“Well, that’s unusual,” Lucy narrowed her eyes at the other women. “Just what in the world is going on?”
Somehow Rocky, Felicia and Phil managed to dance around the truth until the men came back red faced and huffing.
“He got away.” Morgan narrowed his gaze on Lucy. “Just what were you thinking coming up here alone with a man?”
She looked appalled. “Nothing happened. I was looking to speak with him on Rocky’s behalf. Surely you don’t think…”
The duke’s expression was stony. Giddy looked relieved. He wrapped his arm around Felicia’s shoulders and tucked her into his side.
His eyes gleaming with questions, Catt approached Rocky and herded her into the corner, slightly out of earshot. She used his body to cover her movements as she tried to reach into the mouth of the lily to discover whether or not there was another note in the throat. Not that she would be able to decode that or the leaf without the cipher.
Catt stopped her. He took the lily from her and passed it behind him, to the duke. Tenwick also ran his fingers over the leaf, frowning. He gave an almost imperceptible shake of the head. Rocky took that to mean that it wasn’t the same code she and Catt had uncovered previously, for all that it was delivered in the same manner.
Rocky balled her fists. This was her fault. Monsieur V had escaped because of her blind insistence on sticking to a theory rather than considering all options. Not to mention, he was now on to the fact that she’d been spying on him.
She tried to move past Catt, to give the Graylockes free rein of the room as Lucy convinced her brothers that her virtue was the same that it had been down in the ballroom.
Catt barred her path.
She gritted her teeth and raised her gaze to meet his. “We have work to do.”
He stepped closer and lowered his voice. Normally, she would take comfort in the strong heat of his body, but not today. “He’s gone, Rocky. Do you really think he’ll return now that he knows we’re on to him?”
No. Blast it all, she’d lost their only lead and she still had no idea who it was!
“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t still need to be caught.” And she would do it, no matter what the cost. She’d let down the duke after he’d given her such a chance at a better life, and even entrusted her with this. She wrapped her arms around her torso.
Catt, seeming to notice that she was a hundred miles away, cupped both her cheeks and forced her to look at him. “He does, but you don’t have to do it alone. You don’t have to do anything alone. You have me now.”
He looked into her eyes, swore, and ran his fingers through his hair. At his outburst, the others in the room quieted.
He didn’t pay them any mind.
“Rocky, you have my support for life, if you’ll have me.”
Her mouth dropped open. “What?” She blinked several times, wondering if she’d imagined the words. “Are you…” She couldn’t say the words. What if she was wrong? Yes, they’d taken to sharing a bed, but otherwise, their relationship was the same as ever. A deep friendship, with the strong ties of love between them.
“I am. Rocky, you mean the world to me. I love you. Will you marry me?”
Her throat tightened. She couldn’t imagine spending a day without him. His support and love carried her through times when she’d be liable to tear herself apart with worry. He truly did lift her higher, not tear her down.
And she loved him, too.
She blinked away tears. “Yes. I love you, too. Yes.”
Catt swept her into a tight embrace as Lucy whooped.
“Finally! Yours was the longest courtship in history.”
Frowning, Catt released Rocky, though he tucked her into his side to mirror Giddy and Felicia’s embrace. He faced Lucy. “What do you mean?”
The young woman rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Don’t play coy. Everyone knew you loved each other but the two of you.”
Rocky exchanged an incredulous look with Catt. They had?
Across the room, Felicia chuckled. She tipped her face up to Gideon’s. “Told you so.”
Well, perhaps everyone but Gideon. Shaking her head, Rocky tucked her face into Catt’s chest. She’d definitely found herself the better man.
Epilogue
Morgan’s office in the house he shared with his wife wasn’t as large as the one he once had at the ancestral Tenwick townhouse where the rest of his family resided. In fact, it barely fit all the members of the spy ring he’d called for a meeting. He’d already sent a message to Strickland, Lord Commander of Spies, though he wasn’t in attendance.
Morgan stood behind his desk chair, which he’d insisted his wife take. Although Phil was several months away from delivering their first child, her feet were constantly sore and swollen and he wasn’t about to let her stand on them any longer than necessary. She did enough of that while she worked on her inventions. He rested his hand on her shoulder, taking solace from her presence.
His brothers looked worried. At the back of the room, Gideon stood with his arm wrapped around his wife. His green eyes were hard. Likely he’d already pieced together what Morgan had gathered them here to say. Felicia looked no less grim and determined. If Monsieur V had been standing among them, she might have ripped him to shreds. There was no doubt in his mind that she had a spine of steel, as she’d proven when she’d insisted on staying on as a Crown spy after she and his brother had completed the serum that he’d contracted her to make.
Jared, Phil’s brother and a pivotal double agent in the French ranks, stood next to the couple, his expression serious. Tristan lounged against the wall next to the desk. He hadn’t brought his wife—Freddie, though she knew of the spy network and Tristan’s part in it, hadn’t joined their ranks after her brush with espionage. Her mother, on the other hand, was present. Mrs. Vale perched in the sole chair across from the desk, her face composed as she clasped her hands in her lap. Although she hadn’t been used for any missions since her last—keeping an eye on the French spymaster previous to Monsieur V—had concluded, she spent much of her time with her two daughters, a circle which also included his mother and sister.
Neither his mother nor his sister knew of the family’s involvement in the British spy network, and to save them both the grief of worrying, Morgan hoped to keep it that way. After this business with Monsieur V, he didn’t know how he would be able to do that.
His gaze rested on the last two people in the room, standing side by side with their backs to the closed door. Catt squirmed beneath the force of Morgan’s stare, but Rocky met him boldly, her chin set. They’d been tasked with the impossible, and in a way they had succeeded. They’d uncovered Monsieur V’s identity.
As the spy network had unmasked, Monsieur V—or Benjamin Faulker, as he’d gone by in Lady Belhaven’s household, an identity which he’d likely abandoned by now—was as slippery in his daily life as he had been in his traitorous efforts. Lady Belhaven, whose memory was failing, was the only person in the household who truly interacted with him. He took his meals with her rather than the staff, and attended to her needs when others weren’t about, even keeping a room on the family wing rather than among the other servants.
Rocky and Catt both agonized over the fact that they’d discounted him. During the private chat Morgan had had with both of them, Rocky confessed that she’d even encountered Benjamin once or twice in the hothouse, though he had used the same slippery methods on her to avoid her suspicions. He’d even lied to her to try to sway her toward thinking Lance was Monsieur V. Whether Faulker had known who she and Catt were all along or was simply covering all his bases remained a mystery.
Monsieur V was a master at manipulation. He used his words to paint a picture of himself in the eyes of whomever he spoke with. Oddly enough most that had come in contact with him could provide only a vague description of what he looked like. It was as if he had used some sort of mind control. Morgan didn’t understand it, but Rocky was far from unintelligent. If she had been caught in
the spymaster’s web of words and led to discount him, it was no wonder that no one else in the network had been able to find him. They’d come so close…
Morgan was disappointed they hadn’t been able to capture the slippery spymaster, but at least they had run him off before he could impart the information that would be so devastating to England. He couldn’t very well blame Catt and Rocky for something he hadn’t been able to accomplish, either. Although he’d lessened their fears on that part and insisted they remain in the network, he couldn’t bring himself to forgive Rocky for involving his sister.
Given the single-mindedness with which she’d taken to the streets to attempt to uncover where Monsieur V had gone to ground, she didn’t forgive herself, either. Fortunately, she had Catt to temper her. They made a formidable team. And, since their romantic relationship didn’t seem to be interfering with their work, he allowed them to remain as such. He’d always known the two of them would be a force to be reckoned with, should they learn to put aside their differences and work together. It was gratifying to see that he’d been right.
Tightening his hold on his wife’s shoulder, Morgan straightened his spine. Phil lifted her hand to rest it over his, a comfort.
“Monsieur V has vanished into smoke,” he announced.
No one contradicted him. From their grim expressions, they’d expected as much, even those who hadn’t been tasked to try to track him down.
“He was using Lady Montrose’s matchmaking service to pass along the message to fake couples. Lady Montrose is not involved. Our eyes inside the French network—” He nodded to Jared. “—have informed me that the network is without direction. No one, as far as we can tell, has been given any instructions since the night of the masquerade. It’s possible Monsieur V has been run out of London, or even England, but I cannot count on it.” With a sigh, he fingered the streak of white by his temple. “I deciphered the code he gave to my sister. It said nothing of consequence and was merely a taunt letting us know that he’s onto our game. He’s toying with us. He knew that we installed spies in the hothouse, and he either knew or suspected that we’d cracked his initial code.”
Silence reigned in the office for a moment before Mrs. Vale asked, “Do you think he has an informant inside our network?”
Her head turned only slightly toward the back of the room before she stopped herself and held still, but Phil noticed. Her hand tightened on Morgan’s.
He squeezed her shoulder, offering his support.
“Everyone in this room is loyal to the Crown. As for the others in the network…we’re looking into the possibility.” He looked to each of them in turn. “We have to keep our eyes and ears peeled for signs of his return, or if someone else takes over the network in his absence. Right now they seem to be in chaos, and we can use that to our advantage. Without direction, some agents are having a change of heart. Others might seek power for themselves and give themselves away. We’re mapping our every corner of the French’s network here in London as much as we can, and insinuating spies close to them to keep an eye out.” He nodded to Mrs. Vale, who had once performed such a service in Britain’s name.
She returned the gesture, though she looked nervous, as though he might ask her to do it again. He wouldn’t. She’d made it clear nearly a year ago that she’d only separated from her husband and put herself in such a position in order to provide for her children. They were her priority.
His gaze dropped to the swell of Phil’s belly. He understood Mrs. Vale’s protective instincts too well. He squeezed his wife’s shoulder, keeping his worry contained for the moment. At least insofar as their child was concerned.
“Faulker made it a point to steer clear of the staff at Lady Belhaven’s. Catt and Rocky barely saw him. I’m not sure any of them can rightly identify him. But my sister saw his face and seems to be one of the few people who can profile a clear description. We think he exerts a form of mesmerism over those he talks to that clouds their memory of his facial features. Lucy seems to have been immune to it and with Lady Belhaven’s failing memory, Lucy might be the only person aside from Lady Whitewood, the traitor we’ve caught, who can identify him. There is every possibility that he might perceive her as a threat.” Morgan swallowed. He rested his gaze on Jared. “I don’t know if he knows of the extent of the Graylocke involvement in the British spy network. Given his parting message, I assume he does. We’ll need to know the second any of his spies become active.”
Jared nodded.
Morgan turned his attention to Mrs. Vale. “You’re often with my sister. I’ll need you to protect her as much as you can. Find excuses to spend time with her, so she’s never out of the sight of a member inside this room.” He looked to them all, begging them with his gaze. “We can’t let him get to her. For our family, we must be vigilant.”
Nods bobbed around the room, everyone’s expressions mirroring his. The Graylocke family, with all its extensions, prepared for war.
And his sister was in the middle of it.
*********
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USA Today Bestselling author Leighann Dobbs has had a passion for reading since she was old enough to hold a book, but she didn’t put pen to paper until much later in life. After a twenty-year career as a software engineer with a few side trips into selling antiques and making jewelry, she realized you can’t make a living reading books, so she tried her hand at writing them and discovered she had a passion for that, too! She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Bruce, their trusty Chihuahua mix, Mojo, and beautiful rescue cat, Kitty.
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About Harmony Williams
Charming the Spy (Scandals and Spies Book 4) Page 22
