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“There is a lot you don’t know about me,” Oliver spat out.
Baldwin gestured towards the rear of the entry hall. “We should adjourn to my study to continue this conversation.”
Oliver reluctantly followed his brother towards his study. As he stepped inside of the room, Baldwin closed the door behind him.
“Why don’t we start with what in the blazes are you thinking becoming inebriated while on assignment?” Baldwin asked sternly.
“I am not on assignment,” he replied. “Corbyn told me to take a few days off after I got arrested.”
“You were arrested?”
“I was, and I spent a night in jail until Corbyn could get me released.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Oliver shrugged. “I suppose it hasn’t come up.”
“You should have told me,” Baldwin pressed as he walked over to the drink cart. He picked up the decanter and pulled the stopper out. “Why did Corbyn tell you to take a few days off?”
“Because I am getting awfully tired of babysitting members of Society,” Oliver declared. “All I do is tattle on my friends.”
“Is that what you believe you are doing?” Baldwin asked as he poured himself a drink.
“I have helped create a list of all the members of thetonwho have radical views but, mostly, they are just schoolboys spouting nonsense.”
Baldwin placed the decanter down. “What you are doing is important,” he assured him.
“Is it?” Oliver huffed.
“Besides, you just helped bring down a radical group and stopped a French spy from blowing up Fieldstone Square.”
“No,youdid that,” Oliver asserted as he went to drop down onto the settee.
“I couldn’t have done it without your help.”
“I can’t imagine that is true.”
Baldwin picked up his glass and walked over to the settee. “What is it that you want?”
“I want excitement, danger,” Oliver admitted. “Instead, my cover is one of a rakehell and gambler. The most despicable member of Society.”
“Then ask to be reassigned.”
“I did, but Corbyn says I am in the perfect position to keep spying.”
Baldwin sat across from him in an upholstered armchair. “That is a conundrum, then.”
“Why couldn’t I have been the one who was assigned to go to France and help the French royalists bring down Napoleon?”
Leaning back in his seat, Baldwin said, “I was assigned that mission, despite knowing how dangerous it was, because I didn’t care if I lived or died.”
“You ran away from your responsibilities, leaving us to pick up the pieces.”
“That is true.”
Rising abruptly, Oliver walked over to the window and looked out. “At times, I want to run far away from my life, as well. But I am not in the position to do so.”
“Why are you so unhappy?”
