Page 30 of Surrender

Agony sliced through him as if the Prussian bastard they were hunting had cut him open. The sensation made his muscles harden and grow taut until he ached as if someone had taken a heavy stick to his body. Swallowing hard, he turned and headed toward the billiards room. Inebriation wouldn’t solve his problem, but a couple of stiff drinks would most likely dull the sharp edge of frustration biting into every part of him at the moment.

The moment he entered the library, he saw Rufus bent over the billiards table, preparing to take a shot. Harry stood close by, holding his pool stick in front of him, while Jamie was at the liquor cart with its varied assortment of alcohol. After a nod to the two men at the billiards table, Theo met Jamie’s gaze. Almost as if knowing Theo wanted to get soused, his cousin lifted a glass filled with amber liquid in a silent invitation for Theo to join him.

Without hesitating, Theo crossed the floor and accepted the drink, which he threw down in one gulp. Jamie had already filled a tumbler for himself, and his eyebrows shot up in surprise at how quickly Theo had finished his drink. Before Theo could ask for another, Jamie pulled the glass from his hand and refilled it.

“I take it you’ve realized the truth,” his cousin murmured as he handed a full glass back to Theo.”

“Yes.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. Force her hand, I suppose.” Tossing down a deep swig of the Scottish whisky his Uncle Lucien kept on hand, Theo scowled down into the golden liquid that remained.

“Force her hand?” Jamie’s eyes widened in surprise, and his eyebrows shot skyward. “Don’t you mean wooing her, and then ask for her hand?”

Theo stiffened at the question in his cousin’s voice. Christ Jesus, that had been a bloody stupid thing to say. Jamie was a fast thinker. If he didn’t take care, it wouldn’t take the man long to figure out Theo had made love to Genevieve. The realization caused his brain to erupt with a whirlwind of possible explanations that would allow him to walk himself back from the edge.

Each idea that slid into his head had to be discarded until he settled on a vague response. A muted crack from one of the billiard balls being hit with a pool stick made Theo glance over his shoulder at his cousins before he reached for the decanter of whiskey to fill his glass a third time.

“It was hard enough forcing her to accept the fact I was going to be her partner. The minute I begin to court her, let alone mention the word marriage, she’s apt to get it into her head that I’m viewing marriage as a way for me to control her.”

“So when you say forcing her hand, are you suggesting you compromise her?”

“No, I’ve already—”

Decanter in mid-air, Theo froze as he realized how close he’d come to confessing he’d bedded Genevieve. Out of the corner of his eye, Theo saw Jamie studying him with a thoughtful expression. As he stood pinned beneath the assessment of his cousin’s gaze, Theo remembered why Val always picked his cousin to interrogate suspects that were brought in for questioning.

Jamie narrowed his eyes, then leaned toward Theo to appraise him for a long moment. The intensity of his cousin’s gaze made his stomach knot tighter. He was about to be grilled and needed to guard his tongue.

“When we were at Callendar Abbey for Aunt Matilda’s birthday, I remember the afternoon when everyone was asking where the two of you were,” Jamie murmured, a thoughtful expression on his features. “Wills told Uncle Percy and Aunt Rhea that Ginny had gone for a ride, and that you’d followed to ensure she was all right.”

“Yes, I was worried about her.” Theo’s sharp reply made Jamie arch an eyebrow.

“That was only a day or two after she was stabbed in Whitechapel, too. I remember you and Wills with your heads together after lunch, only to learn later he’d been the one to tell you Ginny was attached to the foreign section and had been injured.”

“Something you and Val should not have withheld from any of us. Even Peter should have told us before his death. We would have watched out for her, even possibly keeping her from being injured.”

Theo’s words were harsh as he condemned his cousin for failing to alert him as to what Genevieve was up to. She might never have been injured if he’d known she’d been going into the East End on her own. He would have followed her to ensure her safety.

His stomach twisted with the same sickening feeling he’d experienced when he’d pulled the bandage off Genevieve’s wound. A voice reached out from the depths of his consciousness with the reminder of what had happened moments later. Jamie met Theo’s eyes with frustration and anger.

“We didn’t know she was working for the Crown until the night of Peter’s murder, when she showed up at Sommerville House with instructions from C,” Jamie said in a defensive voice before a haunted look crossed his face “It took me a good twenty minutes to comprehend that she was working for the Crown. I’d been the one to recruit Peter to join us, and I was blaming myself for his death. I wasn’t thinking too clearly at the time.”

“And yet afterward, you did nothing to stop her.”

“I tried,” Jamie grumbled. “Val did too.”

In the back of his mind, Theo realized he was being less than fair to his cousin. Not only was Genevieve headstrong, but she’d made it clear she was determined to find Peter’s killer. That was a powerful motivator for her to refuse to quit the foreign section or to threaten to work outside of the Crown’s intelligence community.

God knows it had been difficult enough to make her accept the fact that he was going to be her partner. Convincing her to leave the service had been impossible. There was no doubt in Theo’s mind that Jamie would have found Genevieve to be more than a match for his persuasive abilities. Theo threw down what alcohol was left in his glass.

“That was unfair of me,” he said softly as he met Jamie’s gaze. “I know how determined she can be.”

“Val and I spoke with C about the matter, but Ginny reached the man first. She’d already provided far too much valuable information in the few weeks she’d been working for the foreign section, and the old man was reluctant to let her go. C also didn’t want a mutiny on his hands, so he ordered us to keep our mouths shut.” Jamie sighed with regret. “Although I admit we should have gone against C’s orders and made it a point to tell the rest of you.”

Behind them, balls on the billiards table clattered as Rufus laughed in triumph. Theo and Jamie turned toward the sound, and with a broad grin, their adopted cousin held his cue stick like a bishop with a staff and with his opposite fist pressed into his hip.

“When are you going to learn you can’t beat me at billiards?” he crowed as Harry glowered at the empty table slate.