Free Deceived by Nicola Cornick

said. "Or information that Lady Jane possessed. Curious, is it not?" He turned his empty brandy glass between his fingers. "I am no closer to discovering what it is that Warwick wants, nor to finding out any more about the man himself than I knew before. He has as many names and disguises as he has criminal interests, but he is so feared and protected that I could find out little more."
    "So you asked in the Fleet and found little," Alistair said thoughtfully, "and what do you propose to do now?"
    " Two things,'' Marcus said. He knew that he could not let the matter go now.
    "I shall make further discreet inquiries into Warwick's business here in London, and if that fails to turn up new information I shall return to Salterton, where it all began, and see what else I may discover from there. The renovation of the dower house is almost complete. It will be good to see how it progresses."
    "I suppose that you will have a new landlord now that Lady Jane has passed away," Alistair said thoughtfully. "To whom did she leave her estate? Freddie Standish would be her closest male relative, I assume?"
    "He is," Marcus said, "but he does not inherit. The hall was not entailed." He paused. The lease on his house at Salterton, which was little more than a cottage orneé that stood in the grounds of Salterton Hall, had been granted to him when he had married Isabella's cousin, India Southern. He had plenty of houses but it had been a convenient arrangement to take Salterton Cottage for it provided India with a home of her own when she wished to visit her parents at the hall. Lady Jane had been fond of him and had allowed him to retain the lease after India's death and although he had visited Salterton less frequently, he still paid a visit there every so often. It was on one of these visits that Lady Jane had told him that she had left Salterton Hall to Isabella on her death. Marcus had already known, though he did not say so. The terms of Lady Jane's will had thrust a sharp wedge between herself and her daughter India when first they had come to light.
    "Mama has always favored Isabella over me!" India had said to him once in a passionate outburst that was utterly out of character for her. "She told me that I had no need of Salterton because I was married to you, and that Isabella had always cared for the place far more than I!" India's face had contorted with distress. "My cousin has been writing to Mama and pretending to an interest and a concern that she does not feel! First she marries that disgusting old man for his money and now she cuts me out of my inheritance! I cannot believe Mama would do such a thing to me!"
    Marcus had tried to soothe her but India would not be comforted, and there had been a tense atmosphere between mother and daughter ever after. Since India had predeceased her mother, the matter of the inheritance of Salterton had become almost academic, but Marcus had never forgotten the bitter betrayal that India felt. It seemed a further example of Isabella's cupidity.
    A sardonic smile curved Marcus's lips at the thought of his new wife as an heiress—and his landlady. What was it that Isabella had said? Her financial embarrassment was of a temporary nature and their marriage of convenience would last only until she had sold her house and realized her inheritance. He had assumed that she had some expectation of salvaging something at least from Prince Ernest's estate, but now he wondered if it was in fact Jane Southern's legacy that Isabella was relying on. It was another link in the shadowy chain of family ties and old history that bound them to one another.
    "Freddie Standish needs the money," Alistair said, breaking into Marcus's thoughts. "He will not be pleased to lose the inheritance. He survives on nothing but his pay and Miss Standish's meager allowance, so I hear. He is rather a ramshackle fellow."
    Marcus had never had much to say to Freddie, Lord Standish. It was an accident of marriage that had made them