The Earl of Morrey

by Lauren Smith

  Letty kept close to him; she linked her arm through his as they followed the stream of guests inside. They entered a suite of rooms with its enfilade opened to allow for a long banquet table. Adam nodded at those he recognized. But when he glimpsed Avery Russell at the far edge of the dining room amongst a cluster of other guests, they barely shared a glance. They dared not acknowledge each other more than that.

  “Adam, you devil,” a familiar voice broke in. “How are you?”

  Adam turned to see the Duke of Essex with his wife, Emily, at his side. Godric was a towering wall of muscle with dark hair and flashing green eyes that often sparked with a dangerous temper toward fools. It was said the violet-eyed beauty at his side was the only creature in the world who could tame him.

  “Godric,” Adam greeted. “We missed you at the wedding.”

  “I know. Damned pity to miss it. We were in the country when we heard that you were getting leg-shackled. I offer my belated congratulations.”

  Godric bowed his head to Letty. “Lady Morrey, it is a pleasure to see you again.”

  “Your Grace,” she answered with a blush. Her gaze then turned to Emily, and the two women separated themselves from the men to speak.

  “So, married. Never imagined you would do it,” Godric said. “Pembroke said you weren’t the sort to settle down.”

  How thoughtful James was to try to hide the real reason in conversation with others—not that it mattered. A number of titled men remained bachelors all their lives, with no concern as to who would be their heirs. He had not exactly cultivated that reputation, but James apparently thought he needed to, likely in order to protect his cover.

  “Yes, well, when the right woman is thrust upon you, it is hard to say no.” He watched his wife and the pretty young duchess, wishing they would stay safely away from the windows and dark corners of the room. Damnation, he was going to see assassins in the wings at every turn until he could end the threat to Letty’s life.

  “I agree with that. Marriage was an unexpected surprise for me as well. My little hellion thought she could refuse me too, until I finally convinced her otherwise. Damned curious thing to meet a woman who wanted me for me and not my title when she finally agreed to marry me.”

  “It’s lucky you kidnapped her when you did, or else Pembroke may have married her rather than you.”

  “Do not remind me,” Godric grumbled. “I was never so glad as when he married. The man is a bloody saint, and all the women adore him. If only they knew he was a member of your wicked club. They would not think him so saintly then.”

  Adam laughed. “Even then, he is still a better man than the rest of us. Imagine how I feel having him as a brother-in-law.”

  Godric laughed. “Isn’t that a sobering thought?”

  The dinner gong sounded, and everyone began to pair up for dinner. Adam and Godric rejoined their wives and proceeded to the banquet table.

  “You are up here.” Adam led Letty toward the head of the table. A tall man in the finest clothes money could buy stood at the head of the table, and Letty gasped at the sight of the king.

  King George IV was no longer in his prime at sixty years of age, but he still struck a dashing figure, if a bit rounder at the edges. The king had been raised a handsome, high-spirited boy, always bursting past the bounds of his strict upbringing. The man had spent much of his life alternating between indulging his passions and trying to please his parents.

  “Ah, Morrey.” The king beamed at them. “Finally, I meet the lovely woman who stole your heart.”

  Letty dipped immediately into a deep curtsy. Adam bowed.

  “Your Majesty,” they both replied.

  “Thank you for the invitation,” Adamsaid. “May I introduce my bride, Leticia.”

  The king studied Letty intently, missing nothing.

  “You chose well, Morrey. Not only is she quite lovely, but there’s a light in her eyes that tells me you do not have a dull life ahead of you.”

  Adam nodded and smiled a little. “I am most fortunate.”

  “And so am I. Tonight I lay claim to both your wife and Essex’s.” The king nodded toward the Duchess of Essex, who was being escorted to them by Godric.

  “Indeed. You will find both of them good conversationalists,” Adam promised and patted Letty’s arm as he helped her into her seat.

  The dining room was full of chatter as the courses began to arrive. Adam and Godric sat next to each other at the far end of the table near the hostess of the evening, Maria Fitzherbert, the woman the king had loved his whole life. Adam made polite conversation with Maria but kept his attention subtly trained on the opposite end of the table where Letty spoke to the king. Her face was animated by whatever she was saying. The king and Lady Essex appeared to be listening quite intently.

  “I must thank you, Lord Morrey,” Maria said, catching Adam’s attention.

  “For what, madam?”

  “George told me what you did last year, and he is so happy to meet your bride. You know how he feels about love.”

  “Indeed,” Adam replied.

  The king had been so in love with Maria that he had married her when he was underage. He was eventually forced to annul the marriage and unite himself with Princess Caroline of Brunswick, yet in his heart he’d always been loyal to Maria. Now that Caroline was dead, the king was living more freely in the open with Maria again.

  When the dinner was over, the king relinquished Letty to Adam’s care once more.

  “Well done, Morrey, very well done. She’s quite shy until one engages her, but then she flowers most beautifully. She’s clever and brilliant, and if she weren’t so clearly in love with you, I’d steal her from you.”

  Adam bowed to the king. “Thank you, Your Majesty.” Adam felt some of the tension inside him ease now that his wife was by his side again.

  Adam wondered if the king was right. Was she in love with him? He couldn’t deny the stirrings in his own heart, but he dared not guess whether she felt the same. Indulging in those thoughts now might get them both killed if he were to become too distracted.

  “You survived dinner with the king,” Adam praised her.

  Letty’s brown eyes glimmered. “Did I?”

  “You quite clearly won him over.”

  “It was rather frightening, to be honest, but Emily was so calm, and that made everything much easier. The conversation flowed quite freely, and I was glad to have a chance to speak.”

  Adam and Letty moved away from the guests still hovering about the dinner table.“And what did you talk to the king about?”

  “Politics, mainly. You see, I believe—” Letty began, but her words died as Avery Russell walked past themabruptly, nearly knocking Letty over. He didn’t stop, but kept moving, vanishing into the crowds.

  “What the devil . . . ?” Adam was still looking at Avery’s vanishing back when Letty slipped something discreetly into his palm. Recognizing the sleightofhand in play, he automatically tucked the slip of paper into his coat sleeve.

  “Follow me.” He escorted Letty into a small library off the main dining room. Once he checked to make sure they were alone, he removed the note and unfolded it.

  They are looking for you both. Leave at once. Do not return to Chilgrave.

  Adam cursed softly. Once he had relayed the message to his wife, he strode toward the fire and tossed the letter into the flames. Letty remained at his side, an anxious look marring her features.

  “Adam, what are we to do?”

  “Exactly what he says. Come, we’ll get your cloak and have our coach brought round at once.”

  In a matter of minutes, Adam was lifting Letty inside the carriage. As he climbed in after her, he saw a footman’s stare linger upon them too long before he turned and headed for the Carlton House stables.

  It chilled Adam to the bone to know that even amongst the king’s servants there were spies. And not the kind who protected the Crown.

  Camille smiled and fluttered her fan as she watche
d the English king laugh and hold court with his subjects. The man enjoyed hosting these simpering fools. No wonder her master wished to destroy him and all those who followed him. They dined while others starved. They laughed and danced, while only a few streets away women sold themselves to feed hungry babies and men worked themselves to death to feed their families.

  “We must defeat the system from the inside out,” her master had often said. “We must bring it all down to build something better.”

  The king approached Camille and offered her a rakishly charming grin. “Lady Halsey.” The fool thought her to be English like all the rest. It was far too easy to act and speak like an English lady, and no one had ever questioned her pedigree, not when she acted so perfectly English.

  “Your Majesty.” She dipped into a curtsy, allowing the king to see her ample bosom in the dark-purple court gown she wore. It was so easy to distract men.

  “A pretty widow. You have your pick of hearts to break tonight.” The king laughed before moving on to greet the next guest.

  Camille turned her attention back to a man with reddish-brown hair who wound his way lazily through the crowd. She saw him bump sharply into the very person Camille had come to find—the new Lady Morrey.

  Camille flicked her fan up in front of her face to hide her shock as she saw the man holding on to Lady Morrey’s arm. Lord Morrey, the hapless English aristocrat her master had so easily dismissed, was the man who’d foiled her attempt on Lady Edwards’s life.

  So . . . Lord Morrey is a spy.She gazed at the handsome Lord Morrey and recognized those gray eyes that had so captivated her when she’d glimpsed him briefly as he’d thrown himself between her and her target. He was as tall and well built as her master, an equal match. How had her master not known that this man was a spy? He was the farthest thing from a silly English dandy.

  Camille noticed the slight adjustment Lord Morrey made to his sleeve a moment after his wife pressed her hand to his. The man was good, almost perfect, but she missed nothing. He’d received something from the red-haired man and had tucked it into his sleeve. A message.

  If Lord Morrey had married Lord Pembroke’s sister, it meant she truly was important, so important that Lord Morrey had offered her the protection of his body and his name permanently.

  Now that Camille was certain of the woman’s importance, she would be even more certain to end her life. Whatever advantage she brought to the English Home Office, Camille would see it erased. It would be difficult now that she knew Lord Morrey stood between her and her prey.

  There was only one solution. They would have to be captured so that the information she required could be pried from them. And then they would be disposed of.

  Camille motioned for a footman to come to heras Morrey and his wife left the room. The man was one of her agents who had gained employment in Carlton House.

  “Yes, my lady?” the servant asked, hiding any hint of knowing her.

  “Follow them. Take plenty of men with you. Once they are well away from London, you know what to do. Get me the information, and then take care of them. Make it look like a random attack.”

  The footman nodded before slipping away into the crowd. Camille returned to the party, smiling as she noticed the red-haired man’s gaze sweep across the room, not pausing on her at all. She was as good at blending in as he was. She couldn’t help but wonder, was this new spymaster, Avery Russell, the reason her master was acting overly cautious? And if so, she would have to learn all that she could about him.

  11

  Letty didn’t like the tired, worn look in her husband’s eyes. They’d returned to the townhouse after the dinner at Carlton House this evening, and now Adam was seated at his desk, writing a few hasty letters while Mr. Helms and Mina packed their trunks again. Letty had changed out of her court gown into a blue velvet carriage dress for the long trip ahead.

  “Where are we bound?” she asked Adam.

  He finished writing a letter and rubbed the ink to blot it. “We’re headed to my uncle’s home.”

  “I wasn’t aware you had any uncles.”

  “Just the one, and he’s rather a character.” Adam called Shelton, and the underbutler soon entered the study.

  “Yes, my lord?”

  “Take these. One is for Caroline and the other for Sturges. He is to deliver it to Mr. Walpole himself.”

  Shelton accepted the messages. “Of course, my lord. The luggage is packed, and the horses are ready to go, sir.”

  “Thank you.” Adam stood and gently ushered Letty toward the door.

  “Your cloak, my lady.” Mina dropped a red velvet fur-lined cloak over Letty shoulders and gave her a matching muff to keep her hands warm.

  “But, Mina, you aren’t dressed to travel,” Letty said in alarm. Her lady’s maid glanced at Adam.

  “Mr. Helms and I are to remain here, at his lordship’s request.”

  She was to travel without a maid? She was to travel completely unattended? Was that even proper? Did she trust Adam enough to . . . Heavens, she had to, didn’t she? They were married, after all, but she still didn’t understand.

  “Adam, why—?”

  “I’ll explain once we’re on the road.” Adam nodded at Mina and guided Letty toward the door. As she stepped up into their waiting conveyance, she glanced back at the London townhouse. She’d barely had time to become familiar with anything in her new married life. Not here and not at Chilgrave. Adam joined her a moment later and closed the coach door as he sat down.

  Letty waited for him to explain, hands fisted in her skirts.

  “I’m sorry to leave them behind, but it is safer. We will be traveling quickly, and it may be dangerous. The less we have to worry about and the less luggage we have, the faster we can travel. My uncle will have a maid to see to you when we reach Scotland.”

  “Scotland?” She’d only been to Edinburgh once when she was fourteen.

  “Yes. My great-uncle Tyburn is my mother’s uncle. He’s quite young, close to my mother in age. They were very close growing up. He is a hardened Scotsman, but I think you will like him.”

  Letty leaned back in her seat to face him. “Adam, how bad is it?” She kept her voice calm, even though her heart was pounding.

  “It isn’t good. We were spotted at the king’s dinner party. I had hoped to leave for Ireland, but under the circumstances, I’d rather get us safely to Tyburn’s castle. He lives close to Ben Nevis, one of the tallest mountains in Scotland. We’ll be safe there. French spies will be reluctant to brave the wilds of the north. The landscape is harsh and the people harsher, at least when it comes to strangers. The castle is even more of a fortress than Chilgrave.”

  Letty’s head was spinning. This was no honeymoon—it was yet another desperate flight from danger. Fear settled in her belly, and it took a moment for her to speak. “Adam, will this ever be over? Will we ever be safe? I feel as though I might collapse.”

  Adam held her close against him. He brushed his lips over her forehead. “Rest, lady wife. Find sleep for a while.”

  Letty didn’t think she could sleep, yet somehow she drifted off. When she woke sometime later, she was uncertain of how much time had passed. The coach had stopped, and she found herself alone.

  “Adam?” Her heart leapt into a panicked rhythm as she pushed the coach door open.

  Adam stood in the lamplight of a small coaching inn, his cloak billowing out behind him. She drew in a breath of relief at the sight of him.

  “Are we stopping?” she asked, raising her voice a little.

  Adam returned to the carriage. “Yes. It’s been four hours. The horses need rest. We will spend the night and leave at dawn.”

  Letty studied the dark expanse above, which glittered with stars.“What time is it now?”

  “After midnight.” Adam caught her by the waist and set her on her feet, thenescorted her inside. “Our luggage is already in our room.” They climbed the creaky staircase to their room.

  He took her strai
ght to the warm fire in the fireplace and held her chilled hands close to it. Winter was coming early, it seemed. Adam removed his cloak and draped it over a chair. There was a polite knock, and he opened the door to admit a man carrying a tray of food and a pitcher of wine.

  “Thank you, Mr. Bristow.” Adam paid the man a handful of coins and locked the door. “Come eat, darling.”

  Adam set the tray of food on the table, and Letty eased into one of the chairs. Adam took the other. Mr. Bristow had brought roast beef, leek-and-onion soup, and wine, all of which was excellent. She was relieved to find that she and Adam could be together like this, not feeling the need for talk simply to fill the passing minutes. Not that she minded talking with him. She quite liked it, but it was nice to know she could have a companionable silence with him as well. Letty gazed in exhaustion at the fireplace a long while before she sensed Adam was watching her.

  “Did you have enough to eat?” he asked.

  Letty nodded. She’d perhaps eaten too much. She felt rather like a wild animal, uncertain of when shelter and food would come again.

  Adam held out his hand and leaned forward in his chair.“Give me your foot.”

  “My foot?”

  He chuckled at her reluctance.“Yes, your foot.”

  Letty extended one booted foot. Her suspicion must’ve shown, because he laughed even louder.

  “Oh, my darling, you are quite precious in your skepticism.” He caught her foot and set it on his lap, thenunlaced her boot. He slid the boot off and took her foot in both of his hands and began to massage it. The sudden pleasurable touch melted every bone in Letty’s body.

  “Is that something they teach at the academy for spies?” she asked.

  Adam had a wolfish grin on his lips, which sent flutterings deep in her belly. “No, this I learned a long time ago from a friend.”