“I did and there will be time for that, I promise.” Mr. Wilson walked closer to Roswell and mocked, “Kendrick had such faith in you, but in the end, you failed him.”
Roswell met Mr. Wilson’s gaze. “Why would you betray your country?”
“That is an easy answer- money. Power. Once I finish killing off the other agents, there will be no one to stop me. I will be the most powerful man in England,” Mr. Wilson said. “I will be able to sell secrets off to the French at my leisure.”
Mr. Wilson continued. “Kendrick never even suspected that I was a traitor. He overlooked me, just as you and Mr. Bolingbroke did. I was just a secretary. I begged to be let out in the field but Kendrick wouldn’t let me. He said I wasn’t ready.”
“Kendrick won’t die so easily,” Caleb asserted. “He will stop you.”
Mr. Wilson chuckled. “Kendrick is in the wind. He is hiding like the coward that he is. Once I track him down, I will ensure his death is slow and painful.”
Roswell hadn’t dropped his hand from her arm and Anette had no complaints. She felt some comfort by his touch.
“If your fight is with us, let the ladies go,” Caleb said. “They have nothing to do with this. They are innocents.”
Mr. Wilson approached Caleb. “Innocents, you say?” he asked. “You should know that I told your sister about your unusual choice of profession for a gentleman. I must say that she didn’t seem very impressed that you were a spy.”
Caleb’s eyes darted towards Anette, but he remained silent.
“Your secret is out, and that is only the beginning,” Mr. Wilson declared. “After I kill you and your sister, I will ensure that your father has a most gruesome death. He failed me, time and time again, and I don’t have time for incompetence.”
With a clenched jaw, Caleb said, “You won’t get away with this.”
Mr. Wilson put his hands up. “Who is going to stop me? You? Lord Roswell?” He turned and gestured towards Mr. Barnard. “With Mr. Barnard’s assistance, I was able to distract Lord Roswell from seeing the truth. It was rather easy since he hates Lord Roswell.”
“But I hardly know Mr. Barnard,” Roswell contended.
Mr. Barnard interrupted, “True, but I hate your brother, Fredrick, with a passion. I vowed to him that I would kill everyone that mattered to him.”
“Do you even work for Wellington?” Roswell asked.
“No, but I was captured by Wellington’s troops and Fredrick did guard me while I was imprisoned. That much was true, but he was not the kind capturer that I had alluded to,” Mr. Barnard explained. “He interrogated me for weeks until I managed to escape and I was able to kill Fredrick in the process.”
Anette sucked in a breath. Fredrick was dead? She could only imagine how devastated Roswell and Octavia were at that news.
“You killed my brother?!” Octavia shouted as she approached Mr. Barnard without a hint of fear. “How could you?”
Mr. Barnard looked amused by Octavia’s outburst. “He deserved to die. Quite frankly, he needed to die.”
In a swift motion, Octavia slapped Mr. Barnard across the face. “That is for Fredrick.”
Mr. Barnard rubbed his reddened cheek. “You will pay for that,” he growled.
Roswell rushed forward and grabbed his sister by the waist and pulled her back. “Leave Octavia out of this,” he said.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Mr. Barnard responded. “Do you know what it is like being tortured for weeks, with no end in sight? It is soul crushing.”
Octavia moved out of Roswell’s arms. “You shouldn’t have been caught spying then.”
Mr. Barnard’s eyes narrowed. “You are just a dumb chit. You know nothing of importance.”
“I know enough,” Octavia responded.
“I only pretended to care about you to prove a point,” Mr. Barnard said. “All you British women are the same. Vain. Pretentious.”
Octavia tilted her chin. “And all you French men are jackanapes.”
Mr. Barnard brought up his pistol and pointed it at Octavia. “I shall take great pleasure in watching you die.”
