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Madalene smiled nervously. “I am glad that we are both well.”
Chuckling, he replied, “I am not the one who was abducted by a madwoman and still managed to secure a hackney to travel to one of the most disreputable public houses in all of the rookeries.”
“I have had harder days,” she joked.
“I can only imagine.” Lord Hawthorne grew serious. “I must assume that you have some questions for me.”
“I do.”
Lord Hawthorne took another step closer to her, making them only a few feet apart. “What would you like to know?”
“You will be honest with me?”
With a thoughtful nod, he replied, “From here on out, I will never lie to you again.” Madalene could tell he was in earnest.
“It pleases me immensely to hear you say that,” she said. “I am going to start with an easy question first.”
“Whatever you would prefer.”
With a solemn look, she asked, “What is your favorite dessert?”
Lord Hawthorne’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Sugar biscuits.”
“That is a wise choice, my lord,” she joked. “But I’m afraid the questions will become increasingly harder now.”
“Yes, I imagined that would be the case.”
Madalene glanced over at the door and lowered her voice. “How long have you been an agent of the Crown?”
“I was recruited out of Oxford.”
“Is that why you disappeared for three years?”
Lord Hawthorne nodded. “I was working with a group of French royalists on the island of Jersey as we tried to stop Napoleon.”
“Why didn’t you come home when Napoleon was exiled?”
“Because we were still tracking down people who were loyal to him,” he explained. “I only came home when I heard that a French spy was coming to England to meet with a group of radicals.”
“The French spy being Marie?”
“Yes, it was.”
“Did you have to kill her?”
“I wasn’t the one who killed her,” he revealed. “Another agent took the shot.”
“Was it Oliver?” she boldly asked.
“It was not.”
“But he is an agent, as well?”
Lord Hawthorne bobbed his head. “He is.”
“Does Jane know?”
He winced slightly. “No, she does not,” he replied, “but I assure you that it is much safer if she doesn’t know the truth.”
