His gaze flicked beyond her, noted the man, then returned to her face.
She smiled, nudged him with her shoulder, angling closer, doing her best to mimic the encounters she’d occasionally witnessed in the park. “Pretend I’m suggesting a little dalliance to enliven the day.”
He grinned at her, slowly, showing his teeth, but his eyes remained cold. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“That’s the man over there, and any minute Duke and Charles will arrive. I’m giving us a perfectly reasonable reason for following the man when he leaves, together.”
His lips remained curved; he slid one arm about her waist and pulled her closer, bending his head to whisper in her ear, “You are not coming with me.”
She smiled into his eyes, patted his chest. “Unless the man goes into the stews, and that hardly seems likely, I am.”
He narrowed his eyes at her; she smiled more brightly, but met his gaze directly. “I’ve been a part of this drama from the beginning. I think I should be a part of its end.”
The words gave Tristan pause. And then fate stepped in and took the decision from him.
The bell towers of London’s churches tolled the hour—three clangs, echoed and repeated in multiple keys—and Duke came striding swiftly along the pavement and turned in at Queen Anne’s Gate.
Charles, in the guise of a tavern brawler, came sauntering along a little way behind, timing his approach.
Duke halted, saw his man, and marched toward him. He looked neither right nor left; Tristan suspected Charles had drilled him until he was so focused on what he had to do, so desperate to get it right, that paying attention to anything else was presently beyond him.
The wind was in the right quarter; it wafted Duke’s words to them.
“Do you have my vowels?”
The demand took the foreigner aback, but he recovered swiftly. “I might have. Have you got the formula?”
“I know where it is, and can get it for you in less than a minute, if you have my vowels to give me in return.”
Through narrowing eyes, the foreign gentleman searched Duke’s pale face, then he shrugged, and reached into his coat pocket.
Tristan tensed, saw Charles lengthen his stride; they both relaxed a fraction when the man drew out a small packet of papers.
He held them up for Duke to see. “Now,” he said, his voice cold and crisply accented, “the formula, if you please.”
Charles, until then apparently about to stroll past, changed direction and with one step joined the pair. “I have it here.”
The foreigner started. Charles grinned, wholly evil. “Don’t mind me—I’m just here to make sure my friend Mr. Martinbury comes to no harm. So”—he nodded at the papers, glanced at Duke—“they all there then?”
Duke reached for the vowels.
The foreigner drew them back. “The formula?”
With a sigh, Charles pulled out the copy of the altered formula Humphrey and Jeremy had prepared and made to look suitably aged. He unfolded it, held it up where the foreigner could see it but not quite read it. “Why don’t I just hold it here, then as soon as Martinbury has checked over his vowels, you can have it.”
The foreigner was clearly unhappy, but had little choice; Charles was intimidating enough in civilized garb—in his present guise, he exuded aggression.
Duke took the vowels, quickly checked, then looked at Charles and nodded. “Yes.” His voice was weak. “They’re all here.”
“Right then.” With a nasty grin, Charles handed the formula to the foreigner.
He seized it, pored over it. “This is the right formula?”
“That’s what you wanted—that’s what you’ve got. Now,” Charles continued, “if you’re done, my friend and I have other business to see to.”
He saluted the foreigner, a parody of a gesture; taking Duke’s arm, he turned. They marched straight out of the gate. Charles hailed a hackney, bundled a now trembling Duke in, and climbed in after him.
Tristan watched the carriage rumble off. The foreigner looked up, watched it go, then carefully, almost reverently, folded the formula and slipped it into his inner coat pocket. That done, he adjusted his grip on his cane, straightened his back, pivoted on his heel, and walked stiffly back toward the lake.