Dangerous Weakness

by Warfield, Caroline

  Chapter 13

  Convivial company spilled out of Richard’s sister’s house and out into the street shouting their good nights and continuing their obscure academic arguments in pairs and threes as they dispersed to the their own homes. Lily wasn’t among them.

  The hour loomed late, too late for a newcomer, but Richard believed he had timed his arrival perfectly. He waved the butler aside and climbed the stairs.

  “You’re late, brother,” Georgiana said. She made no effort to hide her amusement at his appearance. Richard never attended her salons. “Did you have an earlier engagement?”

  His eyes found Lily and held. Her color appeared better; she sat straight, not as weary as before. He traced the slope of her neck and followed the garland of forget-me-not and ivy embroidered on the neckline of her muslin dress with his eyes. He felt his body react to the sight and frowned at Lily. That dress is too damned transparent by far.

  “Stop glowering at my guests!” his sister snapped. “Sit before you frighten us all.”

  Get a grip, man. Stewart does his duty. All is well.

  “Sit down and stop towering over us,” Georgiana went on.

  He spotted a sturdy chair, half hidden by the bookshelves. No footman leapt to assist. Typical. Georgiana’s household management has gone ramshackle since she married Andrew Mallet.

  He pushed it toward the group clustered by the open window and peered at Stewart. Does he have to lean so close to her?

  “As you see, Mr. Stewart obeys his orders,” Lily pointed out tartly. She smiled at the younger man. “And he held his own against Professor Appleton on the importance of our presence in Malta.”

  Walter Stewart colored; he did not speak.

  “Good work, Stewart,” Richard grumbled. He sounded grudging even to his own ears. “The hour grows late, and you have committee work tomorrow. I will see Miss Thornton home.”

  Stewart hesitated momentarily, glancing at Lily and back at Richard.

  I said leave, damn it. Richard held Stewart’s eyes until the man looked away and rose to make a courteous goodbye to his hosts.

  “Well, at least one member of the Foreign Office has manners,” Georgiana drawled, bringing a grin to her husband’s face. “That was not well done of you.”

  “What? He managed his assignment to escort Miss Thornton. I relieved him.”

  “His assignment? Am I furniture? A report? A piece of baggage to be transported?” Lily said hotly. She looked angry; he liked Lily angry. Anger gave her color; her chest heaved. He liked it very much indeed.

  Enough Richard! He pulled his eyes from her heaving anger. “Nonsense,” he said, looking at his brother-in-law but addressing Lily. “You know the danger. The Foreign Office is responsible for Miss Thornton’s protection.” A fact that may surprise the foreign secretary.

  “Checking up on us, Richard?” Andrew asked.

  “Most affairs have guest lists. Your salon is, as you said, informal. I wanted to be sure Volkov didn’t slither in again.”

  “Roger Heaton told me you had word Volkov has left London,” Lily said.

  Roger Heaton talks too much.

  “But not England,” he told her. I wasn’t going to tell you he merely went to Portsmouth, sniffing about the docks and taverns for information.

  The confusion in her eyes stabbed him. “He made no attempt to travel to Russia,” he said.

  “Or Copenhagen?” she asked softly.

  “No, not that either.” He wished he could wipe the worry from her face.

  “Why didn’t you just come earlier? You could have helped Stewart defend the concessions we won at the Congress of Vienna,” Andrew said.

  “Vienna settled everything—and nothing. There is nothing to discuss with amateurs. I had another engagement as your wife suggested.”

  “Do tell,” Georgiana prodded.

  “If you must know, I attended a dinner party with the Duke and Duchess of Lisle.”

  “Sarah Wharton’s parents?” He sister laughed. “Are we to wish you happy?”

  “Not yet,” he said, glancing at Lily.

  “Mother must be impatient,” Georgiana said.

  Richard grunted. “She will have to wait. I know my duty to the estate.”

  “London watches you avidly,” his brother-in-law said.

  “London will have to wait also. It’s time for me to escort Miss Thornton home.”

  She looked like she might object.

  Don’t be a fool, Lily.

  She didn’t object until they descended to the Mallets’ front door and he gestured to the door of his waiting carriage.

  “No, thank you. I prefer to walk, my lord. I’ll bid you good night here.” She turned to go.

  Richard directed his coachman to wait in Russell Square and caught up with her in two strides. Stubborn woman.

  He winged his arm at her, but she hesitated before taking it.

  “I suppose I have no choice,” she said when she reached accept his arm, her tiny hand white on his black jacket. She walked in silence.

  “You are well?” he asked.

  “Quite,” she replied.

  They crossed to Bedford Square.

  “The overly warm weather doesn’t bother you?”

  She shook her head.

  Her hand, he realized, trembled where it lay on his arm. A fierce desire to protect seized him. He placed his other hand over it.

  “My lord?”

  “You trembled.”

  In the distance, his carriage turned away from them. They walked into the narrow confines of Gilbert Street, draped in darkness. Her home lay four doors down.

  “I did not,” she protested. “Even if I did—”

  A shaft of yellow light from a window lit her face. She looked up, momentarily inarticulate.

  Can she see desire on my face?

  “—what concern is it of yours?” she finished in a whisper.

  “Your well-being is very much my concern, Lily. Very much indeed.” It shouldn’t be, but it is. He searched her face in the dim shaft of light. He saw confusion in her eyes; he watched her tongue dart out to wet her lips.

  Fascination with that mouth held him even while he used his free hand to pull her around into shadow.

  She had ample time to protest when he lowered his mouth toward hers. Ample time. She did not.

  One kiss. One taste before I tie myself to Sarah Wharton. He clamped down on his raging desire. One gentle salute, a farewell.

  Lily froze momentarily but didn’t pull away. At his persistent urging, she opened her lips slightly and allowed him access. For a long moment, the taste of her satisfied him. When her hand crept up his neck and into his hair, however, the need for more overwhelmed him. He pulled her closer, tasted deeply, and slipped his hand to her breast.

  Lily wrenched herself away at that with a groan.

  “What do you think you’re doing? What, dear God, do you think I am.” She turned on her heels and walked toward her house.

  “Lily, wait—” he said, catching up in two long strides. He grabbed her arm to turn her. She tried to shake him off. Damn it, Lily, you seemed willing enough.

  “Wait for what? For you to bring my father home? For you to maul me again? Leave me be.”

  He dropped his hand.

  “Go to Lady Sarah,” she went on. “Make your addresses. London will fall at your feet. Just leave. Me. Alone.”

  He had no answer for that. No apology either. What does this confounded woman do to send my wits begging? For a brief moment, he considered offering for her again. She will only throw it back in your face.

  Instead, he bit back an angry retort and handed her to the door. She didn’t look back when the servant let her in and closed the do
or behind her.

  He stood on the pavement staring at the closed door. She’s right, though. Nothing good can come of this. Offer for Lady Sarah Wharton and be done with it.

  Lily stood in her darkened bedroom and pulled the curtain aside. Richard still stood outside her house watching the door as if she might emerge from it. He shook his head.

  He walked across the street and moved unerringly to the gap between one set of townhouses and the next. A man stepped out of the shadow and leaned forward for a word.

  As if satisfied, Richard strode down Gilbert toward Bedford Square.

  She sat on her bed in the gloom and weighed her options.

  Papa could be marooned in Copenhagen for months. He is probably making free with the libraries there. He probably assumes I manage fine on my own. He probably feels no need to hurry.

  There would be no rescue by her father; Lily’s luck had run out.

  Three months. I can’t wait any longer.

  Chapter 14

  “We cannot divert one of our packets for one man,” Lord Castlereagh sputtered.

  Castlereagh had little time and no patience for what he considered minor affairs. He had been Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs since 1812. He was shrewd, ruthless, and unendingly pragmatic. Richard admired the man but didn’t always agree with him.

  “If we responded to every Englishman’s family inconvenience, the entire Foreign Office would turn into a fraternity of errand boys. No, you may not have the Gibraltar Packet.”

  Castlereagh is right, of course. He usually is.

  “Who did you dispatch to Thessaloniki?” The foreign secretary demanded.

  “Archer. We’ve had no reports.”

  Castlereagh grunted, cocked his head to the right, and tapped his thigh with one hand impatiently. “We need information, damn it!”

  Richard didn’t bother defending what they both knew to be a simple fact of their life. Dispatches took time.

  “Information. Our stock in trade,” Castlereagh growled. “Someday we’ll find ways to get more of it faster. For now, fast horse, fast men, fast ships.”

  Richard didn’t interrupt the old man.

  “What I need from you, Glenaire, is your analysis of the risks posed by revolt in Naples to our colony on Malta. I read Maitland’s report, but I need you to factor in dispatches from the ground throughout the area, particularly about potential piracy activity. Have you gotten the reports I requested from returning naval captains?”

  “Some,” Richard replied. “I should have the rest in a few days.”

  Castlereagh pointed a finger at him. “Any information Thornton could have given us from Russia will have gone cold. He can make his way home as best he can.”

  Lily will have to endure the delay. Her precious Papa is safe enough in Copenhagen.

  “Yes, my lord,” Richard said. “I’ll take my leave.”

  It had been over three months since he promised her he could retrieve her father. Heaton said she had begun to openly complain about the delay. She would have to endure it.

  I will not put my career on the line for Miss Lily Thornton, he thought grimly. England needed stability in Greece, quiet in Naples, troops in Canada, trade in India. Apparently it did not need John Thornton home in a hurry.

  He wrote a quick note to his business agent. The man had decent taste; he would know what sort of ring would impress the lady. Richard could absorb the cost, whatever it was.

  Having managed that piece of business to his satisfaction, Richard wrote a brief analysis of troop morale in Canada.

  He finally returned to his notes about the Mediterranean waters. Castlereagh’s fears lay on vague, but likely true, concerns. Richard reviewed his notes about the Barbary pirates. Since the Americans’ efforts and Decatur’s victory at Cape Gata, the seas had been safer. Safer but not secure. Chaos in Naples may encourage the damned pirates again. Damage to shipping hurt the economy, and the threat of ransom weighed on the foreign secretary. Richard’s jaw clenched at the thought of their last discussion about it.

  “We can’t pay blood money,” Castlereagh had insisted. “It only encourages the trade.” He planned to notify their embassies and outposts accordingly. Richard’s retort that the poor souls sold into slavery might view it differently fell on deaf ears. The old man must know slave auctions are as lucrative as ransom. Letting English souls fall into Barbary slavery is unconscionable. He wondered if he could find sufficient argument buried in this heap of notes.

  He was still at his desk when word came from Heaton.

  Sir

  Miss Lilias Thornton has given us the slip. Thought you should know soonest.

  R Heaton

  Castlereagh’s report on Naples would have to wait.

  It was ridiculously easy, Lily thought, to give those fools the slip. Desperation drove her errand; she didn’t need Glenaire’s spies to follow. A quick and overly blunt reference to one’s bodily needs, a convenient back door, and swift feet did the work. It may not be so easy next time.

  The diaphanous scarf she had stuffed into her reticule covered her hair and face sufficiently. Adjusting her walk to that of an old woman helped also.

  The servant at the door, very tall, very dark, and unsmiling had gestured her to a seat in the outer hall. He wore English-style clothing. The white of his shirt contrasted with his dark skin. He took her card and returned moments later with pursed lips and a disapproving frown to escort her to a man whose frown looked even less approving.

  “So little one,” Sahin Pasha said, “You have come on an errand even more foolish than your last.”

  “No one saw me come here.”

  “Your Marquess of Glenaire implies he sees all.”

  Lily smiled at that. “He likes to believe that. His minions should pay closer attention. I slipped away from them easily. No one saw me.”

  “We shall hope that is true,” Sahin said. “What then brings you to take this risk?”

  Lily looked around. Two men stood by the door. One was the man from the entrance.

  “You may speak freely, little one. One man,” he gestured to a fierce little man to the left, “neither speaks nor hears. He merely guards. The other,” he shrugged, “is a eunuch. Protector of women, you understand?” He indicated her escort.

  Lily understood. Her reputation could be protected, at least in Ottoman terms.

  So proper. How will he react to what I have to say? She dug deep for courage. Sahin Pasha’s words at the Pembrook ball came back to her—I am in your debt, I fear. If you ever have need of my help, you know you can come to me.

  Lily managed to speak by breathing deeply. “You will recall that you are in my debt, favored uncle. I need to collect.”

  She had his attention. The old man nodded and waited for her to go on.

  “My father has been delayed,” she said.

  “We know this, little one.”

  Just say it, Lily!

  “What is it I can do for you?” Sahin persisted.

  “I need employment,” she responded.

  He didn’t try to hide his astonishment.

  “It is not customary for young women to seek employment even in this barbaric country.”

  “I need to leave London, favored uncle,” she said. “Soon.”

  “Is it the Russian again?”

  “Only in part.” Lily took a long shuddering breath, the kind that shook her whole body. She glanced back at the man who can’t hear and the man who—

  If his job is to protect women, what will he think of one who has allowed herself to get with child?

  She slid back to face Sahin.

  “Remember your debt, favored uncle, when I tell you this,” she said. Sahin made a gesture with his hand as if to brush it aside.r />
  “I am with child,” she said, softly but distinctly.

  Sahin sat back, grim faced. “This is a terrible thing, little one. Especially since your father is not here to protect your honor.”

  Lily struggled to swallow her fear, to control her expression.

  “Who is this dog who did this to you?” Sahin demanded.

  Heavens! What would he do? A knife in the ribs?

  “I will give him a choice, little one,” he said gently, as if he read her mind.

  “Choice, honored uncle?” Lily asked, momentarily confused.

  “He can agree to a respectable marriage with no harm to your name, in which case he will keep his head, or—” He shrugged. He didn’t need to spell out the alternative he had in mind.

  “Please no. Oh God, no. I do not wish to marry him, uncle.”

  “Foolish. Without marriage you have no protection.”

  “Marriage to that man would condemn me to misery.”

  “You are a defiant one, little one. You should do your duty to the man and this child.”

  Lily raised her chin and shook her head. “No marriage,” she said.

  Sahin Pasha looked thoughtful. “Is it possible I own some responsibility for this catastrophe?” he asked shrewdly.

  Lily dropped her eyes. The old man is too perceptive. She focused on her toes where they peaked out from her gown and bit her lip. She would not help him puzzle out what happened.

  Sahin waited a long time, but she didn’t budge. At long last he sighed. “How is it you think I can help with this ‘employment’?”