“Then it is high time she turn her talents to matters of state.”
“Damn you, Colin, I would call you out if I could bear the idea of it. But you know very well I cannot.”
“I don’t wish to fight you, Leam. I am only here to convince you to come work for us.”
He stood stunned for a moment. “
“I am not speaking of the Falcon Club. They want you in the Home Office. Quite adamantly.”
“Tell them to take Yale. He’s anxious to be back at it already.”
His jaw tightened. “They are suspicious of Yale, though I have assured them they needn’t be.”
“He is the cleverest one of the lot of you, and they’re fools if they cannot accept that.” He pivoted about. “Go find yourself a proper candidate, someone in need of work, without a family and estate to see to. Someone who wants your damned secrecy and lies.” He strode to his horse. The mist had coalesced into rain and it pattered chill on his hat and shoulders and his roan’s glossy coat. Anger roiled in him, hot and desperate. Betrayal had shown in her eyes thicker than the overhanging sky.
Perhaps she had trusted him before, but she would not now.
It was for the best.
“They follow you.”
He slid the reins into place. “You mean Wyn and Constance. Of course they do. I half raised both of them.”
“Even Seton has listened to you on occasion despite his cavalier attitude toward the Club and uncertain loyalty to the crown. Every single one of your quarries has returned home without complaint. People lead where you tell them to go, Leam. The kingdom needs you.”
Yes, people did what he wished, like his brother who walked into a duel with his closest friend because Leam arranged it. He set his foot in the stirrup and mounted.
“I’m not interested.”
“Would you be interested if I told you Lady Katherine would not be bothered again for information if you agree to their offer?”
Leam’s head swung around.
“They want you to resume your previous role and head the unit in France,” Gray said.
“You are using her to convince me of this?”
“Not entirely. Her assistance with Chamberlayne would be helpful. Possibly essential. They have no doubt she could continue to be useful after that, with her social connections and natural ability.
Unwed she has no husband to hinder her.” His brow drew down. “Leam, I am sorry to be the messenger. I truly am. In this case, I am telling you what I have been told to convey. They are willing to give her up for your promise.”
Leam fought for breath. How could he have allowed this? He had been blind to everything to which he should have paid the closest attention. Again.
“Colin, I must find David Cox.” He had claimed to be with Lloyd’s, London’s premier insurance company. He’d searched there first, but apparently Cox had not worked for Lloyd’s in years. Yet another reason to suspect him— whoever he was.
“When this matter is concluded,” Gray said, “we can help with that.”
He scowled. “The director and ministers and their network of informants are a pack of idiots and amateurs. Why do they imagine I would wish to ally myself with them?”
“To make certain they never invite Lady Katherine to assist them again.”
Leam’s chest ached. He shook his head. “I was truly a fool to go to you for help protecting her.
You told them precisely how to entrap me.”
“I didn’t like it any more than you. But I was instructed to do what I must.”
“Answer me this: If I agree, how would I be assured of her protection if I am across the Channel or in the north?”
“You would have the director’s promise. The prince regent’s if you wish. Say the word and I vow to you the government will forget Katherine Savege ever existed.”
Leam gripped the reins with frigid fingers. He had promised his son. He had promised himself.
“I have no heart for it, Colin,” he uttered to his old friend. “I would make a poor spy.”
“You never had any heart for it, Leam. That is what makes you the perfect spy.” The viscount’s face wore the same expression of confident sobriety it had five years ago when, over brandy on a chance meeting at their club, he had first spoken to Leam of the Falcon Club. A new secret organization, Gray had said, with a task Leam seemed particularly suited for at the moment. They needed a Scot, and it would allow him to leave England. To leave it all behind.
But now he did not wish to leave. For the first time in years he wished to remain, and in the company of a woman he mustn’t have.
So be it.
“I must launch my sister into society this spring.” It was the least he could do for her. Married to a suitable man, Fiona might take Jamie into her home when Leam must be away. The boy mustn’t remain alone at Alvamoor with Isobel’s bitterness to blight his youth.
He lifted his head and met Gray’s gaze. “Tell them that I am theirs to do with as they wish. But if anyone importunes Lady Katherine again, I will make you pay for it personally, Colin.”
“Of course.”
Leam turned his mount’s head and rode away.
Kitty waited for her mother to rise. The dowager remained abed. At eleven she went to her mother’s room and knocked. A maid answered.
“She hasn’t been in today, milady.”
Kitty maintained her poise. “Well, that is curious. Perhaps she stayed at my brother’s last evening.
Lord and Lady Savege hope we will all move into the new house down the street before the baby comes, of course.”
“Course, mum.” But the maid didn’t believe it either.
She would not have even a day, an hour to decide what to tell her mother. Unlike her daughter, the dowager countess would not give herself to a man or risk being discovered consorting with a gentleman without the promise of marriage. Lord Chamberlayne, it seemed, was set to be a member of the family. What would Lord Gray have to say to that? And how could Kitty withhold it from her beloved mother?
She could not.
She went to the parlor and pulled the rope bell, then sat at her writing table and drew out a sheet of paper and ink.
“Milady?” the footman said from the doorway.
“I am not at home to callers this afternoon, John. If my mother should come home, please alert me to it immediately.”
He bowed and closed the door.
She wrote, not what Lord Gray wished to read. She could not do what they asked of her. If they sought information about Lord Chamberlayne, they must find it through another source. She would not tell her mother anything, but she would not betray her either. And she was not a spy. She must leave that to others better qualified. If Lord Chamberlayne were guilty of fomenting rebellion among Highlanders, the government would bring him to justice by some other means. She must believe that.
But her conscience pricked alongside her anxiety for her mother.
When the ink dried, she sealed the letter and addressed it. She stood, swiping the tears from her cheeks, and went to the door.
“John,” she called, and went onto the landing. But the footman was not walking up the steps. Leam was.
