Page 80 of After the Spy Seduces

Deciding that it was safe to continue, she paused to tuck the knife back into place beneath her skirt, closed the door behind her, and silently returned the cabin hook to its place so no one would know she was missing. Then she glanced up and down the dark gangway. Pitch-black, except for a beam of moonlight falling inside through the hatch above the short set of stairs leading up to the deck.

The only way out.

She took a deep breath and started forward, feeling along the wall with her outstretched hand and keeping her eyes on the patch of moonlight. Each footstep was agonizingly slow, but she had to go carefully and silently, praying that any misstep would be mistaken for a creak of the boat in the changing humidity and temperatures.

When she reached the stairs, she grabbed the hatchway with both hands to help keep her balance and stepped up onto the deck. She flattened herself against the side of the aft cabin and glanced over her shoulder as she moved slowly toward the stern railing—

She smacked into a man’s solid body. She jumped back, startled. Before she could scream, the man’s face became visible in the pale moonlight, and the sound strangled in her throat.

Her mouth fell open. “Major Paxton?” Relief poured through her, so fiercely that she began to shake. “Thank God…” She reached for him, throwing her arms around his neck in relief as she choked out, “Thank God you’re here!”

She’d never been so happy to see him in her life. With a prayer of thanks to God, she immediately regretted every uncharitable thought she’d ever had about the man. Oh, she could kiss him!

“Are we safe here?” she whispered, still too wary to speak at full voice. Around them, the ship was just as dark and silent as when she’d left her cabin. “Have your men taken over the ship, then?”

“In a matter of speaking.”

A ragged breath fell from her lips with a soft little laugh that lay somewhere between hysteria and relief.Oh, thank heavens!She was safe. “And Christopher? Where is he?”

“On shore.” A cold smile pulled at his thin lips. “Waiting for you.”

An icy suspicion crawled up her spine. Something wasn’t right. The ship was too quiet, too still, for a rescue that would have required approaching over water, then overpowering sailors on watch.

The truth pounded through her as she fisted the lapels of his uniform coat in her hands. Hisredcoat.

“It was you,” she whispered barely louder than the waves lapping at the side of the ship, stunned. “All along, it was you.”

She released him and stepped back, staring at him as the monster he truly was materialized in front of her eyes.

“You sent the note about Garrett being kidnapped, and you told that Frenchman where the general kept his diary.” Fury replaced her fear, and she struck at him with her fists, striking his shoulders. “You took Meri! Youbastard!”

He grabbed her by the wrists and yanked her against him, forcing her to stop.

“You made me do it.” He clenched his jaw, and Diana gasped at the anger for her in his eyes. “I wouldn’t have had to take her away if you had handed over the diary like I asked.”

Hatred for him stung like acid on her tongue.

“I gave you opportunity after opportunity.Youput your daughter in danger, Diana.”

Your daughter. Her stomach pitched sickeningly. “You…know?”

His eyes gleamed at her naïveté. “There’s nothing that happens at Idlewild that I don’t know about. Especially if it concerns you.” He brushed his knuckles over her cheek, and she flinched beneath his touch. “You’d do anything to protect your family, which is why I convinced you that Garrett had been kidnapped. You were supposed to have handed the diary to the French that night at the tavern. I’d have gotten my reward and left England then. But you brought the memoir pages instead, and the French thought I’d double-crossed them. They nearly killed me for it.”

“What a shame,” she drawled. She yanked her arm away and stepped back from him as rage burned in her chest.

“That’s why they came after you the night of the party. They didn’t want to wait for me to deliver it and decided to steal it themselves. When the Frenchman couldn’t find it in the cabinet, he thought he could force you into handing it over.”

She would have, too, and gladly, if she had known where it was, if she had known all that the general’s notes would place in jeopardy since that night. “Why not take the diary and give it to them yourself?” Her hands clenched into fists. “Damn you! Why did you come after an innocent little girl?”

“Because I didn’t know where your father kept it. He never brought it out in front of me. He didn’t trust me enough for that. So I had to get to it another way.”

He took a step toward her, but she stood her ground. She wouldneverlet him intimidate her.

“As for Meri, yes, I used her to bring you here. But if I hadn’t taken her, the French would have. So I acted first, knowing you’d do anything to protect her. You should be thanking me.”

“Thankingyou?” A laugh strangled in her throat. He was mad!

“But you always were ungrateful when it came to me. Downright insulting, in fact.”