‘I believe you, it is logical. Then you two will come with me down to the harbour in Blakeney. My crew will be waiting for me, my lieutenant went down as soon as I heard the shot, saw the soldiers. She is dead, is she not?’
So close, Laura heard the catch in the calm voice, smelled the scent of cloves more strongly as he breathed harder.
‘She killed herself. Was she your lover?’ she asked and was punished by a burning pain as the knife edge broke the skin.
‘My sister,’ the Frenchman snarled. ‘My half-sister.’ His breath fanned his cheek: she had succeeded in pulling his attention away from Theo.
‘What is your name?’
‘Jean Paul le Forge. I will go back and continue the work, but it should have been Annemarie.’ His accent was stronger now, his attention and his anger focused on her.
‘Mrs Finch?’
‘Mrs Finch,’ he mocked. ‘Married to that lazy fool who could not see in front of his own nose. So good a cover.’
‘For a traitor, certainly,’ Laura said and he jerked her round to face him.
‘You are not fit to mention her name. She was a patriot, a great patriot.’
‘Murderer,’ Laura taunted him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Theo gather himself, the muscles in his bent leg bunch.
‘You – ’ The knife was drawn back and she dropped like a stone, with a scream as a handful of hair was wrenched from her scalp. She lashed out with her fist as she went, hit him straight in the groin, and then rolled away as Theo launched himself at the Frenchman.
The door burst open, someone stumbled over her and then the room was full of men. Laura rolled away from the fight but de La Fontaine pulled free, lunged for the window, was brought down by Theo and landed in front of her. The fallen knife, its edge red with the blood from her neck, lay on the carpet between them.
Laura knocked it away as he went for it. ‘Non, Monsieur. It will not be so easy this time.’
As the clock struck one in the morning Laura sat on the sofa in the drawing room, Theo on one knee before her, and listened to his third attempt at a proposal that night.
‘And Lady Penelope really does love the Lieutenant?’
‘And he loves her – you should have seen the man’s face when he saw her. She’s happy and loved, I have no doubt.’
‘What would you have done if she had objected to breaking the engagement?’ Laura asked. She wanted to stop asking questions, wanted simply to be in his arms, but she had to know.
‘I might have stumbled into a proposal like a blind idiot, but I was not so stupid as to propose to a lady whom I thought a fool. When I thought about it calmly I knew her emotions were not engaged and I was certain she would look at the long term, to what our marriage would have been like. And I knew she had the connections and the charm and the dowry that meant her marriage prospects would not be damaged.’ He grinned. ‘I had not the wit to imagine that she might be planning to jilt me.’
He looked at her, reached out and touched the strip of gauze around her grazed neck. ‘I should have looked after you better.’
‘We managed very well between us, I think.’ She put up her hand and caught his fingers in hers. ‘You know, I think I fell in love with you years ago, when I saw you with Perry. You never saw me, I was just a girl… But I am not a good match for a viscount.’
‘Ravenlaw’s wife was suspected of killing two previous husbands,’ he pointed out.
‘But the scandal over my Aunt Finch – ’
‘Firstly she is only an aunt by marriage, secondly I suspect that the official version of what happened here tonight and what led up to it is going to be very far from the truth and thirdly I do not give a damn. I love you, I adore you and I’ll marry you even if your entire family proves to be in league with Bonaparte.’
‘That is so romantic.’
‘Besides,’ he said with a wicked twinkle in his eyes, ‘It seems that you have a large dowry and I’m a terrible loose screw – I need the money.’
‘Wretch!’ She tugged on his hand and he came up off his knees and down on to the sofa beside her. ‘Kiss me?’
‘All night. For ever. Go away!’ he added as the door opened and Jared looked in.
‘Sorry, but do you want to know what happened about the rest of the gang?’
‘I suppose so.’ Theo pushed himself upright and ran one hand through his hair. ‘Rapidly.’