“She prepares to leave me.”
Scarlett smarted at this news. “The problem is not between you, then.”
He shook his head. “You were at our wedding. You saw her with me. No. Nothing stands between us…except whateverthisis.”
She glanced at Carlton. “Love binds them well. So what is this?”
Carlton spoke up. “Has anything happened to Inès lately that causes this?”
“Not that I know. Not that she has told me,” Evan replied. “I expect you have had protection for the Ashleys, Ramseys, the Fourniers, as well as for Giselle.”
“Yes. But Carlisle,” said Carlton, “took that over for Giselle when she and he married.”
Evan recalled that that had happened earlier than Carlton thought. “Carlisle had done it himself in Brighton when he saw her stalked by men he did not know.”
“And you?” Scarlett tipped her head. “You have had Inès followed since your wedding. We saw that.”
“Did you dismiss your men when I took up the reins?” Evan asked.
“We did,” she told him. “To have too many creates a marker the enemy can easily spot.”
Carlton folded his hands together, his mouth grim. “Does Inès know that Giselle and her husband Carlisle recently saw the French agent La Mère at the theater?”
Evan nodded. “Yes. Giselle told you, I imagine?”
“She did,” Carlton said. “The next morning, both she and Carlisle came here.”
“Carlisle’s guards were not able to track the woman out of the theater,” Evan told them.
“He told us.” Carlton sniffed. “We all are worried about La Mère.”
“This relationship between your group and ours,” Evan added, “is working well. But now I need to know more.”
“I agree,” Scarlett said, gazing at Carlton then Evan. “Your wife has done us a great service. What she accomplished was a delicate operation, which she carried off brilliantly and with more positive results than we ever expected.”
Evan winced. “She pretended to be Vice Admiral Rossard’s lover.”
“He preferred men,” Carlton said. “He used her as a cover. We were fortunate in that.”
“So was Inès,” Evan added. “But she grew to care for him. She mourns that he took his own life. I wish I could help her absolve herself of blame for what happened to him. The man was doing what he thought was his duty. But now, God help her, she is well known to the French general staff and the admiralty.”
“More than that,” Scarlett said, her lips thin with worry, “she is known to Joseph Fouché and René Vaillancourt.”
Though he knew that, the confirmation nearly sent Evan to his knees.
“Both are ruthless,” Carlton murmured.
“But Vaillancourt does Fouché’s dirty work,” said Scarlett. “Especially with women.”
Carlton checked Scarlett’s eyes. “He resents that Ashley got the better of him years ago. Ramsey walked out of his house with Amber and humiliated him in front of Paris’s most powerful. Since then, no female agent of ours is safe from him. We do the best we can to protect them.”
Now Evan had to know the ultimate in secrets. “You spirited Inès out of Boulogne, didn’t you?”
“Yes, we had to.” Scarlett took her chair behind her desk, her gaze dark with dread. “Vaillancourt pegged her as the one who encouraged Rossard to give Giselle’s drawings of the coastal towns to the French shipwrights. We told Corsini to arrange it. He succeeded.”
“What I do not understand,” Evan said with dismay, “is why she finds it necessary to leave me.”
“She may be afraid for your safety,” Carlton offered.
