fitzherbert, a violation of the Royal Marriage Act. A decade later, the Prince of Wales strayed, taking Lady (Frances) Jersey as his mistress. Under the influence of Lady Jersey, the prince agreed to marry his cousin in exchange for the payment of his astronomical debts. Even as the marriage grew near, the prince yearned to rekindle his relationship with Mrs. Fitzherbert. A decade after they were reunited, his affair with Lady Hertford commenced, and the following year he became regent.
The regency lasted for almost a decade, and following the death of his father in 1820, the prince was crowned King George IV in a ceremony from which he barred his legal wife, Princess Caroline. (Their daughter, Princess Charlotte, had died in childbirth in 1817.) When George IV died a decade after his father, he wore about his neck a tiny portrait of Mrs. Fitzherbert.
The regent lived in grandeur at his ever-evolving Carlton House in Pall Mall, but after he became king he moved to Buckingham House. The same fervor that guided the improvements to Carlton House was then directed to transforming his new residence into the palace it is today. Sadly, in 1826 he allowed fire-damaged Carlton House, which had once belonged to his father's mother, to be demolished.
The End
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The Regent Mysteries Series
A fresh romance with each new mystery . . .
If you enjoyed With His Lady’s Assistance, you may also enjoy reading the other installments of the Regent Mysteries series featuring Captain Jack Dryden and Lady Daphne.
A Most Discreet Inquiry
(Book 2, The Regent Mysteries)
(Humorous Regency Romance Mystery)
"In this second installment on Bolen's Regent Mysteries, Captain Jack Dryden receives another urgent summons to come to the aid of the Prince Regent--on Jack's wedding day...
Will Jack find the missing papers before d'Arblier finds him? Will Daphne find a competent housekeeper before they starve? And will Daphne and Jack ever have their wedding night?
Read A Most Discreet Inquiry for the answers, and enjoy another adventure with the most charming of Regency detectives."5 STARS. – In Print
"Once again Ms. Bolen gives us a humorous and romantic read filled with action and mystery." – L. Sims, Top Amazon Reviewer
* * *
It all started quite innocently when Lady Daphne Chalmers's duchess sister came to her sleuthing sibling for help in retrieving love letters she wrote to Major Styles, now deceased. But as Daphne and her own lover, Captain Jack Dryden of His Majesty's Hussars, join forces to track down the letters, they follow a trail of treachery and murder that threatens the entire kingdom.
Available at Amazon.com.
The Theft Before Christmas
(Book 3, The Regent Mysteries)
(Humorous Regency Romance Mystery)
"With her usual deft touch, Bolen mixes real historical figures with her own memorable cast of characters. Mix a locked room puzzle, a tour of Regency London, a murder, and a sweet romance between two friends thrown together by Daphne and Jack’s investigation, and you have another charming Regent Mystery for the holiday season."—In Print
* * *
When the theft of the Regent's Michelangelo has the potential to set off on international incident, he believes his best chance of recovering it before the donor's Christmas Eve visit is to bring in his favorite investigators: Captain Dryden and his wife Lady Daphne.
This fun mystery also offers an appealing sub-plot romance guaranteed to bring Christmas cheer.
Available at Amazon.com.
An Egyptian Affair
(The Regent Mysteries, Book 4)
(Humorous Regency Romance Mystery)
While Captain Jack Dryden would lay down his life for the Regent, he draws the line at endangering his wife in the dark alleyways of Cairo—the place where the Regent's friend and procurer of antiquities has gone missing.
But Lady Daphne Dryden will not be denied the opportunity to see swaying palms, crumbling pillars, and soaring pyramids in exotic Egypt. She even insists on bringing her youngest sister, Rosemary, who's enamored of all things Oriental. The Regent insists on sending Stanton Maxwell, England's most imminent expert on Egyptology, as their interpreter and his own soldiers as their protectors.
Once in Cairo, Jack and Daphne begin their inquiries, inquiries which almost certainly cause the murder of one woman and the abduction of Lady Rosemary. Will Jack's wits—and the unexpected bravery of Mr. Maxwell—be enough to extricate them from danger and unmask the evil-doers?
Available at Amazon.com.