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“Mr. Cassio committed treason, and you would go to the gallows in his stead, from a pig-headed belief that I made up the evidence?” she asked.

“Pig-headed?”

“I’d agree with that assessment,” Lord Devin put in. “I would content that Cassio stayed in your service planning to hatch another plot and use your letters to send messages to his conspirators.”

“She has nourished this ridiculous idea and thrust it upon an innocent man,” the captain said.

“The letters contains a code,” Livie stated.

“If there is a code, you added it!”

Livie wasn’t even surprised. “What could I possibly gain by that?” she inquired. “After assuring me of my own stupidity time and again, now you think that I am clever enough to frame Cassio for a crime he didn’t commit in order to avoid marriage to him?”

“Nothing would surprise me,” her father said grimly. “You added those supposed dots after the letters were delivered.”

“The plot is spelled out in mail that was sent from your ship, written in your personal letters. I did not add the line in question. Cassio did.”

“May I remind you that the conspirators swear that your seal was used to in traitorous communications?” Lord Devin inquired. “Who has better access to it than your first mate?”

“You don’t want to marry him because you consider yourself his better!” the captain said, ignoring the question of his seal.

Lord Devin cleared his throat.

“You are too low for Cassio. I’d have to give him my estate to make you an acceptable wife!”

“I am virtuous!” Livie cried. “I have been a dutiful daughter to you.”

“Ah, but there’s the problem!” her father barked.

Lord Devin moved closer to her.

“You are no daughter of mine!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

HE WHO DENIES ALL, CONFESSES ALL

“Michael Cassio lives in rented lodgings in Hammersmith,” Oates-Plagitt told Frederick and Joshua as their carriage rumbled down the street. “And you know what they say about Hammersmith.”

Joshua was obsessively revisiting the moment when he refused to help Livie prove her father’s innocence. She hadn’t searched him out at the masquerade, knowing who his father was. The very idea was absurd. Equally absurd was the notion that she had attended the masquerade hoping to meet some random lord who could sway the court in her father’s favor.

“I know nothing of Hammersmith,” Frederick replied, pulling a flask from his pocket and taking a healthy swallow. The fruity smell of brandy quickly filled the carriage.

Joshua noted that Frederick’s coat bulged as if he had stuck flasks in every pocket, but he turned to stare out the window rather than comment.

Fate had led him to the perfect woman, and his own idiocy had caused him to throw her away. He was such a fool. He deserved to lose Livie. Yet some stubborn part of his soul refused to give up. Perhaps he could force Cassio to his knees before her, prying an admission of guilt from the wretch. Then he would go to his own knees in turn and beg her to forgive him.

“Hammersmith is the heart of the French community in London,” Oates-Plagitt explained. “I understand that the Crown’s witnesses—the two enemy agents who assert, based on use of the captain’s seal, that he was instrumental in a plot to kill the king—both lived covertly in Hammersmith for some time.”

“How on earth do you know the identity of the witnesses?” Joshua asked, his attention snapping back to the conversation.

“I have my means,” the butler said airily. “The two men maintain that initial information came in correspondence sealed with the captain’s mark. They also saw Captain Sir Tyron on the shore in the midst of the confused battle that ensued once the boat landed. But here is my question: What was the point of that battle?”

Frederick scowled. “What do you mean?” He took another swig.

“What did they gain from that skirmish?” Joshua asked, his mind racing. “The coded letters detailed a time and place. A boat was sent to the French shore, supposedly to rescue an Englishman deserted in enemy territory. Why would the conspirators attack the British men who arrived in that boat? How would it further their plot?”

“The King’s investigators have concluded that they hoped to infiltrate the boat’s crew,” Oates-Plagitt said. “In their scenario, Captain Sir Tyron took the boat to the shore to rendezvous with his confederates. Then, under the cover of the supposed battle with enemy forces, one or more sailors would be replaced by imposters following a plan to assassinate the king.”