A pity he’d have no chance to inspect what he found before leaving to ensure the information was useful. It wouldn’t be unusual for his employer to hide materials pertinent to his current cases. A good chance existed that Thomas had just stolen paperwork which would only end up incriminating him further.
Sarah shifted the scone on her plate from one edge to the other, absently staring out the window as Aunt Mabel prattled on about the weather and her rheumatism.
“Sarah?” A twinge of concern came through in Mabel’s voice, startling Sarah enough to catch her attention. She redirected her focus to the older woman and smiled.
“Yes, Aunt Mabel?”
“Goodness, my dear, are you well? I know you say you’re better now since you were ill the other day, but you seem so detached, so preoccupied.”
Sarah blinked and straightened in her chair, guilt building at having ignored her hostess. “Please forgive me, Aunt Mabel, I suppose I have been distracted. I’ve been thinking of my family, and especially my sister-in-law Eloise,” she lied. In actuality, she’d been on pins and needles since the night Thomas left. With no word from him in the last two days, she woke this morning with a sickening sense of dread. The time Lord Addington allotted them had run out, and she had no idea if Thomas had been successful or not.
She considered going home but feared dragging additional danger to her family in her wake. She didn’t dare send a message either. In the end she resolved to face whatever consequences came of her initial decision to come here, not realizing how maddening the tick of the clock would become. She expected at every moment Lord Addington would appear in the doorway to arrest her.
“Yes, that’s understandable,” Aunt Mabel nodded sagely, unaware of the constant tremor in Sarah’s hands or the shallowness of her breaths. “A new baby in the house is always exciting, and there’s so much to prepare for ahead of time. I’m sure you must be quite enjoying your time as a new aunt.”
“Indeed, I felt quite out of sorts when the first baby arrived, but there’s a certain sense of understanding now, and experience. I’m looking forward to being far less frightened by the new addition, and therefore able to better enjoy the early days.”
“Yes, I can sympathize with that,” She smiled and reached over to pat Sarah’s hand. “It was a shame my husband and I were never blessed with children, but that’s one reason I was so happy to come here and stay with my brother and his wife. I was still able to enjoy a good deal of the aspects of motherhood in my role of doting aunt.”
A knock at the door interrupted their conversation and Sarah looked up as the Butler entered the room and gave a slight bow. Her heart leapt into her throat in preparation of his announcement.
“Mr. Eric Langdon to see you both.”
Sarah could have swooned in relief, but the sentiment was short-lived.
“Mr. Langdon?” Aunt Mabel asked, giving voice to Sarah’s surprise. “Well isn’t this a surprise. Do see him in.”
The tall, blond, blessedly familiar figure of her brother came around the corner, sparking an instant rush of joy which almost hid from her recognition the sharp, angry glance he sent her way. The initial reprimand proved brief as he made his way to Aunt Mabel’s side and took her hand, bending to kiss her cheek before taking the seat beside her. “Dear Aunt Mabel, it’s been an age. My apologies for not having come to call sooner.”
“Well you’re right,” the lady agreed with a false upset air. “I daresay you should’ve come by quite some time ago. I don’t know what Lord Addington is thinking, keeping you away for so long at a time.”
Eric smiled apologetically and fixed another glare on Sarah over Mabel’s head
“Do sit for tea,” Mabel insisted, her eyes and countenance brightening. She enjoyed company, and they’d left her without for far too long.
“Thank you, Aunt,” Eric responded after Sarah translated the invitation he’d missed in his observation of her. “But I’m afraid I won’t be able to stay long and you’re not going to welcome my news.”
“Oh?” Mabel turned her head in his direction with a crestfallen look piteous enough to force Eric to soften his stance. “Why is that? What’s wrong? Is it something about Thomas?”
“No, no,” Eric was quick to console her, reaching out a hand to pat hers. “Nothing to do with Thomas. It’s to do with Sarah,” again he glanced in her direction, his eyes letting her know his displeasure.
“Miss Langdon?”
“Yes. I’m afraid, our mother has taken ill with the springtime air and the stress of the move.”
“Oh dear, nothing serious I hope?”
“No, the doctor thinks she’ll recover without trouble, but she is making herself worse for wear in her worry for the other ladies of the house. In particular, Eloise as she nears the end of her confinement. Though I hate to ask it, I think it would be beneficial for mother if Sarah were to return home. You know she’s the best among us for creating a calm atmosphere.”
“Yes, that’s very true,” Mabel nodded in agreement. “And if you say it’s best for her mother, I certainly can’t disagree with you, although I will miss her dearly. You know, it’s been so nice with her here, I really don’t know what I’ll do without her.”
Eric had the good grace to flush and show some remorse. Sarah knew he liked the old woman; it displeased him to cause her pain. Sarah didn’t believe for a moment their mother was ill. The woman had a constitution more durable than an ox, and if she did fall ill it was unlike her to request others change their plans on her account.
“And when do you plan to take Miss Langdon from me?” Mabel continued.
“I’m afraid we must leave immediately. I would delay, but my work compels me, and this provides a considerable obstacle to the completion of my deadlines.”
“Oh dear,” Mabel worried her napkin, causing Sarah to chew her lip in anguish for the kind woman. “Well, all right,” she turned to face Sarah. “I’m going to miss you dear; it’s been wonderful to have you here. Do send my best wishes to your mother for me and let me know how she fares.”
Sarah pressed her lips together for a moment and glared at her brother before responding. “Of course, Aunt Mabel, I’ll send the note the instant I get home to let you know how things are.”
“There’s a good girl. Now you’d best head up to your room and pack. As for myself, I think if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go upstairs to rest.”
“Of course,” Eric stood at her announcement and offered a hand. If you’ll allow me, Aunt Mabel, I will gladly escort you to your room and ring for your maid.”
“Still such a sweet gentleman,” Mabel smiled. “If this is all the company I am going to receive from you, then I’ll take every moment I can.” She laughed as she took his offered hand and he moved hers into the crook of his elbow. They made their way slowly toward the door, Eric tossing over his shoulder as they went, “I’ll meet you in your room once I settle Aunt Mabel, Sarah, and help you pack.”
A sinking feeling ensued as Sarah watched the pair disappear around the corner. Eric wasn’t going to help her pack; he was about to lay into her with whatever grievances he’d come here with. She glanced at the clock in the corner, wondering again about Thomas and whether Lord Addington would charge in on Eric’s heels.
Chapter 15
“You don’t look as though you’re packing,” Eric observed as he entered Sarah’s room.
Sarah paused in her pacing to look over at him. “Eric—”
“And what the devil is this all about?” He fished a note from his pocket, flinging it onto the bed in her direction before running both his hands through his hair and taking up his own agitated march.
Sarah snatched up the note.
Sarah is in danger, you must collect her immediately.
No signature or seal accompanied the missive, but she knew who sent it. Her heart sank. For Eric to have arrived today Thomas must have sent the note upon leaving here. That meant he never maintained any faith in finding evidence aga
inst Addington. A small wail escaped her, and she covered her mouth with a hand, though luckily Eric had turned his back to her and didn’t notice.
“I knew I shouldn’t have allowed you to insist on your way in this,” Her brother asserted as he turned toward her. “What has Thomas gotten you into now?”
She shook her head instinctively. “Nothing. Any risk to myself is my own doing. You were right, I shouldn’t have come here.”
Eric threw his hands up in the air. “Of all the times for you to finally admit that. I’ll have you know I was on the verge of discovering a vital leak in our information chain. Now in the last three days I’ve had this note about you and a small army of sentries posted around our home.
Sarah’s eyes widened, remembering Addington’s threats and her own fear of leaving. “How did you get here?”
“Don’t ask. I’ll never live it down. Suffice it to say I owe Angelique a new riding habit.”
“Eric—”
“Whatever you wish to say can be explained on the way home. Start packing.”
She let out an exasperated huff but opened her armoire and began emptying it of her belongings, stacking the clothing on the bed as she attempted to form an argument. “Do you even know what Thomas is working on?” she challenged, catching her brother’s eyes as she paused to open her travel bag.
“I don’t care what—” he halted his speech, narrowing his gaze on Sarah. She swallowed, realizing her error too late. “How do you know what he’s working on?”
Her clothing called with an urgency which demanded her entire attention and she began folding items and tucking them into the valise.
“Sarah?”
She relented, shoulders sagging. “He came to the house shortly before you and the others left. He wanted to speak with you.”
“What?! And you didn’t turn him away?”
“I couldn’t, he looked so distraught—”
“Of course he did! he’d just killed a man and—”
Sarah threw a shawl into her brother’s face, marching around in front of him and greeting him with a glare and fisted hands on hips when he disentangled himself. “Look me in the eye and tell me you believe that.”
He pressed his lips together and turned toward the hearth, tossing the shawl back at her. “Either way, you’ve done a thorough job of getting yourself enmeshed with—” he spun back around. “Has he been here? Was that why you came here?”
Anger colored his features and Sarah shrank back, again putting the bed between them and refocusing on her packing. “He has, but I had no idea of that possibility when I came here.”
“Oh, for heavens’—” he groaned, turning on her with an exasperated look. “What have you gotten yourself into?”
Taking a steadying breath, Sarah rounded the bed again to stand in front of her brother. “Eric, did you know Mr. Cartwright? The man who was killed?”
“I didn’t know him personally, but I know he worked with Thomas in the past and was regarded as an adept agent up until his change of allegiance.”
“Was that ever proven?”
Eric hesitated, likely guessing her line of reasoning. She pressed on. “What if he didn’t change allegiance? What if he realized someone inside the agency was untrustworthy and his suspicions were found out?”
Eric gave her a reproving look and began to shake his head. “That’s a dangerous accusation, Poppet, and not one to take on lightly.”
“You yourself said you were investigating a leak, what if—”
“A potential leak with an agency go-between, I haven’t found any information about an agent.”
“But are you sure it’s a go-between? Could it be an agent?” she countered.
He paused, and Sarah could tell he considered her words, but not long enough. In another instant he let out a grumble and moved around her toward the opposite end of the room.
“I swear, if Thomas were here, I would throttle him for filling your head with such—” He paused in his threats, eyes landing on something near the bedside table.
Sarah’s blood boiled. How could her brother take her for being so feather-brained and impressionable? She’d seen the journal and the letters from Graham just as Thomas had. She’d come to her own conclusions even before he’d been willing to admit to the possibility. She prepared to tell Eric that when he again turned his attention to her, but all her fine, self-promoting words died on her tongue when Eric picked up something from the floor and turned a livid, accusing stare on her.
“What is this?” he hissed.
Sarah felt the blood drain from her face and her throat go dry as she recognized the length of silk dangling from Eric’s fingers. Thomas’ cravat. Her mouth bobbed open and closed, her throat emitted a harsh, rasping sort of sound, but no intelligible words found their way into the air.
“Where exactly did you meet Thomas to discuss these wildly inappropriate accusations?” Eric growled.
She swallowed.
“You didn’t,” he groaned, shutting his eyes and rubbing at them with his free hand. “Tell me you didn’t.”
Sarah lowered her eyes to the carpet.
Crushing the silk in his fist, he tossed it aside as he marched again toward the door, barreling past Sarah as he went. “We’re leaving. Right now. You have five minutes to pack and get downstairs.”
He charged toward the door, but Sarah took hold of his arm in a panic, turning him about.
“I’m no longer a child. At some point in life you must allow me to make my own decisions.”
“I might be inclined to believe you if you hadn’t come here because of a girlish infatuation you should have had done with years ago!”
Her brother’s words stung with the potency of a slap, and she stepped away, dazed. All this time she believed he understood her heartache, sympathized in earnest when she confided in him.
His movement toward the door snapped her back to the present and her greater purpose. She caught his arm again.
“Eric, please. This isn’t about me. At least not right now,” She added hastily as he prepared to respond tartly to her. “There are serious accusations in place, you’re right. Both against Thomas and made by him against others. You’ve resigned yourself to give up on him, but I am imploring you. Think this through rationally. Think about Mr. Cartwright. Thomas insists it was Mr. Cartwright who gave him this information and set him on this path. Do you believe Cartwright would mislead Thomas? Can you allow this to play out against him without even considering his side of things? Without taking the slightest look at the information he collected? I thought the whole basis of your work is truth. Finding out the details and what’s actually going on. You can’t condemn a man without looking at all the evidence. Even if it’s only to confirm that the evidence is contrived or not useful.”
She barely took breath through the entire desperate plea, hoping for some sign of understanding, or at least curiosity, in him. As he tugged his arm from her hands, the steely finality of his voice crushed her last hope that he might be persuaded to help Thomas.
“We’re leaving in five minutes.”
Addington’s office building loomed larger and more imposing than Thomas remembered. Entering as a wanted man likely played a large role in the new feelings of dread and imprisonment which beset him the moment he set foot through the massive doors and heard the tomb-like finality of their closure behind him. The echo reverberated through to his bones and seemed to alert the entire building to his presence.
Straightening his coat and spine into some semblance of confidence helped little when the marble flooring added to the alarm, amplifying every clack of his heels as he walked. Head held high, moving ever forward toward his goal, his eyes surreptitiously scanned the space around him. He knew the building well enough, every hall and exit. He also knew guards watched most of these exits. Even had they not, the entire building swarmed with people trained to root out treason and traitors. For some reason, that fact never occurred to him with as much gravity as
it did today. With every glance, with every additional person his awareness took in, he felt their corresponding observation, calculating his purpose and intent.
No one stopped him, no one questioned him, he wasn’t sure if that were simply due to curiosity, or if they’d expected him.
He’d watched the dawning this morning, unable to sleep knowing his final chance had been played out. He imagined Sarah’s smile in the warm hues of the brightening sun, saw her love-drenched eyes in the deep royal tint of the sky, and hoped beyond hope his message had found its mark with her brother. By all that was good in the world he wished her a safe return home and swift success to Eric in putting an end to this mess, for his own efforts today would not manage it.
He’d sent the meeting request as late as he possibly could, after compiling as much meager evidence as he could. He wasn’t about to provide an address for Addington to respond to, bad enough his instructions to the messenger boy were to return with a response. He assumed Addington would have the boy followed and therefore had prepared to leave his temporary lodgings without plans to return to them. He made his way up to the third floor and down a carpeted hall to an elaborately appointed corner office. The front reception room was designed in dark woods with ornate molding at the ceiling and housed little other than a secretary at his desk and a potted plant in the corner. Lavishly detailed but lacking any hint of hospitality. As he’d walked down the hall, he glanced into the open doors, taking in the features of former partners and comrades, men he trusted, men who would now arrest him and see him hanged.
Foreboding overtook him as he contemplated this life, regarded so highly for so long. He valued the prestige, the excitement of it, and the mystery. He flattered himself that he made friends and acquaintances in high places. What did any of that mean now? All these supposed friends would turn on him in an instant. What he remembered as a gathering of peacocks in his earlier years, now appeared to him as a den of wolves, waiting for the best opportunity to strike.
A Clandestine Affair (Currents of Love Book 5) Page 13
