Chapter 13 #3
“I’m glad to hear you are confident in his magnanimity, my lady.” Blake patted her hand where it rested on his arm. “Though I should warn you—there are some things I simply cannot tell either of you. For your own safety.”
She frowned up at him. Of course! I’m not a fool! “I understand operational security. I’ve read enough spy novels to grasp the concept.”
“Have you now?”
“Oh yes. I particularly enjoyed The Riddle of the Sands. Very educational regarding German naval preparations.”
Blake chuckled. “Of course you’ve read Childers.”
“And many other similar novels.” She paused in front of the sitting room door. “It’s a shame how much people underestimate the real knowledge one can learn from fiction.”
Blake’s grin split wide as he reached for the room door. “Remind me never to underestimate you, Lady Astley.”
“Well, considering the closet situation last night, I certainly hope you won’t!”
Blake chuckled and pushed the door open for her to enter.
Frederick stood by the fire, his bandaged face turned toward the door as if he’d been listening for their approach.
“I hear a conversation is in order,” Blake said as he walked forward.
Frederick’s mouth quirked. “Indeed.”
Evie stepped through the doorway behind them, soundless.
“Close the door, won’t you please, Miss Gale?” Grace asked, and Evie complied.
“A moment.” Blake took a turn around one side of the room while Evie circled the other. “Just ensuring we’re fully alone.”
“So this entire preposterous story is real?” Frederick shook his head.
“Your dear wife wouldn’t lie to you, Freddie,” Blake teased, returning to the sitting area. “She may not, however, have the full understanding of the situation.”
“Unbelievable.” Frederick breathed the word. “All this time, you’ve been a spy?”
“Well, not when we were nicking biscuits from the kitchen and blaming it on the stable boy. Though the art of misdirection did serve me well.” He sent a wink to Grace. “But for years.”
Frederick’s jaw loosened, and he shook his head. “Unbelievable,” he repeated.
Blake seemed to take that as his cue to begin. “Now I believe proper introductions are in order. Lord and Lady Astley, I’d like to formally introduce you to Evie Montgomery, whom you’ve known as Miss Helen Gale.”
“Miss Montgomery.” Frederick, after breathing out a long sigh, dipped his head in her general direction.
“It is a pleasure to formally meet you, Miss Montgomery.” Grace smiled. “And I greatly admire your ability not only to engage in such excellent disguises but also to engage in combat so beautifully. It was remarkable to watch.”
“You saw her in combat, Grace?” Frederick jerked his head toward Grace before releasing a long sigh. “I do believe I may need to sit down for this conversation,” he murmured, feeling his way back to the nearest chair.
Miss Montgomery hesitated only a moment before responding with her own smile, much subtler than Grace’s. “I am most appreciative of your ready understanding of my subterfuge, my lady.”
“Oh, and you don’t sound anything like you did as Miss Gale.
How very clever to even change your accent!
” Grace shrugged and looked over at Blake, whose grin only continued to grow.
“I have so many things to learn in order to be a cleverer detective. Lord Astley and I have both engaged in quite a few of our own adventures, but never to such a physical degree.”
“Not of combat, thank heaven,” Frederick added.
“But the physicality has been impressive nonetheless—especially pulling you from that sand trap.” He shuddered.
“Or watching you swing from that fiery room in Scotland on a breaking rope. I can assure you, darling, I was physically impacted thinking I was watching you die right before my eyes.”
Grace immediately went to him and took his hand.
“And I would think your sword fight with Mr. Kane was rather similar to watching Blake and Miss Montgomery fight.” Grace looked to Evie for understanding.
“I didn’t get to witness it since I was trapped in a burning secret room, but Frederick’s detailed description sounded fascinating.
They used three-hundred-year-old broadswords. ”
A burst of air escaped Evie, and her stare intensified considerably. “What precisely do the two of you do?”
“What don’t they do?” Blake interjected with evident enjoyment. “Run a convalescent hospital, discover hidden treasures, unmask antiquity thieves, shoot pistols—”
“Which Blake taught me, though Mr. Leeds, our gardener, trained me in knife throwing,” Grace added, a renewed thrill moving through her at the memory of practicing both.
Evie blinked.
Frederick released a slight groan. Poor man, his head was likely still aching, and all this commotion probably didn’t help.
“And of course there are the arts of rope swinging,” Blake continued, each addition causing his grin to stretch wider, “camel riding, tomb raiding, ghost hunting.”
“Ghost hunting?” Evie echoed, narrowing her eyes slightly.
“I never did perfect camel riding, though,” Grace amended. “And I didn’t search for true ghosts, of course,” she whispered, attempting to temper the woman’s expectations. “But I’m sure you recognized that already with all your vast experience in adventures.”
A pair of raised brows was Miss Montgomery’s only response.
“Well, we refer to them as operatives or missions, but … similar.” Blake’s smile faded. “Maybe a bit darker, though.”
“The mission.” Frederick’s jaw tightened. “Precisely why we’re all here, I believe. Perhaps someone would like to explain exactly what mission requires my cousin to fake an injury, a strange woman to infiltrate my household staff, and my wife to lock my cousin and said staff in a closet.”
“Right.” Blake leaned forward in his chair, elbows on his knees, his expression sobering. “Where to begin?”
“The beginning usually works well,” Frederick suggested dryly, one of his dark brows jutting just above the bandages.
Oh good. Her dear husband’s humor was returning. A very good sign.
“The beginning? Well, that is rather too far back for our purposes here.” Blake exhaled slowly.
“But I’ll go back far enough to give some explanation.
Evie and I are agents for British Intelligence.
We’ve worked together on various operations over the past year and a half, though we both have been in the …
business, so to speak, for much longer. Our last assignment was tracking a German informant who was believed to be passing British military secrets to the fatherland. ”
Grace felt Frederick’s hand tense in hers.
“This past April, we traced the informant to the Lusitania,” Blake continued. “I was under private orders to intercept him before the ship reached England because he was suspected of carrying crucial information about someone leaking military intelligence in ways we’d been unable to head off.”
Frederick went absolutely still. “The Lusitania.“
“Yes.”
“The ship that was torpedoed in April? The one that sank. That killed”—Frederick’s voice rose—”over a thousand people.”
“That very one, in fact.” Blake’s voice dropped lower, softer. All traces of mirth evaporated.
The profoundness of the statement silenced the room.
“Good heavens, Blake.” Frederick shook his head. “And … and Miss Montgomery was with you?”
“Not exactly.” Evie moved to stand near the window, apart from the rest of the group.
Something about that stance, distant and alone, made Grace’s heart ache for the woman.
“I was aboard under a mission to find the same man, or so I thought. Blake and I, along with my brother Evan, had been partners for months before this, but Evan and I were not privy to Blake’s assignment of not only locating the spy but gathering information about a possible traitor within our ranks.
We were meant to find the informant as well and attempt to extract information from him. ”
“And that’s where she shot you?” Grace asked. “Aboard the Lusitania? Isn’t that right, Blake?”
“What?” Frederick’s head swiveled between Evie’s direction and Blake’s. “Miss Montgomery, your partner, shot you aboard the Lusitania?”
“It’s a long story that will not assist your understanding of why we’re here,” Blake said, settling deeper into his chair. “But I will say that her aim is impeccable.”
Evie rolled her eyes heavenward for Blake’s benefit, no doubt. Grace grinned.
They really seemed to be perfect for each other. The fact they were both spies only made it better.
“Is that when you learned her brother was a traitor?” Grace asked.
“Miss Montgomery’s brother betrayed you?”
Poor Frederick. No doubt all this information was not helping his mental faculties at all.
Blake hesitated, clearly weighing how much to reveal. “He did, but he’s no longer part of our current situation.”
The room grew quiet again before Frederick continued carefully. “He died in the sinking?”
Evie looked over at Blake, who then turned to Frederick. “Yes.”
Grace had heard the truth of how he died, but she decided they must not have shared more for a very specific reason—one she would not betray in this moment.
“However, we discovered that the spy we’d been searching for was going to be operating in England—specifically, in convalescent hospitals where wounded officers and soldiers could be questioned without raising suspicions.”
Oh, so there was a very serious spy, besides Blake and Evie, within these walls. Someone who was causing hundreds if not thousands of young men to die on the battlefield because of the information the traitor passed along.
A knot began to form in Grace’s stomach. How mortifying.
And that was a very appropriate use of the word.
“Like Havensbrooke,” Grace breathed.
“Like Havensbrooke,” Blake confirmed. “And while I am supposedly here to heal from injuries, that’s a false cover for the true reason. Our sources confirm this traitor may be here, and it is our assignment to stop them before more intelligence reaches Germany.”