Eliza wasn’t sure and raised helpless eyes to him in mute appeal.
“I’ll just be in the study if you need me.” He paused for several moments and waited until she nodded before he placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head and left.
With trembling hands Eliza untied the loose strings from the sheets of parchment and carefully unfolded them. The sight of her father’s handwriting on some of the sheets
brought about a fresh wave of misery and she cried out with the physical pain of her loss.
Within moments Edward was standing in the doorway, studying her with a frown of concern. “Are you alright?”
Eliza turned to stare blankly at him, unaware of the tears trailing down her face.
He was immediately at her side, holding her hand in mute support. “Should I have waited?”
Eliza immediately shook her head. “No. No, it’s alright. It is just that these are in my father’s writing.” Her voice was husky with tears as she picked up two pieces of parchment covered almost completely with tiny script.
She slowly lifted them up for Edward to see. He glanced at her cautiously for several moments before slowly relieving her of the objects and studying them closely.
“They are the codes, and contacts I mentioned.” She murmured softly.
“I’ll see the man from the War Office gets them along with the papers Dominic already has. It is enough we need to bring Scraggan and Rogan down Eliza. You should be immensely proud of your father and sister.” He murmured, folding the papers and placing them carefully onto the table before them.
Eliza nodded slowly, unable to speak. She was inordinately proud of them, of course she was, but a small part of her wondered if it really was worth the ultimate price they paid. After all, both Jemima and her father were now dead while Scraggan continued to keep people’s lives in his brutal hold.
She wondered if the even the War Office was big enough to bring the man down.
“It may be enough to mean you don’t have to go after Scraggan yourself.” Eliza whispered, hoping he would announce he was staying despite knowing it was a futile wish.
There was a glint of determination in his eyes that she had never seen before. Her warrior; and she did now consider him hers; was preparing for battle and she didn’t think anything could prevent him from going.
Edward stared at her for several moments, a look of regret on his face. “You know I can’t simply stay here and do nothing. Peter is determined to go and shouldn’t in all conscience, go on his own. His a bit of an enigma at the moment, nobody knows what he is going to do. It is almost as though he is too quiet. It could make him reckless.”
Eliza’s heart sank. Sebastian and Dominic couldn’t go. Isobel was due to deliver any day and although Amelia wasn’t as far along, the worry of having Sebastian heading off to fight murderous smugglers was the last thing she needed. That inevitably left Edward as the only able bodied man available to accompany Peter.
“There is a possibility that you may not find Scraggan as easily as you think you can, or that you can bring him to justice at all.” She raised a hand when she sensed his objection. She didn’t want to offend him but had to be honest. “I don’t mean to insult you, but my father wasn’t a reckless man but when he left for the War Office he had heavily armed outriders for protection. Despite that, Scraggan and his men caught and murdered them. Scraggan has found both Jemima and me where Peter couldn’t, and has followed all of us up and down this country like a dog after a bone. There is nowhere we have been, where he or his men haven’t turned up eventually.” Her eyes met and held his solemnly. “If there is one thing I have learnt from all of this, it is that life is temporary. One moment everything can seem to be going well, and then it can all be torn apart so very easily; there are no guarantees about anything and unfortunately that has to include bringing Scraggan to justice.”
“There are no guarantees in anything in life Eliza. Even successful people like Scraggan can have things topple far easier than they expected.”
Eliza knew they could keep going around and around in circles in a futile attempt to reach a conclusion.
“We have to make the most of what we have, while we have it.” His soft declaration was accompanied by his searching look as silence settled about them for several moments.
Everything within her froze and waited for his next words. A declaration, one small sign of affection. Anything. She was left feeling strangely deflated as the moment passed.
“I think I have a definite way to get your sister’s name cleared.” He glanced cautiously at her for several moments before rising to stand before the fireplace, one booted foot resting on the fender in a casual pose.
Instinctively she knew he was anything but relaxed. She could feel the tension practically humming through him as she waited for his next words. They weren’t what she expected.
“Both you and Jemima have been carrying state secrets. By keeping them with you for as long as you have, both of you have inevitably kept them out of Scraggan’s possession. There is enough information now to bring down his smuggling operation and close the door on the French spies he is bringing into the country. Without even knowing it, you have been protecting the security of the entire country for several months. I think the War Office owe both you and Jemima a considerable amount, not least a pardon for Jemima. Dominic has already started bringing Sir Dunnicliffe up to date with the latest events.”
“Sir Dunnicliffe?”
“The man from the War Office.” Edward replied flatly, feeling a wave of annoyance for the official representative. “He arrived a few minutes ago.”
“What took him so long to get here?” Eliza asked with a frown.
“He got held up somewhere apparently, something about state business.” He smiled ruefully at her. “I think it is probably better that we don’t know.”
Eliza nodded not understanding but realising it was a mute point now. “A pardon for Jemima would be wonderful, but it is far too late. It can never replace her.”