by Lauren Smith
“There is, but I cannot explain here. It may not be safe,” Adam replied.
James rubbed his closed eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “You’re telling me that what happened tonight was connected to . . . ?”
“Yes.” Adam saw that what he was carefully conveying to James was finally sinking in. “And you know what it means for her.” He nodded his head toward Letty.
“I know . . . but I can help her weather the scandal. It doesn’t have to end the way you expect. I won’t force that upon her, not if she doesn’t want it.”
“Unfortunately, I think you must.” Adam kept his tone quiet. “I’m the only one who can protect her. She’s been seen, James. Before the night is through, she’ll have been made as one of mine, and she will not be safe.”
James’s eyes widened and then narrowed as he looked between his sister and Adam. Yes, the man was finally coming to understand what Morrey was saying.
“Then we must make a few decisions, mustn’t we?”
“We must,” Morrey agreed.
“The sooner the better,I suppose?”
“Yes. I’ll go to the Doctors’ Commons tomorrow. We can tell everyone we had a secret understanding and plan to marry within a few days.”
“It will be enough.” James sighed heavily. His reluctance to agree to this plan was obviously still strong.
“Wait—marriage?” Letty suddenly seemed to realize what they were speaking about.
“Yes, you and Morrey. Immediately.” James glanced at Adam, an apologetic look in his eyes.
“James, you can’t—”
“Letty, after what happened tonight, there are reasons that require you to comply with this decision. You know I would never want to force this, but you must trust me. This is the only way forward that keeps you safe.”
“Safe? Safe from him? This man just held a knife to my throat!”
James shot a startled glare at Adam, renewed worry and anger apparent in his expression.“What?”
“A misunderstanding. I thought she was the threat I’d been sensing. Then the real threat revealed itself and fired. That was the pistol you heard from the ballroom. Whoever took that shot, they saw your sister’s face clearly and likely knew that she’d been talking to Lady Edwards.”
“Christ.” James began to pace the floor of the retiring room. Then he looked at his sister again. “Letty, I’ve never asked you to obey me for any reason, but that changes tonight. You must trust me now when I say you will marry Morrey. All will be explained to you when it’s safe.”
“James, you cannot ask this of me—please. It isn’t fair. You know what I want, and this isn’t it.” It was such a soft plea, a little sister asking her older brother for his love, his trust, his protection. Adam watched in dread as James had to deny his sister what she needed by a simple shake of his head. No decent brother could form words to deny such a plea, and James was a good brother. All he could do was deny her with his actions.
“Yes, it is unfair,” Adam agreed, turning Letty’s attention away from her brother. “And for that I’m sorry, Lady Leticia, but it must be done. Do not blame your brother for this. It is my fault. I bear the blame for it.”
“No.” She shook her head violently. “How can I marry you? I barely know you!”
“Many couples marry knowing each other for less time than we have,” Adam said, keeping his tone gentle. It was clear Letty was still in shock.“Pembroke, allow me to have a moment with her.”
“I should stay.” James’s overprotectiveness would have amused him at any other time.
“Just a moment is all I need.”
“Very well,” James allowed. “But only a moment. My sister has been through enough tonight. I would like to get her safely home before more daggers or pistols come into play.” He stepped outside.
Adam grasped Letty’s hips again, pulling her toward him. The blue silk of her gown was soft beneath his palms, filling him with desire.Yet she wasn’t affected the same way he was. She was trembling, though he could hardly blame her under the circumstances.
“I will explain all that has happened tonight when I can, when it’s safe. Pleaseknow that I’m sorry for how this came about. I will be a good and loyal husband to you. I swear it upon my life.”
Tears gathered in her lovely dark-brown eyes. He reached up and brushed one away.
“Do not cry, please,” he begged. “It will be all right. I promise.”
Then he stole a soft, lingering kiss from her lips. The sort of kiss he wished he’d given her that first time. She went still in his arms, but not stiff with terror as she had been earlier. He nuzzled her cheek and held her close. The poor innocent creature, barely twenty, a full decade younger than him, was to have her life upended all because she’d sought to help Lady Edwards fix her hair. When he moved his face back to look down at her, all he saw was dazed confusion.
“There, there,” he said, his natural need to comfortintensified for this beautiful young woman.
“Do you wish to marry me?” she asked him.
“I had no thought to marry. Not in a long while. But I am glad it will be to you.” It was the truth. He had abandoned the idea of such things the night John had perished. But now Letty had need of his protection,and this was the only way he could be there to protect her at all hours. He felt like a bastard for having a small flare of happiness that a beauty with such a soft heart would be his.From the moment he’d laid eyes upon her, he’d had a fleeting rebellious thought that she would have made him a wonderful countess. Now she would be his countess, and he could not shake his sudden excitement and gratitude at the thought.
“Lord Morrey—” Letty began, but the door opened, and her brother came back inside.
“I have your cloak, Letty. We need to leave. I found Gillian. She’s waiting out front.” James held up a cream-coloredcloak lined with blue silk that matched her blue-and-gold gown. Letty allowed her brother to slip it over her arms, and she buttoned it up with trembling hands.
“Pay a call on us tomorrow, and we’ll discuss the ceremony and the matter of Letty’s dowry.” James held his hat under one arm and nodded brusquely at Adam.
Adam nodded back and watched the pair leave the retiring room. Once he was alone, he searched the chamberuntil hespottedthe small hole in the wall wherethe bullet had struck. He retrieved his dagger and dug the bullet from the wall. He chipped at the hole, scratching it until it looked like the damage to the wall had been done by something else.
He searched the room until he found a chair about the right height, and then he pushed the tip of the chair into the hole. Now it looked as if someone had simply shoved the chair into the wall at an angle, causing the damage.The last thing he needed was proof of what had happened in this room. He needed London society to think that he simply had been lost in passion with Letty, not thwarting a French assassin.
He slipped the bullet into the tiny pocket of his waistcoat and left the retiring room.
Given the tight crowd now at the front door, Adam surmised that there had been a mad dash upon the poor grooms to fetch coaches and horses. Lord and Lady Allerton were attempting to oversee the mass exodus from their home.
“I don’t understand it, Henry,” Lady Allerton murmured to her husband. “A pistol?Why would anyone . . .” She trailed off and wrung her hands in her red satin skirts.
Adam slipped between pacing gentlemen and packs of gossiping ladies until he made it to the front of the line. The next groom who rushed up the steps of the Allerton house was breathing hard and caught Adam’s summoning wave.
“Bring around my coach. The one with the Morrey crest.” He knew all the servants of great households like the Allertons were trained to recognize the crests of the noble houses for occasions such as these.
“Yes, my lord.”
Adam moved out of the hot crush of the crowd and waited outside for his coach to be brought forward. He donned his cloak and climbed inside the vehicle once it was in front of the Allerton house. The
n he sat back in the darkness for an instant before he realized something was wrong.
He lunged forward, his dagger pressed against the man’s throat. He would have laughed in triumph at discovering this hidden man, but he felt a second blade pressed against his own throat.
“Easy, Morrey,” a familiar voice chuckled. Adam relaxed, and the weapons were lowered.
“Russell, what the bloody hell are you thinking, sneaking into my coach?” He sat back in his seat and tucked the knife in his waistcoat. Avery Russell did the same. Adam pulled one of the curtains away from the window so that he could better see the spymaster.“Did you find Lady Edwards?”
Avery nodded. “Barely.I saw her escaping from the window after the gunshot. I feared I was too late. We had but a moment to speak in the garden, and I received the message.”
“You almost were too late.” Adam leaned his head back against the cushioned wall of the coach. “Tonight was a disaster.”
“No one was hurt, and Lady Edwards gave me her message,” Avery mused.
“No one is hurt, but I’m now to be married.”
Avery’s eyes widened.“What?”
Adam explained how he’d attacked Letty, and how he’d seen to it that Lady Edwards had the chance to escape safely. Then, to keep suspicion off himself, he’d kissed Letty publicly, making it look as though they’d met for a secret romantic assignation.
Avery fought off a grin. “You’re to marry Pembroke’s sister?”
“Go ahead and laugh,” Adam grumbled.
“I’m not laughing at you, or her. Just the ludicrousness of the situation. Letty is a sweet girl, very intelligent, but not suited to a life of danger,” Avery said with more seriousness.
“I know, but what can I do? The spywho fired upon me tonight had a good look at Letty’s face. They’ll assume she’s working with me or Lady Edwards. Pembroke won’t be able to guard her as well as I can. She’ll be safer being married to me.”
Avery was studying him now. “Marriage won’t be enough. She’ll need you as a protective shadowuntil we can discover who attacked you at the Allerton ball.”
“I plan to be that shadow,” Adam agreed. “I only dread knowing Letty will hate me for it.”
“I believe Letty is due more credit than you would give her.” Avery tapped the roof of the coachwith a fist, and it rolled to a stop.
Adam glanced at the darkened street.“You’re leaving here?”
“Like you, the shadows are my friends.” Avery stepped out into the waiting gloom and soon vanished.
Adam called out to his driver to continue home. He had much to think on and much to plan,including the last thing he’d ever expected to plan—awedding.
2
“Married,” Letty Fordyce muttered for the tenth time as she, Gillian, and James walked up the steps into their townhouse.
“Letty, perhaps we should have that talk now,” her older brother said.
A footman removed her cloak and took her gloves as she turned to glare at her brother. “Talk? James, what is there to say? I barely know the man! What’s more, he grabbed me from out of the shadows and held a knife to my throat! Then he just kissed me like . . .” Letty couldn’t finish.
“Yes, well, I trust you when you say it happened, I do, but there’s more to discuss than . . . knives and kisses.”
“What could be more important than that?”
At this, Gillian spoke up. “Letty, my brother is involved in mattersthat require the utmost discretion. Please allow James to have a moment to explain.”
“Yes, that’s all I ask.”
Gillian put her arm through Letty’s in a show of support as James gestured for them to follow him to his study. Once inside, James closed the door and spoke in a low voice.
“We could not speak of this at the Allertons’ house—it was far too dangerous.”
“Speak of what? I am tired of all the secrecy and whispers!”
Tonight had been both terrifying and confusing,in turn. All she had done was go to the retiring room to help Lady Edwards with her hair. Then Lord Morrey had gripped her from behind and held a knife to her throat. Letty had been frightened, until she discovered it was Lord Morrey. Then he’d pulled the blade away, yet still held her captive by her wrist. A strange and unexpected flare of heat had begun in her lower belly at still being in his grasp. Before she could even process what any of that meant, themisunderstanding had been followed by a very real attack on them by an unknown assailant.
But she had found herself drawn, clearly against her better judgment, to this new and dangerous side of Lord Morrey. She had always thought him undeniably handsome, with his dark hair and flashing gray eyes, and there was such an intense seriousness to him that had been a mystery to her. Letty had seen a different part of him tonight, and she found she liked this new, dark side to the gentleman who had been the focal point of so many of her more stirring dreams at night.
“Morrey is a spy,” James said, still using that hushed tone.
“A spy?” Letty echoed the word, still baffled. “If he is a spy, why would you and Gillian know about it? It seems as though that would rather be kept a secret.”
“Yes, I quite agree, but when I married Gillian, the man took me into his confidence and told me about it, at least in broad strokes. He did not want me to worry, should something happen to him. He wanted me to know that whatever befell him was in the course of his duty to the Crown. I asked his permission to tell Gillian, and he agreed I could, knowing he could trust his sister with the knowledge of his occupation.”
“A spy,” Letty muttered. It didn’t make sense, his secrecy and veiled discussions with Lady Edwards about messages and the way they’d been attacked. She’d been in such a state of shock that she hadn’t yet fully processed what had happened to her this evening.
“His duties are not what you would expect. They are far more dangerous,” James added even more quietly.
Letty waited for her brother to continue.
“He removes threats of a human sort.” James seemed to be wording this carefully, and it did take Letty a moment to unravel the meaning behind it.
“You mean he’s an assassin? He kills people?” she uttered in horror.
“If he must, but only those who attempt to harm others, such as the person who tried to harm Lady Edwards,” Gillian added. “Please believe me, Letty—Adam meant you no harm with his actions tonight. I’m not in agreement with James that you should marry him, but I do ask that you believe me when I tell you he wouldn’t have hurt you.”
She now understood why he had grabbed her, how he’d thought she was the threat to Lady Edwards, but it was all too much to take in. Still, against her better judgment, she would give Lord Morrey credit this evening for being the gentleman Gillian insisted he was.
“He did save my life,” she conceded. “When he saw the pistol at the doorframe, he shoved me and Lady Edwards to the floor and shielded us.” Letty would have to make peace with the thought that she was soon to marry a man who took the lives of others, yet had saved hers.
“Morrey is a good man. Since Gillian and I married, I’ve come to know him better,” James added. “Marriage to him will protect you.”
“From what? I am not a spy,” Letty argued.
Her brother crossed his arms over his chest. “Whoever fired that pistol has great reason to believe you area spy. You were standing in a room with two spies—speaking to them, in fact. It’s not as though you can just disappear to the country for a spell and be safe. You might as well have put your face on every paper and declared yourself working for the Home Office. But if you marry Morrey, he can help keep you safe. He has special skills and talents suited precisely to that duty.”
Letty looked to Gillian, her only supporter in this matter. “But James can keep me safe, can’t he? You know I fear scandal, but I won’t bow to it and wed simply because society dictates it must be so.”
Gillian glanced at her husband before replying. “You know I agree
, Letty. But James is right—your reputation is nothing compared to the danger you will face if these spies believe you are important to their ends, which I’m sadly certain they will. My brother wouldn’t have suggested marriage if he didn’t think it was necessary. He never planned on marrying, given the dangers, but now—now he must . . . and you must. Surely marrying Adam isn’t such a terrible fate. He is a good man, a kind man, a fair man, and he’ll keep you safe.” Gillian touched her stomach and looked at James. “If it wasn’t for Gabriel, we would do our best to protect you here, but our son could be put in danger if someone intent on harming you came into this house.”
A crushing sense of guilt settled on Letty’s shoulders. Here she was demanding that James protect her, when she should be thinking of James and Gillian’s new babe. Gabriel would indeed be in danger if someone came here looking for her.
“I am a selfish creature,” she said, acid eating away at her stomach. “You’re right. Gabriel must come first. I am a grown woman. I can take care of myself. James, I will move out of this townhouse tomorrow and find another.”
“Nonsense,” James said. “I’m not going to simply buy you a home to run away to. I am putting my foot down, Letty. You’ll marry Morrey. Do you understand?”
Letty clasped her hands in front of her, staring at the floor. James had never spoken to her like this, like a child needing to be chastised for bad behavior. She wanted to yell and tell him she wouldn’t marry anyone unless she chose to, but she also knew he was right.
Marrying Morrey was the intelligent thing to do. The last thing she wanted was to be seen as a fool which meant she must accept the situation. She was going to be married to Lord Morrey.
And it wasn’t as if she hadn’t daydreamed about that. Ever since they had met, she’d been bewitched by the quiet intensity of his eyes, the sensuality of his full mouth, and the soft but deep rumble of his voice. The man was a mystery cloaked in an enigma clouded by riddles.
“Please, Letty, you can trust my brother to take care of you. I know this all came about suddenly, but give it time. It might yet be the best thing to happen to the both of you,” Gillian said. Letty saw hope burning in her sister-in-law’s gray eyes, eyes so like Lord Morrey’s.