Charmed and Dangerous

by Jane Ashford

  “Work?” repeated Pryor as if the word was alien.

  “I know he is a diplomat…”

  The general snorted.

  “And he has been sent all over the world. But what does he do?”

  “He does as he damn well pleases,” was the reply.

  “Matthew,” his wife chided. The general took this criticism of his language with a grimace.

  “It would be easier to talk with him if I had some idea,” Laura added. This was quite true, she told herself. It wasn’t just curiosity.

  Pryor looked grumpy, but he said, “He’s sent to talk with people. The more disreputable, the better. Send a rogue to deal with rogues.” He gestured as if making a concession. “Graham will sit on the ground and eat sheep’s eyes if that’s what it takes to fix an agreement.”

  “Sheep’s eyes!” exclaimed Catherine, revolted.

  “Arabs,” muttered her husband.

  Laura nodded. This made sense. It fitted with everything she had seen of Gavin.

  “The fellow’s good at it,” admitted Pryor grudgingly. “He was with Malcolm in Persia ferreting out Boney’s agents during the war. Did some exceptional work. And doesn’t he know it!”

  “The congress doesn’t seem like that sort of assignment,” said Laura. “I wonder why he’s here.”

  “As a punishment for my sins!” exploded the general. “Between him and the blasted singers, I may as well cock up my toes at once.”

  The carriage pulled up in front of a large stone house, and a footman opened the door.

  “I’ll most likely go early,” Pryor warned his wife. “I’ll leave you the carriage.”

  * * *

  Gavin was involved in some intrigue, Laura thought as they circulated through the rooms. It was all tied together somehow—Sophie, the attack, his presence in Vienna. It was all part of some shadowy transaction, the hidden world that lay beneath the bright veneer of speeches and diplomacy. The thought filled her with excitement and a curiosity more intense than any she had felt before. This was so far removed from the kind of life she had led, and that was what she had been searching for when she took the risk of leaving it.

  “Oh dear,” said Catherine softly.

  Laura turned and then followed her companion’s gaze across the room to a sofa against the far wall.

  “Matthew will be so angry,” the other woman added.

  Laura said nothing. Her attention was riveted by the couple sitting on the sofa and apparently oblivious to anything around them.

  She had never actually seen Gavin and Sophie together before. Now she watched as they leaned close, Sophie’s hair brushing his shoulder, her hand resting on his arm. Gavin was smiling as Sophie gazed flirtatiously up at him. She said something, and he laughed. When he replied, she lowered her lashes and moved sinuously. Laura was almost sure that her breast pressed against him briefly. The look he gave her in response was slow and thorough and appreciative.

  It occurred to Laura that Sophie might have lied when she said she was not in love. Gavin, of course, was known to be infatuated. That was why Laura was here, standing in this crowded reception room and feeling an odd constriction in her throat.

  Did he kiss Sophie as he had kissed her? she wondered. Immediately, she scoffed at her own naïveté. He didn’t drag Sophie into dark gardens and maul her about. That had been mere mockery, an attempt to rout Laura. No doubt he touched Sophie with tenderness. Probably he had some consideration for her… The threat of tears disrupted Laura’s thoughts, and she gulped them back, astonished. What was wrong with her? She didn’t care a whit about the man or what he might feel.

  She was angry, Laura decided. He had treated her outrageously and to see him deferring to another woman brought it all back.

  “I’m going to fetch him,” declared General Pryor.

  Laura blinked. She hadn’t heard the general join them, and now she sensed that he and Catherine had had a whole conversation that she missed.

  “Should you draw so much attention?” wondered Catherine now.

  “Don’t care who sees. I’ve told him not to associate with that woman. He gave me his word!”

  Pryor stalked off. Laura watched him approach Gavin and wait while he took his leave of Sophie with pointed politeness. He certainly looked reluctant to abandon the conversation, Laura thought. Sophie looked torn between amusement and annoyance. The general started back across the room with Gavin in tow. Sophie’s eyes followed him and then swept over their group. Her gaze paused on Laura and intensified. Knowing herself recognized, Laura had a sudden sharp sense of having made a mistake.

  “Ladies.” Gavin bowed slightly.

  “Where the deuce is this singer?” the general complained, obviously in a foul mood.

  There was an awkward silence. Laura saw Gavin move his shoulder as if to ease it, and realized that she was the only person in the room who knew about the wound he had sustained. It was a strange kind of intimacy. She might have said something if not for her consciousness that Sophie was watching their every move. What would the countess do? Laura wondered. She tried to remember everything she had said to Sophie, since it might now be repeated to Gavin Graham. And would he tell the Pryors about Laura’s unconventional visit? Laura felt a profound relief when another gentleman claimed Sophie’s attention. She turned back to her own party to find the general scowling, Catherine looking stiff, and Gavin ignoring all of them, half turned away, surveying the crowd with boredom.

  “They say Frau von Fursten has a great deal of temperament,” ventured Catherine.

  For a moment no one replied; then Gavin said, “You think she’s throwing some sort of musical fit?”

  “Prince Frederick’s about to throw something,” commented the general with what sounded like great satisfaction. “He’s not going to impress anyone with his powers of organization tonight.”

  “And certainly Prussia will point out how much better they might have managed things,” murmured Gavin very quietly. “Just as they would manage Saxony if it’s handed over to them.”

  Pryor gave a snort of laughter. “No doubt.”

  Laura examined the party with new eyes. Everything that went on here in Vienna had a number of levels, she realized. Each move could be interpreted, by those who knew, as part of a contest of wills, a balancing of powers, a polite struggle that would determine the future of Europe. She looked at Gavin. He seemed to have all this complexity at his fingertips and to be able to navigate it effortlessly. Or, not effortlessly, she amended, remembering the attack. But certainly he was at the center of some critical intrigue.

  Catherine Pryor, turning to tell her party that the singer seemed to be taking her place at last, fell silent when she caught sight of Laura’s face. Laura was looking at Gavin as if he were the most interesting creature she had ever encountered, as if he possessed secrets she would love to fathom. Suddenly, horrifyingly, it occurred to Catherine that Matthew’s idiotic plan might have a disastrous result. If Laura was captivated by Gavin Graham, she would get her heart thoroughly broken. How could she not have thought of this? Catherine wondered. Graham’s reputation was all too well known. Some called him irresistible. And Laura had had very little experience with any sort of men. Yet they had brought her here and thrown them together quite heedlessly. This was her fault, Catherine thought. Matthew couldn’t be expected to foresee such things, but she should have. The scheme had to be stopped—at once. Laura should not see him again. She should be spending her time with eligible young men who might really be a part of her future.

  “Shall we take our seats?” Gavin asked.

  Catherine glanced at him, deploring his handsome person and ease of manner. She hurried forward to make sure that she, and not Graham, sat next to Laura for the coming concert.

  * * *

  Laura stood in her room, waiting to leave for a shopping expedition with Cathe
rine. She wore rose cambric, and her hair was dressed in a simple knot, with curls allowed to fall along her temples and jaw, softening her face. She looked lovely but her eyes were unfocused and distant. She was thinking, about history, and risk, and the dark vistas that had opened up with the attack she had witnessed.

  Gavin was insufferable, of course. But the life he had led, the secrets he concealed, enthralled her. He had seen and done the sorts of things that she had only been able to read about. He had influenced great events, traveled to countries that were little more than the stuff of fables in London and the English countryside. And now he was in the midst of some such intrigue, and she had accidentally brushed the edge of it. That taste of a larger world had whetted her appetite. She longed to know more, to witness the action firsthand, to discover the taut reality that lay behind the bright veneer of society that was all most women were allowed to see.

  Perhaps she could, Laura thought. If she pursued her mission of diverting him—which had not gone well so far, she admitted—she might be pulled in once again. She might see further into that other realm, even make some small contribution.

  There was a knock on her bedroom door. “Laura?”

  “Yes? Come in.”

  Catherine Pryor did so. “Are you ready to go? The carriage is waiting.”

  “Oh. Yes. Yes, I am.” Laura looked around for her gloves, feeling as if she had been wakened from a dream.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No. I was just thinking.” Spotting the gloves, she picked them up and walked with Catherine downstairs. “It looks cold,” she commented, glancing out the window on the landing at the gray November sky.

  Catherine merely nodded. They put on warm cloaks in the front hall and went out into a sharp wind to climb into the carriage.

  “Do you know anything more about Gavin Graham’s history?” Laura asked.

  “Why?”

  “It is interesting. And I thought it might be helpful—something to talk with him about. He and I have not…” She thought of the way he had treated her, the kiss in the garden, and flushed. “I am not having much success in diverting him. I know that the general…”

  “It was a ridiculous plan! I told Matthew that from the beginning.”

  Laura sat back a bit at the vehemence in her voice.

  “We should forget the entire scheme,” Catherine added forcefully. “It never had a hope of working.”

  Stung at this judgment of her powers and slightly hurt, Laura said, “You wish me to go back to England?” Only when she said the words was she fully aware of how little she wanted to return to her previous existence. She imagined looking for another post, visiting the agencies, writing letters. The prospect was unutterably dreary.

  “Of course not,” replied Catherine.

  “But…if you…” Relief and confusion made Laura tongue-tied.

  “I am enjoying your companionship far too much,” declared Catherine. “You must stay with me until the congress ends.”

  “The general…”

  “I’ll manage Matthew,” she said with a wave of her hand.

  “But I would like to fulfill my part of the bargain,” added Laura, conscious of a lingering disappointment.

  “Gavin Graham is not a suitable acquaintance for you.”

  Laura stared at her.

  “I should have seen it from the first. I blame myself. I am a fool.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You mustn’t associate with him any further. He is far too…dangerous.”

  Laura thought at once of the stabbing, wondering how Catherine had discovered it.

  “He is…not a libertine precisely. But he has a very doubtful reputation.” Catherine folded her hands. “You will say I should have thought of this before bringing you here, and I should have. I don’t know what possessed me. Matthew was set on his plan, and I…”

  Not the stabbing, then, Laura was thinking. “I am aware of his…tendencies,” she ventured. “I do not see what they have to do with…”

  “If you fall in love with him, it will destroy you,” Catherine blurted out.

  “Love?” Laura shook her head in astonishment. “What do you mean?”

  Catherine gazed directly at her for the first time in this conversation. “He is an extremely attractive man,” she said, watching Laura’s face. “And he can be very…charming.”

  “So I have heard,” answered Laura a bit dryly. “But you need not fear that I…”

  “You know nothing about men like him! You have been living a sheltered existence, hardly seeing anyone. You have no idea of the…the wiles such a man possesses.”

  Laura started to tell her about the reading she had done in the earl’s library, then hesitated. Somehow, she didn’t think Catherine would approve. “He is…an interesting character. I find the things that he has done quite fascinating.”

  Catherine groaned.

  “But as for the man,” Laura continued, “he is arrogant, rude, and dismissive. I quite dislike him.”

  The older woman scrutinized her carefully once again.

  “And he has shown no signs of trying any wiles on me,” she added.

  “He is very irritated at Matthew’s actions,” acknowledged her companion with a sigh.

  “I have noticed that,” said Laura ironically.

  “What a tangle,” lamented Catherine.

  “Perhaps not.”

  Catherine looked at her questioningly.

  “I will not divert him, er, romantically,” she continued. “But he seems very involved in the political matters of the congress. If I can speak to him seriously about those things, I might engage his attention.” This was perfect, she thought. It gave her the chance to find out more about the plot she knew he was embroiled in, and freed her from the tedious obligation of flirting.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I have no other interest in Gavin Graham,” Laura assured her.

  “Well…” Catherine appeared to struggle with herself. “I suppose…” She stared into Laura’s eyes.

  Laura smiled reassuringly at her.

  Still looking uncertain, Catherine made a throw-away gesture. “I don’t know a great deal about his assignment here. Matthew doesn’t speak of such things.”

  “The general spoke of Persia.” The very word had conjured up visions, Laura thought—the shah, the towers of Isfahan.

  Catherine shook her head. “I know nothing of that either. Although…”

  “What?”

  “There is someone who might—an old friend of Matthew’s.”

  “He is here?”

  The general’s wife nodded. “They asked him to come and observe, offer his advice. He has retired from active service.”

  “Perfect! You must introduce me.”

  Catherine looked a little surprised at her eagerness, but she agreed. “And I do have some knowledge of Mr. Graham’s family,” she added.

  “That could be very helpful as well,” Laura assured her. She felt as if she were already becoming expert in the art of intrigue.

  “You remember his father.”

  She had met him once or twice years ago, Laura thought. She had a vague recollection of a tall, forbidding man who had looked at her with cold calculation.

  “He is dead now, but his chief aim in life was to raise the family’s position through his children’s marriages. He was terribly proud.”

  That was one word for it, Laura thought.

  “The two daughters made very good matches. They are both older than Gavin by several years. His mother died when he was born, you know.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “She was older. They had been so eager to have a son, and there were…difficulties.”

  Laura could imagine them very well, though she knew Catherine would ne
ver explain such things to a supposedly ignorant unmarried woman.

  “Gavin was a wild young man.”

  “That, I remember,” said Laura.

  “He and his father didn’t get on. They looked very much alike, however.”

  No doubt they were alike, Laura decided—proud, ruthless, selfish.

  “He more or less forced Gavin into the political service when he wouldn’t marry satisfactorily. I’ve heard he saw it as a kind of exile, a punishment.”

  “He sounds delightful,” replied Laura dryly.

  “He was an unpleasant man,” Catherine agreed. “Fortunately, Gavin grew to enjoy the work, I believe.”

  “Where has he traveled, do you know?” Laura thought with envy of the places she had heard mentioned already—Siam, Persia.

  The general’s wife shook her head. “No. George will.”

  “George?”

  “The man I spoke of—George Tompkins. He can tell you anything you wish to know—if he will speak to you.”

  “You think he won’t?” asked Laura, disappointed.

  Catherine shrugged. “He’s…rather eccentric.”

  “Ah.” That didn’t daunt her, Laura thought. She was beginning to understand that she was rather eccentric herself.

  Five

  Gavin surveyed the nondescript individual standing before him with an experienced eye. He might have been a minor clerk in a countinghouse or the keeper of a small shop. Nothing betrayed the fact that he was a lurker on the fringes of society, ready to perform a variety of useful tasks for a price. “Good,” said Gavin. “No one should pick you out of a crowd. You understand what I wish?”

  “You want to know where this countess goes and who she sees,” replied his visitor.

  Gavin nodded. “I expect a complete record. And I expect secrecy.”

  “That’s what you pay me for.”

  “It is. And if someone else offers to pay you more…”

  The man seemed unintimidated by his threatening stare. “Not how I conduct my business,” he said laconically.

  Gavin continued to examine him. “So I have been told. If I find I was misinformed, you will not like the consequences.”