AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What are you getting at, Lisbeth?” he muttered, the decision not sitting well with him at all but his hands were tied. “It’s always been just like that. We apprehend the bad people and turn them in to our superiors to face sentencing. She’s not any different.”
“And you’re fine with her being treated like a criminal?”
“Sheisa criminal.”
Confusion crossed her face. “You just said that she could be a double operative working under a different set of orders for England. Which is it?”
“Damn your eyes, I don’t know.”
“Good God, Val, youwanther to be guilty,” Lisbeth deduced, leaning closer and watching his face with an intensity he was used to seeing when she was interrogating others. It had never before been directed at him, and Valentine fought not to move from the uncomfortable force of it. “What happened out there? What was the message?”
“She claimed it was to foil an abduction attempt of Lincoln. I doubt it was real, though she met with Mary Bowser, part of Crazy Bet’s intelligence ring.” He glowered harder, banishing his misgivings. “And don’t ignore the fact that she stolemyreport.”
“Or someone gave it to her,” Lisbeth mused. “You said it was the page that had the names of Sommers’s contacts? What if it was a credible threat?”
“There’s no way for us to know until we get back.” He exhaled. “She won’t say who her contact is.”
“I wouldn’t either, until I was certain of immunity.” A small smile curled her lips as she sat back in her chair. “Told you she was smarter than you gave her credit for.”
“I never said she wasn’t smart.”
“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “You should have seen yourself whenever the girl came anywhere near your sphere. The infallible Duke of Thornbury scurrying for cover, in case her perceived witlessness was an infectious disease. I believe the words you used to describe her were ‘charmingly dim.’ She sure had you fooled.”
He pressed his lips together. “I never scurry.”
But she’d had him fooled. And that rankled.
Something like a whisper skated across his nape, and Valentine looked up just as the object of his unfortunate obsession entered the lounge. He hadn’t expressly told her that she wasn’t on ship’s arrest, but her maid hadn’t been given orders to keep her to her stateroom. Besides, locking the sister of the owner away would draw too much attention. They might not be in London, but most of the passengers were English and tasty gossip was still a meal course.
A pair of brilliant blue eyes met his and held. Every nerve in his body leaped to attention at the challenge in that stare.
“Feel like scurrying now?” Lisbeth teased wickedly.
With a glare, Valentine signaled a hovering footman and ordered a whisky, hoping it would take the edge of whateverthisnew feeling was. When had the sight of her become as important as breathing?
The moment he was sure that Lisbeth’s attention was elsewhere, he stole another glance. Bronwyn looked nothing like the urchin of the past few days, dressed in a sumptuous lavender gown trimmed in delicate embroidery. Her curls were draped in an elegant updo, amethysts winking in and out of the glossy strands. Lady Bronwyn Chase was every inch the lady.
Every inch the consummate actress.
That tinkling laughter he so loathed broke out across the room as she found herself surrounded by fawning admirers. He kept his feet firmly planted so that he didn’t go over there and make an ass of himself. Though he might have been her first lover, she wasn’t his to keep. He held no claim over her.
When he tore his hungry gaze away, Lisbeth’s attention was on him. “You know, you retired honorably from service for a reason, Val.”
“What’s your point?”
“The Kestrel isn’t your responsibility,” she said.
He shot her a sidelong glance. “Are you saying I should pretend she isn’t an international damsel-turned-spy who stolemyconfidential Home Office documents?” Valentine felt his blood boil, as if Bronwyn had committed the offense directly against him.
“We don’t know how she came into possession of them.” Lisbeth tapped her fingers against her chin. “What we need to do is find out who the real instigator is. It’s not her, clearly. She’s not an official British operative. When we get back to London, I say we let her go and see what she does.”
It was a sound plan. An excellent plan. But once more, the idea of letting Bronwyn out of his sight made his skin prickle and itch. Lisbeth was right—this had become more than personal. More of those bell-like sounds reached his ears, and he fought not to ground his teeth together when two of the men mimed having a duel in front of her. The so-called winner dropped to his knee before the lady and begged loudly for a favor.
Valentine was halfway across the room and on the edge of her space before he stopped himself from hauling the idiotic young buck to his feet. A pair of startlingly blue eyes met his and his breath constricted in his lungs. “Your Grace,” she said with a dip of her head, lashes falling demurely to her cheeks. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
He fought not to groan as the inflection on that last word arrowed straight to his groin, reminding him of the provocative scene in her bath chamber he’d escaped by the skin of his teeth. The young gentleman genuflecting in front of her skirts shot him a fulminating glare, which Valentine ignored. “A word, Lady Bronwyn,” he said, and then choked out the last word. “Please.”
A slim brow rose, amusement trembling over those lush lips that he had kissed many a time. “Will you excuse us, kind gents,” she said to her avid entourage, who erupted in sighs and protests. “His Grace is a dear friend of my brother’s, you see, and I’m certain that if I’m not exceedingly polite, word will get back. Ashvale will be very cross with me indeed if he hears I shunned the man.” She gave an audacious wink when the most ardent of the toadies shot him a look of mistrust. “Don’t worry, he’s no danger to me. He’s more of a fond nuisance.”
