by Beth Byers
Jack laughed and tangled their fingers together as they went down the front steps to the auto. They were settled and moving again before Violet realized how quiet Jack was while they motored through the crowded London streets.
“You working inside that head of yours?” Victor asked Jack, seeming to understand exactly his thoughts. Or maybe they were just having the same thoughts. “Catching killers and destroying burglary rings?”
“Just thinking of a case of one of Ham’s new detectives. Ham was a bit distracted and disappeared halfway through the consultation with the new fellow.”
“Ham is delicious lately,” Kate added. “He’s almost as bulky as you and in the good way these days.”
“Ah, Kate?” Victor said, turning her face to his. “Do I need to worry about this sudden interest in Ham?”
“He is an intriguing hunk of a man,” Violet added, just to watch Victor squirm. “Not a tender, ah, slice.” She giggled, not able to sustain the ruse, and Kate’s giggle had Victor relaxing.
“If you had held back the laugh, my girl, you’d have succeeded with this farce.” Kate adjusted her shoulders and wrapped her arm through Victor’s. Vi’s twin was staring down at his wife with a besotted expression, his vulnerability caught by a nearby lantern.
“What intrigues me,” Victor said idly, “is the way that Jack didn’t react at all. Are you listening, my lad? Or are you just unbothered at the idea of Violet chasing Ham?”
Jack turned from the window and cleared his throat. “Vi would drive Ham mad in three days.”
The auto stopped in front of Hotel Saffron, and one of the staff ran down the stairs and opened the door. Jack stepped out to the sound of Victor’s cackles, handing Violet out without the flicker of a perturbed lash.
“Is that Ham?” Violet asked, looking up the sidewalk. “Ham!” He turned and glanced towards them, and Violet gasped dramatically. “Oh my! He is svelte. With that bald head of his, and his new frame, he’s like a gentlemen pirate.”
“Be concerned,” Victor advised Jack.
“He looks good in evening wear,” Kate added, waving her face as if she were hot.
Ham nodded towards their group but a shout had them all turning. They saw two shadows struggling in the alley. Ham made a sharp turn into the alley and hauled out a struggling man in a tuxedo a mere breath of a moment later.
“And dragging men around,” Violet cooed as Kate sighed. Victor shot a quelling look to Violet. She grinned at her twin. “There’s just something very compelling about a beastly kind of man.”
The second man appeared and attacked the one in Ham’s hands. Victor adjusted his coat, straightened his shoulders, and glanced back at his wife before bravely darting in between the fighting men, leaving Kate giggling while Violet smothered her laughter into Jack’s arm.
“You two are evil,” Jack told them.
Ham stepped between the two men with Victor at the ready. Whatever Ham said had one of the men hurrying back into the hotel and the other storming off down the street.
Ham and Victor rejoined them, their gazes darting between Vi and Kate who were both trying to smother their laughter. “Is all well?” Ham asked, not even out of breath from the altercation.
“They haven’t even started drinking yet,” Jack sighed, shaking his friend’s hand. “What was all that about?”
“It was Theo,” Victor said, “and an American. Ghastly lad. The fellow quite insulted our Ham for stopping the battle even though Theo had left his mark.”
“Smythe-Hill?” Jack asked dangerously while Violet carefully tried to hide all reaction.
“How odd,” Vi muttered, not thinking about her words. The whole of her friend group turned on her. She held up surrendering hands and said, “Theo crossed my mind this afternoon. That is all.” She tried for a cheery grin. “Perhaps I am psychic.”
“Mmm.” Jack took her hand and pulled her under his arm.
“Let’s go in. Risking oneself is thirsty work.” Victor stepped in, taking Kate and gathering the attention from Violet. She winked at him when Jack was turned away, and her twin nodded slightly, but Violet reminded herself that she wouldn’t let any hard-handed man lessen her.
“Then Ham must need a drink.” Her laughter took them up the steps and into the hotel lobby as Kate pressed her fingers to her lips and Victor scowled at them both.
“You’re devils. Both of you.”
“Pretty devils,” Ham added, innocently holding out his arm for Kate when Victor crossed to the elevator. Kate took his arm, grinning innocently as Victor glanced back, saw them, and glared. “You are looking positively radiant, my dear. Motherhood becomes you.”
Kate patted his arm, letting her fingers linger a bit long on his bicep just to torture her husband, and then said a little too loud, “You look too handsome, Ham. Whatever have you been up to?”
He blushed a little and then slid out of grasp, pushing her lightly at Victor as Violet wiped away a tear from laughter. She almost couldn’t catch her breath between Jack’s silent amusement, Ham’s baffled confusion, and Victor’s unwarranted jealousy.
“Have I missed something of importance?” Ham asked Jack.
“The girls have recognized you’ve slimmed down and been doing those exercises. They’ve been teasing Victor the whole of the ride.”
Ham blushed again, glancing away and shuffling a little. Violet grinned delightedly at his bashfulness while Kate announced, “Oh my goodness! Who knew a blush was quite so attractive?”
Violet’s head cocked and then she asked seriously, “Are you well, Ham? You were perfect before, don’t you know?”
His blush deepened even further. “Just looking for a change, I suppose.”
She used her free arm to pull him closer to her. “As long as you know we adore you either way. Are we going to this same party? You visiting the Roche millionaire?”
“I met Mr. Roche when he visited Scotland Yard. He wanted a tour, and it was decided that I would be the guide. I’m afraid I quite abandoned Jack with one of my newer, greener detectives.”
Vi’s brows lifted at his tone. He sounded both disgruntled and irritated.
“To be honest, I was ordered to be here tonight and be obliging. I feel like a performing bear. I’d have been a little less reluctant if I knew you were coming.”
“Our cousin,” Vi said, gesturing between herself and Victor, “is marrying the Roche daughter. One of the Roche daughters? Is there just one?”
Vi glanced around and they all shrugged. No one was quite sure of the details of this family. Ham and Jack adjusted to shop talk while Victor whispered to Kate. He was, no doubt, flattering her aggressively.
Vi was unbothered to be left to her own devices. She quite liked the inside of her head when she wasn’t blue. The elevator doors opened onto the ballroom floor, and the room was already crowded. There were hundreds of people, and they seemed to be from all walks of life. The intellectual set who was far more inclined to set aside fashion for their own style, artists and dancers Violet recognized mingled with a bankrupt noble who had cosied up to Violet’s stepmother.
The smoke was thick above the room, and Violet noted the band playing in the corner; waiters moved among the group with nibbles and drinks, but there was also a bar on the side of the room that had quite a crowd around it.
Violet stepped into the room immediately, leaving her friends behind to see who was there. She guessed that Gerald would be in attendance. Technically, Algie was the twins’ cousin on their mother’s side, but he was connected enough that Isolde and Tomas would attend.
If their friends John and Gwen Davies were in town, they would be here. Violet saw Rita Russell and Jack’s former-fiancé, Emily Allen, taking a drink from one of the waiters. They were with several others Violet recognized from the Piccadilly Ladies Club.
Vi spied her sister dancing with her new husband.
A moment later, someone took hold of Violet’s arm, and she spun to see her oldest brother, Gerald, grinni
ng down at her.
“Violet, darling! I was hoping I’d see you and just as I did, you came through the doors as though called to save me from the title-hunters.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek and then whispered, “Algie’s fiancé has a younger sister who has made it clear she’d like to buy herself a titled husband.”
Vi gasped and squeezed his hands. “Well if you do make a purchase, Lady Eleanor would be happy enough to see you settle some of your fortune on our young wart of a brother, Geoffrey. Perhaps if he’s settled, she’ll be less grasping. Tell me, Gerald, are you willing to sacrifice for your family?”
“Alas,” he said dryly, “I already told all of them I wasn’t for sale, when my disinterest wasn’t sufficient.”
She dragged him back to Victor and Kate and found that Lila and Denny, her dearest friends, had appeared.
Jack took in Gerald and shook his hand. “We’re going for drinks,” he told Vi, and he and Ham disappeared towards the bar.
Vi spun on her twin and his wife along with Lila and Denny. “What are you waiting for? Play, already! Dance with me, Gerald!” Violet’s order left her older brother unfazed, but he obligingly dove into the dance floor with her until Jack collected Violet, handing both her and Gerald a drink.
“Your cousin is this way. His future father-in-law has kidnapped Ham, who needs saving before he destroys his career.” Jack’s gaze was worried, which shot alarm through Violet. Usually when Jack was upset, one never even knew.
“Shall I step out on you and demand my very good friend back?”
“Whatever it takes to save Ham,” Jack said. “He has the expression on his face that would have sent me fleeing during the war.”
Violet nodded and took the drink before putting on a flirty look and glancing back at Jack. “Time to be inane and a little rude.” She sipped the drink. “What a lovely drink. It will fortify me nicely.”
“I guess they brought their own barman. Please save Ham.”
Vi’s brows lifted and she glanced at the bar where a man moved the bottles as though he were a dancer. He made the drinks with a flair that seemed to be choreographed.
Violet hurried to the corner where a loud man held court and wormed her way into the group, weaving her arm through Ham’s as she shimmied a little. She tried for an expression to match what she imagined Algie was wearing, sort of good-natured and foolish.
Vi grinned around the group that had taken possession of Ham. With a hidden wince, she noticed that it included Emily Allen, but also Rita Russell. There was a loud, older American man she suspected was Mr. Roche, along with several others she didn’t recognize.
“Who’s this?” the American demanded with a hearty guffaw.
“Ah,” Ham started and his gaze widened on Vi, seemingly alarmed at her appearance.
“Lady Violet Carlyle,” she said, holding out her hand to the man. “Ham is my very dear friend.”
“Things have changed here,” the man said, laughing. He had a prodigious mustache, twinkling blue eyes, and the frame and musculature of a much younger man. “Robert Roche, my dear. Or do I say, my lady? I’ve heard the name Carlyle rather a lot lately. Tale after tale about the Carlyle twins and their pet inspector. That must be you, Barnes. Wouldn’t have thought it of you after what your superiors said.”
Violet’s expression froze at the sound of Miss Allen’s amused snort and the description of Jack.
She hid her annoyance with an idiotic laugh. “Where is Algie?”
“Around,” Mr. Roche said vaguely. “Really now, what do I call you? It’s not you who is the earl. Do you go by Lady? Is it honorable? This nonsense is impossible to follow.”
“You may call me Violet,” Violet said cheerily. “Why stumble over titles?”
“Violet Carlyle,” Mr. Roche mused with an interested expression. “I believe you’re the one who snagged the inheritance. Algie told me and Clara all about it.”
“Earned it,” Rita cut in dryly. “I’ve met all the possible heirs now. Vi was the only one who met Mrs. Davies’s requirements.”
Mr. Roche lifted a brow, and Violet saw the cleverness that was hidden behind the abrasive man. There was an animal intelligence that had pulled him from nothing to mountains of bullion. She had been raised by a woman with the same calculating gaze.
“Requirements?” Mr. Roche demanded loudly. “What were those?”
“My great aunt wished to leave her money to someone who could manage it without losing it,” Violet said with a chipper air that did not match his question. She knew all too well she looked like a bright young idiot.
Mr. Roche glanced Violet over, seeing what she wanted him to. “And she left it to you? I wouldn’t have thought a young lady like yourself would have much of a head for business.”
“I suppose that would be because you’re a man and limited by a male’s imagination,” Violet snapped, losing patience with her game. Rita grinned at the shift, and Miss Allen let out another of those amused, disdainful snorts.
Mr. Roche, however, shouted with laughter. His bright gaze fixed on her and he guffawed again. “I believe you’ve got me there, my dear. Not fair to assume all women are like my sweet Clara and gentle Malinda.”
Rita grinned, gaze lingering on where Violet had taken hold of Ham, before she explained. “Mrs. Davies rather notoriously made her own fortune. I suppose she was inclined to recognize the business acumen of women.”
“Quite so,” Mr. Roche said, as though he hadn’t just made it seem as though such a thing was impossible. “My sweet Clara is a good girl inclined to listen to her papa about everything but marrying this lad of hers. I told her your Algie was a bit of boob.”
Violet grinned at that and winked at him, putting back on her silly act as she said, “Well, I wouldn’t marry Algie, either. I suppose there’s no accounting for a woman’s taste or skills.”
Ham glanced at Violet and then back at Mr. Roche, shuffling before he lightly tugged on Vi’s arm.
“How do you really know this gentleman?” Mr. Roche asked, and Violet had to bite back a demand of what business it was of his. He had rubbed her the wrong way, loud and rude and used to getting his own way. Her sense of humor kicked enough to remind her she was quite used to getting her own way as well.
She grinned merrily. “Ham is my friend.”
“But he’s a Scotland Yard detective and you’re an earl’s daughter.” Mr. Roche seemed to think that Vi was trying to swindle him, though why anyone would show up at a party and lie about who was their friend was uncertain.
“Our class differences mean less and less as days go by, don’t you think?” she shot back, protectively tucking Ham a little closer.
“That nonsense means very little in the US of A,” the man said happily and quite loudly, “but I’ve been given to understand that such things are of greater import here.”
“Ham is my friend,” Violet repeated.
“Why?”
“He’s a dragon behind an affable face.”
“He seems rather different,” Mr. Roche returned. His eyes were alight with the banter, and she could see that he enjoyed being the powerhouse in the room.
Ham, however, was tense and she didn’t blame him, ordered as he was to be there by his superiors and muzzled to protect his job.
“No defense?” He followed it up with a hearty laugh as though he’d won some sort of debate.
“Mr. Roche.” Violet exchanged her barely touched cocktail from the waiter who approached the group simply to look frivolous. “You have met and talked with Ham over the course of an afternoon. I’ve known him for years and seen him work. I just witnessed him separate men fighting on the street and he walked away unruffled. With all due respect,” she added, though she wasn’t sure he deserved any, “Ham is much more than you realize, and he has been requested elsewhere.”
She winked at Rita, shot Miss Allen a nasty glance, and grinned at Mr. Roche before hauling Ham away.
“Jack sent you?” he asked as they made th
eir escape.
“With permission to step out on him if necessary.”
Ham laughed with relief. “I was talking to Miss Russell and the next thing I knew Mr. Roche was wishing for me to be a performing monkey for him. It’s like he has an entourage as large as the queen’s.”
“Yes, yes,” Violet told him with a wink. “Take a deep breath my good man. I flashed that noble brow and demanded my friend, and now you may rage with Jack and drink too many cocktails. What I want to know is whether his daughter and Algie are marrying for love. Or is there something else happening here?”
Ham sighed. “If that man doesn’t like Algie, you won’t have to work very hard to discover it. It’s difficult to say whether he doesn’t thus far. I’ve seen him insult about everyone around here, and they simply laugh it off.”
Violet frowned and then sighed. “I might have to actually sleuth this out. How wearisome.”
“Why?”
She grinned as she confessed. “To win against Kate and Victor of course.”
“Of course,” Ham said as they reached Jack. Ham handed Violet over to Jack and took Jack’s whiskey from him. “I owe you for that, my friend.”
“I believe I still owe you for my life a time or two. We’ll evaluate our debts later.”
“You may, however, buy me some chocolate,” Violet told Ham. She turned to Jack and grinned up at him. “Dance with me, almost-husband?”
“Always, almost-wife.”
Chapter Three
Violet left Jack after several songs, pleading for a cocktail while she headed towards the balcony. Her black dress covered her shoulders and went up to her neck with black lace. although the silk ended at her chest—a choice she regretted now that she was attempting not to melt from exertion and the heat of the packed space by retreating into the night air.
Jack had made his way to Vi’s brother, Gerald, where Ham was as well. They were talking, once again, with Mr. Roche, so Violet supposed it was a mission of mercy.