An Inconvenient Arrangement (Inconvenient Matches Book #2)

Chapter 35: Rafe and Sylvie

"I am so glad to have run into you, Sir. I have heard many great things about you through my friends who used to serve in your regiment. I'm honored to make the acquaintance of a hero such as yourself," Raphael smiled his best polite grin at Brigadier Felix Benjamin as the other man rose out of his seat in the cards room of a refined gentleman's club. "And congratulations on your recent engagement."

Raphael took a moment to observe the older man. With thinning hair and a belly that was testing the integrity of his waistcoat buttons, Brigadier Felix Benjamin did not look too much like a threat. Certainly, by the way he was dabbing his forehead as if just the exertion of getting up out of his seat to greet a guest had been enough to knock the wind out of him, Raphael was beginning to doubt very much that this was going to be a useful trip.

"Ah, but of course, My Lord! I am always happy to share an anecdote or two with a fellow patriot," The Brigadier swayed on his feet a little, and Rafe spotted a glass of half-empty scotch and thought that perhaps the drug he'd paid the servant to add to it may have been a tad too much for the Brigadier. "Please do have a seat."

Though why, Rafe could not fathom, the man could probably outweigh an elephant. If anything, he had been concerned that he'd been too conservative with the concoction he'd obtained from The Doctor but had decided against using more because he wanted his target pliable not delirious.

Rafe spent the next hour flattering and buttering the soldier up, appearing amazed and enthusiastic as he forced his target to ease into the company and the drink. To not find Rafe a threat. When the Brigadier seemed as if he were tiring of entertaining Rafe, Raphael swiftly maneuvered the conversation to other, more mundane topics, before steering it back to where he wanted.

Hopefully this would not be yet another clue that amounted to nothing.

Discerning useful information from Thomas' coded ramblings was a difficult task in and of itself, Rafe had spent far too much time chasing down leads that made no sense, and it seemed as if he was in for the waste of another few hours.

Now Raphael knew all about not making judgments based on what could be observed superficially, sometimes there wasn't too much below the surface. Felix Benjamin had been something of a poor student, barely scraping his way through boarding school after which he joined the army as a commissioned officer. He had rapidly ascended the ranks, despite being a mediocre soldier at best, all thanks to his uncles, one of whom served as a high-ranking member of the War Office and the other who just so happened to be the General at the helm of Felix's corps.

Naturally.

After leading his troops into a disastrously bloody battle in 1807, where only a fraction of men survived by the time their backup arrived, he spent almost two years off-field healing from injuries. Though how real those injuries were, was anyone's guess.

If Rafe had to take a bet? His uncles had gotten him off the field to spare him from worse consequences.

"And so we charged those bloody Frenchmen!" The Brigadier lifted his cup in triumph as Rafe suppressed a yawn of boredom, barely holding back his disgust as Benjamin took credit for the heroics of others. "Had them weeping for their mothers by the end of it."

"Truly fantastical, like a tale from an epic," Raphael replied dourly. "Which reminds me, Sir, do you recall a Captain Windsor? He was in your battalion if I recall correctly. His mother used to live near our property and she would so love if you could share a story or two about his heroics. She misses him dearly."

The Brigadier's eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he sputtered on the sip he had been taking from his scotch. Rafe watched his face turn flush and then ashen before he coolly responded, "I can hardly recall every captain and every lieutenant that served under me, now can I?"