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Chapter Twenty-Eight
Letty could not hold in her gasp and her hand shot out to cover Bertram’s where it lay on the table between them. He turned to her with a reassuring smile.
“It is a good thing. It will give me some time to escape should they succeed in their plan.”
“Why can you not just arrest them now?”
Wellington leaned forward narrowing his eyes at her. “You know why, my dear, being a spy. We must capture them all.”
“How will you know you have them all?”
Wellington gave her a sardonic smile. “I suppose we shall have to question them.”
“When are they to carry out the deed?”
“They did not talk about times. Only that it is imperative that they stop the mission. It doesn’t matter because that is impossible now.”
Wellington cleared his throat loudly. “Details are not necessary to share at the moment, what is important is what actions to take next.”
Letty turned pleadingly to Wellington.
“You must have Bertram watched very carefully so that you may be on hand once they decide to carry out the dastardly deed, is that not right?”
Wellington’s look became sardonic. “Well…of course we shall keep an eye on the Duke, but there are several other avenues that we are also pursuing.”
Suddenly Letty remembered the conversation she’d heard concerning their neighbor. “And what does the real Earl of Perrin have to do with any of this? Or McCraven?”
Wellington’s brows rose. “RealEarl? McCraven?”
“Yes. I heard the two men speak of reporting to the latter while the former is the simple one.”
The Duke huffed in surprised laughter. “Thesimpleone? Whatever do you mean?”
Letty looked to Bertram, entreating him to explain. Bertram sighed, before leaning forward to give the Duke the whole sordid tale. Wellington listened quietly and without any surprise. At the end of Bertram’s tale, he grunted with amusement.
“The Earldom of Perrin is a very old line and succession has long been an issue that is aggravated by their unfortunate tendency to intermarry from within the family. I would think they have enough problems without getting embroiled in this mess.”
Letty leaned forward eagerly. “But that’s just it. They provide a weakness that can be exploited by others. If, for example, the plotters needed a base of operations or a scapegoat.”
Wellington blinked as if surprised that Letty could think so strategically. “Well…that is something to be considered.”
Letty nodded. “And if Lady Perrin’s position is precarious, it would be easy to push her into doing something nefarious, would it not?”
“As I said, we shall take it under advisement.” Wellington seemed irritated at Letty’s insistence although she could not fathom why. She looked to Bertram for some guidance but he simply smiled, dropping a wink at her before focusing on the kippers on his plate.
Letty took a sip of the ale in her cup, trying to focus also on her own breakfast but her stomach was tied up in knots and it was difficult. She wanted to press Bertram to be careful but hesitated to say anything else in front of Wellington. Once they were done with breakfast, however, she got to her feet. “Your Grace, may I have a word?”
Bertram’s brows rose. Nevertheless, he got to his feet and came to her. “Of course. What may I do for you?”
“Let us walk in the gardens.”
She took his arm and they walked out, not speaking until they were under the trees. Letty took a deep breath. “This is a dangerous business.”
“Forallof us. You must watch yourself, Letty.”
“I am not the one they want to kill.”
“No. But you are the one I care about and it might occur to them that I am more likely to give up my secrets if they were torturingyourather thanme.”
