Have heart my friend. I am gone. Trust only the Poppy.
Luke’s blood ran cold, and he felt dizzy. Redley’s message swam before his eyes, but Luke did not want to believe it. He stared at the words for a long moment, the letters blurring together but he understood Redley’s message explicitly.
The inverted seal.
The drops of ink.
The poppy.
Luke scrambled to his feet. He needed to return to Vivian.
* * *
Vivian hadn’t intended to fall asleep, but the events of the past days caught up to her as she waited for Luke to return. He’d found her curled on the bed, wrapped in a quilt.
“Did you find Lord Longfield?” she asked as she stretched.
“No, but I found a note he left for me. Adam Poppins is downstairs, and I need to share this information with him. Afterwards, we will have to leave.”
Vivian glanced longingly at the comfortable bed. “It cannot wait until morning?”
He shook his head. “I am afraid not.” Luke seemed on edge, worried almost. Anxious. Something she had not come to expect from her husband of barely a day, who before this evening had shown himself to be a simple man of leisure, though confident and capable. His cousin’s disappearance had certainly rattled him.
“Then go and talk with Poppins.”
Luke flashed her a bright grin, the whites of his teeth catching in the moonlight and then he was gone, like a shadow fading into the darkness of the room.
Vivian listened for a moment as his footfalls echoed down the stairs.
She shouldn’t do it; she really shouldn’t eavesdrop. Luke would tell her what she needed to know.
Oh, who was she kidding.
Vivian threw off the quilt and scrambled from the bed. As she came into the hall, she crept towards the stairs. The staircase was stacked upon itself, with space in the middle reaching from the second floor to the ground floor entry way.
Vivian peered over the edge, and could see Luke’s form as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
“What have you found?” Poppins asked, his voice carrying up the stairs.
Luke produced the small card from his pocket and handed it to Poppins.
“This was sent to rooms I rented on the Mall, before I became Kenswick.”
“Light a candle so I may see it.”
Luke glanced about the hall. “We have none downstairs, I am afraid. I can ask Sutton to fetch one? Or rather, here, move into the moonlight.” Luke steered Poppins into a streak of moonlight cutting across the entry way. The moonlight seemed to provide enough light for Poppins to read the message.
“Damn,” Poppins said under his breath with a shake of his head. “Do you see? It is true.”
“This reads more like a confession of suicide than anything else,” Luke argued.
“Redley had a journal. A red leather journal. Was there evidence of that?”
Luke shook his head. “I searched the rooms and found only this.”
“This cannot be the end of it.” Poppins thrust the card back at Luke but it dropped to the floor. “Your bloody partner is a damned traitor, and this is all you can say?”
“I am willing to aid you in finding Redley. He says it here, he is a traitor.”
“But where is he?” Poppins demanded.
“Likely on his way to France. He has family in Dover, and it’s only a quick trip from there to Calais. Allow me to settle my wife with my family and then I will help you.”
Poppins shook his head. “That is not happening. How do I know you’re not going to just disappear after him?”
“I’ve just married. I am not about to up and leave. Besides, Redley says to trust you, so I do.”
“A poppy.” Poppins smirked. “Cute play on my surname, it would seem.”
Vivian had no idea what that meant. She hoped Luke would show her the card once Poppins was gone.
“And yet, we both understood his meaning explicitly. Whatever Redley is mixed up with, if he says you are to be trusted, then I trust him. I do not want him harmed, Poppins. I will take my wife to my brother’s in Kent. Then I will meet you in Dover. Do not attempt to locate him without my assistance. You will need my name to gain you entry to the relatives there, and likely Redley will know you are coming from a mile away.”
Poppins’s tone was filled with irritation. “That damn man is like a snake but I would be happy for your assistance.”
“We will leave within the hour. I will meet you in Dover in two days’ time.”
Poppins nodded. “That will have to suffice.” He nodded to Luke before disappearing out the door.
Silence hung in the foyer, echoing down the halls of the nearly empty house. Vivian pushed herself further against the wall, glancing at the doorway to the master bedroom to estimate how many steps she would need to reach its sanctuary, before she was found out.
“I know you must have questions,” Luke called from below.
Damnation. She wasn’t as sly as she thought.
“You did a remarkable job avoiding detection,” he continued. “Poppins was unaware of your eavesdropping. Unfortunately for you, I am too attuned to you to not notice when you peeked over the ledge. I could hear you breathing.”
Vivian squeezed her eyes shut. She might as well give herself up. She was no match for him.
The desire to rise to the challenge boiled deliciously in her blood.
“Come down, Vivian.”
She shook her head, though she knew he could not see her. “Is there an immediate danger? Is there an urgent need to go after Lord Longfield?”
There was a long pause, and she was tempted to peek over the edge.
“Immediate danger, no, but it is urgent we go after him.” Luke’s voice was closer. He had moved up the stairs in the silence.
Vivian edged away from the shadow she’d hid in near the railing. She glanced about the hallway, wondering if there was a place she could hide from his view. The hallway was mostly pitched in darkness, as it was past midnight. “Are we to depart at once?”
“That is the plan.” He was closer still, but now his voice was above her. How had he gotten up there?
Vivian moved further down the hallway, away from the staircase, past the door to the master bedroom, and sank into the shadows at the back of the house.
“You will have to find me first!” she called, tickled at her own game.
She was met with more silence, but she dared not move.
A heartbeat passed, and then another, and then another.
She counted to ten, and then fifty, but still he did not come in search of her.
Where had he gone?
“Luke?” she called, taking a step away from the corner she’d hidden herself against. She couldn’t stay there forever. At some point, likely in a few hours, the Suttons would be moving about the house. It wouldn’t do well to be found hiding in the hallway waiting on her husband to come and ravish her.
Vivian took another step forward, straining to listen for him. His footfalls or his breathing, or a creak in the wooden floors.
“Luke?” she called again. “Have you left me here all alone again?”
She sensed him a moment before his arms wrapped around her from behind.
“Never.” He spun her around as she laughed, and his mouth found hers in the darkness.
His kiss was drugging, pulling her deeper under his spell with the stroke of his tongue. He backed her against the wall, driving his hips against hers in a persistent grind. She was desperate for his hands on her, for his mouth entwined with her own, despite the chaos of the evening. Amidst the questions and need for explanation, this made sense to her.
Luke broke away, resting his forehead against the crook of her neck. His breathing was labored, as was hers. Neither moved for a long moment, catching their breaths, basking in the heat of one another.
Luke pulled his head away and captured her gaze. “You are constantly surprising me. And you deserve more time for this t
han we are allowed this evening.”
He stepped away from her but she did not feel it as rejection. She wanted more time to devote to their first time together as well. And there was the other pressing need: Lord Longfield.
“How did you get up the stairs without me seeing you?”
Luke grinned. “Servant staircase.”
“Mrs. Sutton would have been scandalized to find you there.”
“I know.” He kissed her hastily on the lips. “Which is why I was quick. Have you packed?”
And like that, he was back to the business at hand.
“Yes, while you were gone.”
“Lovely. I promised you answers. Please, let us be on our way first.”
“For Kent?” she asked as she followed him down the stairs.
“No, we are not going to Kent.” In the foyer, he bent and retrieved Redley’s note, which had fallen to the floor. He regarded it for a long moment before nodding to himself, tucking the missive into his coat pocket. “Well, we are going to Kent, just not to my brother’s house.”
He stepped past her and to the front door. Mr. Sutton had likely moved on to bed, as he was nowhere to be seen. Not that they wanted an audience.
“I am sorry I am dragging you into this,” Luke was saying as she followed him outside. The carriage was already hitched before the house, and Quan jumped down from the driver’s perch as they came out of the building. Luke said something to him in Chinese before Quan hurried past Vivian, and into the darkened house to fetch their luggage.
Vivian could sense she was not going to get anything out of him just yet. It was madness to go along with whatever this was, but she did, praying he would not let her down in the end.
Chapter Ten
They were barely out of the city limits before Vivian felt she might burst from the frustration of it all. It was nearing three in the morning, and her new husband had yet to explain anything. His strange middle of the night errand. The cryptic message from his cousin. Their destination.
She was unable to handle the silence any longer. “Will you at the very least tell me where we are headed?”
“We are going to Kent.”
“Kent is a large county. Is there a specific area of Kent?”
Luke glanced at her. “North Kent.”
“Might I see the note Longfield left you?”
He fished it from his pocket and handed it over to her.
She read through the words, a declaration of guilt if she ever heard one, and handed it back.
“But you do not believe him?”
“Not in the slightest.”
“And the reference to the poppy? It was for you to trust Mr. Poppins?”
Luke nodded absently. “That is what Poppins thinks.”
“But that is not what you think?”
“No.”
If Redley truly was a traitor, they needed someone of authority, someone in the government, and not just a group of diplomats playing at field marshals. The entire quest was ludicrous.
Vivian watched him with a newfound curiosity. There seemed something else afoot, more than just a missing diplomat. There was a reason why no one else had been involved, no government official had been notified.
Her eyes narrowed a fraction as a thought flittered through her mind. Disappearing into darkened streets dressed in black, cryptic messages left behind at mysterious locations, late night escapes through the city, chasing traitors….
Vivian dismissed it before it could even take root. He was too ridiculous to be something as serious as her thoughts had taken her. He was a diplomat, flippant and frivolous, but his charismatic nature fit that role perfectly. She’d no doubt he’d aided England’s diplomatic missions all over the world. He was good at flirting and charming. She’d seen little evidence he was anything more.
Vivian dozed lightly against the side of the carriage during the hours of their journey, but Luke seemed too energized to sleep, twisting his wedding band around and around his finger, like a nervous tick. Sporadically he knocked on the carriage roof for Quan to stop and Vivian was jolted awake. Luke would get out of the carriage, walk around, stare off down each direction of the road, listening, watching for something. Once he even nudged horse dung on the ground with his boot before deciding it uninteresting.
He was almost paranoid, Vivian realized, frowning as she watched him pace back and forth across the road they’d stopped on. Was he losing his mind? Had she married a madman?
“What are you looking for?” she asked as he rejoined the carriage after their third such stop.
“Fresh carriage tracks. Hoof prints from a horse. Proof Redley was recently on the road before us.”
“It’s a well-traveled road. It could have been anyone.”
“In the middle of the night? Most people don’t travel at night.”
“But how could you know for certain it was Lord Longfield?”
He didn’t meet her questioning gaze. “I don’t. Just a hunch.”
Dawn broke across the horizon as the hours dragged on, bringing them closer to somewhere in north Kent. The air turned pink outside the carriage window, glistening gold in the soft morning dew.
Finally, the carriage rolled to a stop, and Luke peered out the window for a long moment.
“I will need your assistance, Vivian,” he said finally, looking away from the window. “Please, just do what I ask—”
“And don’t ask questions. Yes, I am well versed by now. And I must say, it’s beginning to grow tedious. You expect me to march to your drum and you offer scraps of information in return. The first twenty-four hours of our marriage is not off to a banner start.”
Luke smiled softly. “Gads, it was only yesterday, wasn’t it?”
Vivian would not allow herself to be swayed by his tender smile, or the gentleness in his gaze.
“What we agreed has not held true since nearly the moment of our vows,” Vivian argued. “I did not agree to play your puppet and traipse across the country in search of a traitor. You promised me a boring six months in town.”
He leveled a look of disbelief at her. “Would you truly rather be in town? Balls and soirees? Who knows who you could run into? Perhaps the cat might finally catch the mouse.”
Vivian sucked in a breath. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“I saw you talking to Lord Catford across the ballroom last night. I don’t know your history with him, but it did not seem to be a friendly reunion.”
“Do not presume—”
“I presume nothing. Just don’t act as though you are horribly bent up at being pulled away from London. You didn’t want to be there in the first place.”
He flipped the latch and opened the carriage door, offering her his hand for assistance after he’d stepped out.
Glaring, Vivian followed him from the carriage but ignored his hand.
“I will need answers, Husband. After all this middle of the night cavorting, being shunted from a ball to Kenswick House then left alone for hours, then on the road to Kent, I’ve gone along without much complaint, but my patience is nearly spent. You must admit this is all highly unusual.”
Luke shrugged. “I’m used to nights such as these.”
“Well I am not.”
The carriage rolled away from them, and they were left standing on a gravel drive with a dewy lawn stretching out before them.
“I promise you I will explain,” Luke said. “But for now, we should go inside.”
“What back country have you dragged me to?”
His brows rose and he glanced pointedly behind her. “Look for yourself and see, Wife.”
Vivian spun around, and her breath caught in her throat.
Oh, dear lord, they were at Canterbury Cathedral.
She took a step back as her head tilted up to see to the very top, her back bumping into Luke’s solid chest.
“Still angry with me?” he whispered in her ear, pressing a kiss to her temple.
“Don’t thi
nk you can just deliver a Gothic cathedral and all will be forgiven.”
“But it’s a start?”
Vivian’s eyes were full of Canterbury, and the beauty and opulence architects of the past had envisioned for this moment. The fresh morning sun sparkled off the panes of stained glass, the entire structure swathed in golden morning light.
The corners of her mouth quirked up into a reluctant smile. “It’s a start.”
“Some ladies prefer jewels after an argument, and my wife prefers Gothic architecture,” he teased as he moved past her. “Never say you aren’t unique.”
“Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” she quoted.
Luke turned and flashed her a bright smile as he walked backwards towards the cathedral. “Henry II complaining about Thomas Beckett. You know he was murdered in this church?”
“Hence my choice of quotes. And if Thomas Beckett was half as irritating to Henry II as you are to me, the quip was well warranted.”
She followed him, the gravel of the drive crunching under her boots.
He found the front door and pulled the door open.
“Luke,” she said in a harsh whisper. “We can’t go in. It’s not yet open for the day!”
“It a church. It’s always open,” he whispered back as he slipped inside. She followed him, stopping in her tracks.
The morning glow sent golden beams echoing off the walls, filling the sanctuary with light. Columns rose up, rising into rows of archways that seemed to go on forever. It was grander than Wells, larger and simply more. And it was breathtakingly beautiful.
“I think I prefer Wells to Canterbury,” Luke whispered beside her.
“I suspect the patrons and bishop of Canterbury would not agree,” she whispered in return. “But I prefer Wells also.”
“Come, let’s see if we can find what Redley left for us.”
Vivian’s gaze roamed over the domed ceiling above, slowly following behind her husband as his words registered.
She walked softly beside Luke up the center of the nave. “What are we looking for?”
“I don’t know, exactly. But Redley’s note indicated this should be our next move, so I suspect we will know it when we see it.”
The Spy’s Convenient Bride: The Macalisters, Book Five Page 14