“Jesus,” he said, the enormity of it for a moment overwhelming him.
“One of the men last night, Paul Treyson, he was bound to London to become an assistant to Rothchild.”
He began to laugh. “Here I believed that I led the most mundane of lives. I wish I could tell my mother about all of this. She would find it as incredible as I do, but we won’t tell her.” He sobered then, saying, “Now, there’s something else I want to know. Why did you make love with me?”
For the first time she smiled. “I couldn’t help myself,” she said, and he saw that it was true.
“You came to me because you saw no future for us?”
“There was no future. There was just one night with you, and I wanted it very badly. I didn’t know that a man could tell if a woman was or wasn’t a virgin.”
“I was surprised,” he said. “Actually, I was very surprised, but that’s not important now.” He kissed her fingers. “If you ever try to keep even the flimsiest secret from me again, I’ll beat you.”
“There still is no future,” she said, then closed her eyes. “I’ve failed, yet won, but Mrs. Needle died and now my father will die as well.”
He lay next to her on the bed, pulling her into his arms. He stroked her hair, pulling the pins out as he whispered to her that everything would be all right, he promised, she would see. She cried quietly for a long time.
“Hush, you’ll make yourself ill. Now that you’ve told me everything, I swear to you that I’ll do my best to see that your father survives this. And you as well. I don’t want you at the center of an appalling scandal. I want you to be my duchess. Now it’s no longer just you. Now it’s both of us. I fancy that the two of us can overcome just about anything or anyone.”
Every chance word, every detail, was recalled and discussed to the duke’s satisfaction. They pored over Evangeline’s journal. The duke sent a message to Drew to come immediately to Chesleigh. The Bow Street Runner, a small man Evangeline had occasionally seen in the kitchen, was assigned to stick to Lord Edmund closer than his skin.
The duke said, “John Edgerton will learn quickly enough that Paul Treyson hasn’t yet arrived in London. How much time we have, I don’t know, but we can’t assume it will be very long. Perhaps a day, two at the most. Damn, where’s Drew?”
Evangeline, now dressed, against the duke’s wishes, said as she paced back and forth in front of him, “I must return to Paris, it’s the only way. I will see Houchard myself, I must, to plead for my father’s life. Surely now that Napoleon’s in Paris, and everything is in motion, there’s no reason for him to kill him. I’m not responsible for everything falling apart. Indeed, it was Edgerton who was responsible when he had Mrs. Needle killed. Houchard will see that, he must.”
“Rubbish,” the duke said.
When he saw that she would argue, he caught her in his arms, kissed her ear, and said, “Dear one, listen to me. I believe I have found a way that won’t extricate just you from this mess but your father as well. I’m going to go find Drew. We must move quickly. Damn the fellow for not coming instantly when I called him.” He lightly pressed his fingers against her lips. “Evangeline, do you remember our first night together—it was all of two nights ago? You trusted me then. Trust me now. Stay close. Don’t think of leaving. Bassick knows that no stranger is to be allowed inside. I’ll be back very quickly.” He kissed her hard and was gone.
Chapter 38
The duke returned to Chesleigh an hour later to find Evangeline ferociously pacing the library. As he tossed his driving cloak onto the back of a chair he said, “I’d hoped you’d be resting in bed or letting Edmund try to hunt you down, yet here you are instead wearing holes in my carpet.”
She ran to him, ready, he thought, to embrace him, something that pleased him immensely, and he caught her against him and squeezed her tightly. She reared back in his arms. “You’re back. Oh, goodness, what happened? Did you see Drew? What will he do?”
He pulled her against him again and kissed her hard.
“He believes I’m a traitor, doesn’t he?” He saw the burst of terror in her eyes, saw the color drain from her face. He was shaking his head even as he said, “Oh, no, Evangeline. There’s been no talk of any of that, trust me.”
She nearly fainted, she was so relieved. “You’re smiling. Tell me, what have you done?”
‘’ I told you I had an idea that needed both Drew’s approval and some refinement. I made it clear to him that you, my dear, the unwilling Eagle, possess a good deal of information that would be his if he is amenable to forgetting your past transgressions. When I told him that the very beautiful, very feminine chattering female he’d just seen was indeed the notorious Eagle, I thought he’d expire on the spot. Indeed, he was so incredulous, it took me some time to convince him that it was true. As I recall, he said, ‘Damn, Richard, that a woman could do this, it makes me afraid for the future of men everywhere.’ Then he drank two snifters of brandy. He received an even greater shock when I told him that John Edgerton is the Lynx, a Bonapartist, and a traitor to England for as long as both Drew and I have known him.
“Once I had told him all the facts, he became like a man possessed. In short, dear one, one of Drew’s men will pose as the dead spy, Paul Treyson, and seek out Edgerton in London. Once Edgerton makes it clear to his esteemed audience that he knows the code, we will have him.”
Evangeline was shaking her head. “No, no, listen to me. He has no reason to see Edgerton, none at all. I cleared him through. He is supposed to go directly to Rothchild.”
The duke smiled. He gently cupped her face in his hands. “Don’t you remember the letter you gave Paul Treyson to be given to the Lynx? Yes, you remember now. Our man will be with Edgerton when he reads your letter. Once he shows that he can easily translate the code you used, we’ve got him. It’s that simple.
“Then Drew and I, and of course Lord Melberry, one of the highest-ranking members of the Ministry, will be close by. When it’s done, our man will give us a signal, and we will be on Edgerton immediately. Then it will be over. Why are you wringing your hands again? You don’t like the plan?”
“Oh, yes, it’s a good plan.” She pulled away from him and began pacing. “It’s just that I don’t trust Edgerton to do the expected. He’s very smart. He’s always seemed to know more than he should. I’m scared that something will happen.”
“I will tell Drew what you’ve
said. Incidentally, he’s in the carriage outside. When I asked him to come in, he couldn’t bring himself to face you just yet. He said he was going to have to revise the way he regarded young females. He said he wasn’t so certain that Felicia was as guileless as he believed her to be, to which I said that Felicia was smart, loved him, and would thus hide any guile she possessed from him. He was gnawing his thumbnail in the carriage when I left him.
“Now, you will remain here at Chesleigh, quite safe. No, you won’t come to London with us. Once we have Edgerton, Drew is certain that the Ministry will agree to exchange him for your father, and for all the information you will freely provide them.”