“Tell me again how you and he know one another.”
“I am not at liberty to divulge that.” He drew her hand to his forearm. “But perhaps if you ask him, he might be inclined to tell you. I suspect indeed he would.”
“You have mistaken matters, you know.”
“I am quite certain I haven’t.”
A sick sensation lodged in her stomach. “What did he tell you?”
Mr. Yale regarded her for an extended moment then said, “He did not tell me anything. He did not need to.”
“Well, you are wrong. But I don’t believe I will ever see him again to ask him anything, anyway.”
“I fear I must churlishly insist, madam, that you are quite likely to be disproven in that.”
“Do you know, Mr. Yale, I think the greatest challenge to becoming a lady is accepting that gentlemen seem to think they know better than me. In fact, I have quite a strong suspicion that I won’t ever manage that. So perhaps I will never be a lady after all.” She flashed him a smile. “Oh, what a relief. I was beginning to worry.”
She turned and left the room without any assistance from him or anyone.
“His Excellency refuses to sell.” Viscount Gray sat across the rough wooden table from Jin, the late-summer morning spreading the pub with murky light. The establishment tucked in a quiet corner of London was empty of all but the pair of them. Like Jin, the viscount had dressed simply for their rendezvous, but the confident set of his jaw and his direct gaze marked him unmistakably as an aristocrat.
“The bishop’s secretary assured me that no offer could tempt him to relinquish any part of his collection of Eastern art. Especially not that piece.” Gray lifted his tankard of ale. He glanced over the rim. “What is in the box, Jin?”
“Nothing of note.” Only his identity.
“Then why ask me to assist you? You have never asked for my help with anything before.” His voice remained mild, his posture relaxed. But Colin Gray was no fool. The Admiralty and the king did not trust the head agent of their secret little club without good reason.
“It seemed the most likely route to acquiring it.”
Gray nodded. “Of course.”
Neither needed to speak the truth: Jin held the respect of several commissioners of the Board of the Admiralty. But Gray had social connections that made making an inquiry into the sale of an antiquity in a lord’s private collection unremarkable.
“Given that I have assisted you without question, however,” the viscount added, “I might be granted an explanation.”
“Your assistance has garnered me nothing. And if you had not wished to render it, you need not have.” Jin moved to stand up.
The viscount’s hand wrapped about his wrist like an iron band.
“You asked me because you wish anonymity in this.” An edge sharpened Gray’s voice. “I expect to know why.”
“Take your hand off of me, Colin, or I will cut it off.”
Dark blue eyes locked with Jin’s. “You are unarmed.”
“Are you quite certain of that?”
Gray released him but his gaze remained unyielding. “Seven years ago when we began this I did not understand why Blackwood trusted you so thoroughly.”
“Didn’t you? Then what game have you been playing all this time to include me in your Club? Hold your friends close but your enemies closer?”
“Perhaps at first. You were a remarkable asset, with your connections at ports and through every layer of London, it seemed. And your ship.”
Jin leaned back and crossed his arms loosely. “I have my uses, then?”
“But I soon came to see what Leam knew long ago,” Gray said as though he had not spoken. “You and I have never seen eye to eye. You are unpredictable and your every move appears designed to further only your own goals. But appearances are deceiving. Beside Leam, Jinan, you are the one man with whom I would entrust my life.” He held his gaze. “Tell me. I may be able to help.”
Jin studied the nobleman. Gray pursued his mission not because he must; his wealth and title were secure. He served king and country because honor and duty meant more to him than his life. Gray considered each one of his fellow agents in the Club-Leam, Wyn, Constance, even him-part of that duty. Indeed, his first duty.
“This is not entirely about me, is it, Colin?”
“Blackwood. And Yale. I know better than anyone what you have done for them. I know you shielded Leam from me when he wished to escape the Club. You took your ship to the North Sea to hound those Scottish rebels when you wished to be already sailing west. You did it because you hoped it would deter me from involving Leam.”
Jin did not deny it. Gray was wise for a man only a few years his senior.
“And although Yale has never said a word about it, I know you were there the night he shot that girl. I know Constance has asked for your help with him, and suspect that you have just seen him not because he sought you out upon your return but rather the opposite.”
“Do you know all that? And what did you learn from it, I wonder?”
Gray ran his hand behind his neck. “Good Lord, it’s like speaking with Socrates. An improvement over speaking to thin air, though, after sending you letters for a year and a half that you did not answer.” He stood up. “Jin, if you find you should need my help, you shall have it. Until then, the director must know whether you can be counted on to see to the trouble in Malta. Yale told you of that matter, I hope.”
“He mentioned it.”
“Are you with us still, or have you gone the way Blackwood has after all? Constance insists you are yet part of the Club, but I will have it from you now, finally.”
Why not? He might as well sail across the Mediterranean on another errand for the king and the Falcon Club’s secret director. For the first time in two years he had nothing better to do, and distance from this island would suit him well. The box he wanted was not within his reach, nor the woman. Both were now part of a society that, like this man, tolerated him for his skills but would always mistrust him because of those same skills. He had forged his reputation on violence and he was not, despite all, one of them.
“I will contact you.”
Gray nodded. “I expect to hear from you soon.” He extended his hand. Jin grasped it.
“Colin.” He paused, uncertain. The words came then without thought, from a place within him he did not wish to acknowledge. “Thank you.”
The viscount’s dark eyes glinted. “You are welcome.”
Jin sat in the pub alone for only minutes before Mattie and Billy arrived.
“Matouba says as he’s tried out this place afore and they don’t like his sort, he’s waiting at the ship.” Billy grinned, sliding into a chair.
Mattie grunted at the barkeep and lowered his mass. “We seen His Lordship leaving. Looked black as Matouba. Put his knickers in a knot, did you?”
Jin leveled an even look at him. “Have you learned anything of value?”
“Junior footman. Not many of them in the house, though. Bishop’s got a load of goodies he don’t want servants messing with.” Mattie’s thick brow furrowed. “Don’t know if this’ll be an easy one to nab.”
“When’s that ever stopped us afore?” Billy showed all his teeth.
Mattie shrugged and took up his glass.
“What is this junior footman’s name?” Jin asked.
“Hole Pecker.”
He lifted a brow.
Billy smiled even broader. “Mattie and I didn’t believe it neither, Cap’n. But that’s the name his mum gave him.”
“His schedule is regular?”
“Leaves the house ’bout ten o’clock, when the bishop turns in.” Mattie swallowed the last of his brew and laid his palms on the table. “See here. Billy and me and Matouba, we want to do this ’stead of you.”
