Page 26 of A Dangerous Engagement

“I hope you will not trust anyone here. I am the only safe person.”

“Oh.”

“But please understand, with your views, it is very dangerous for you to stay here. If there is any way to safely get you back to London and your parents, I will do it.”

“Oh, thank you. I would be so grateful.”

“At present, there does not seem to be a way to do that. Unless your fiancé and Lady Blackstone believe they can trust you and believe that you are wholeheartedly supportive of their efforts, it will be nearly impossible to escape.”

“So I must make them believe that I agree with them? I must pretend I’m not horrified to be engaged to marry a revolutionary?” She let out a soft, brief laugh.

“Exactly. And if I may make a request, I and your government would very much appreciate if you could tell us any information you might learn.”

“Information?”

“Such as where they’re storing their arms and any specific plans, dates, and definite targets.”

“Yes, of course. But how will I let you know?”

“Don’t write it. You must find me and tell me when no one else is around, or if no one is near enough to hear.”

“In the garden, perhaps?”

“Yes, or if it’s very urgent, you might come and find me in my room late at night.”

She must have raised her eyebrows, because he immediately said, “Please know that I will never take advantage of you, Miss Mayson. I realize you do not know me at all, and I have naught but my word to recommend me, but you can trust me.”

“You are acquainted with Nicholas Langdon, are you not? I saw you talking with him once at a party. Did you work together on the case against Julia Langdon’s uncle?”

“We did.”

She had little choice but to trust him. No one else was coming forward saying they were loyal to the government and wished to help her escape from these people.

“Very well, if I hear anything of importance, I shall be sure to tell you, Mr.Merrick. Is that even your real name?”

“My real name is Philip McDowell. But let us keep that between ourselves.”

She nodded, and he pressed his ear against the door. A few moments later, he opened it and slipped out.

Felicity sat at her desk looking over her Chinese language book, but several minutes had gone by and she had not even seen what was on the page. So she took out a sheet of paper and started to write the treatise she’d been planning in her head. She only wrote one sentence before her mind drifted away again.

The sooner Felicity and Mr.McDowell—no, she mustn’t call him that, even in her thoughts—Mr.Merrick found the important information about the revolutionaries, the sooner Felicity could be free of this nightmare she’d been living the past two days.

“What was that?” Aunt Agnes looked up from the book she was reading as she sat by the window.

“What, Auntie?”

“I heard something, a loud sound. Did you not hear it?” She looked out the window, clutching her open book to her chest.

“I did hear, but it was probably just a servant who dropped something.”

“Or it may have been a horse kicking the side of the stable.”

“That’s probably what it was. Nothing to worry about.”

Poor Aunt Agnes. Felicity probably should have kept their situation a secret from her aunt. She had always been of a nervous constitution, and if there was anything upsetting in the papers, her parents were careful to conceal it from her. She’d even known her mother to shush her father at the dinner table when he was speaking of someone being hurt in a carriage accident, or seeing a street urchin beaten by a ruffian. And now poor Auntie startled at every loud noise or raised voice.

“There is a man out there, near the stables, who looks very much like your father. Do you think that is your father?”