Page 44 of While You Were Spying

There was absolutely no doubt in Ethan’s mind. And if Brigham had an inkling of who he really was, he’d know it too. He’d ferreted out spies that were so well hiddentheydidn’t know where they were, deciphered codes in five minutes that those who’d designed them took a quarter hour to make out, found his way in—and out—of the most heavily guarded prisons in Paris. He could find a would-be rapist in the Hampshire countryside.

“Why do you have such an interest in this affair? Surely a man of your position has other, more pressing, responsibilities.”

Ethan couldn’t reveal the details of his mission. In silence, he spread his hands, noncommittal.

Brigham pulled at his cravat. “I’ll be honest, Winterbourne. As I’ve said before, I respect you, but I bloody well don’t trust you. I don’t want you near my daughter.”

“I don’t blame you.” Ethan crossed one leg over the other. “But are you really in a position to refuse an offer of assistance? Even from a blackguard like me?”

Brigham scowled and leaned back in his chair. In his set expression, Ethan could see the viscount wanted to find the man responsible as much as Ethan did.

“And you think you can do a better job than Gravener? You can protect her?” There were notes of desperation and fear in the old man’s voice.

Ethan rose and put his hands on the massive desk between them. “I can do what the magistrate can’t.”

“And what is that?”

He pushed away from the desk and strode across the room to the windows. “Protect her twenty-four hours a day.”

Brigham snorted. “I cannot allow you to reside under this roof. Your character is such that both my daughters could be ruined in the eyes of theton, not to mention the local population, if word of your presence here were to become known.”

Ethan stared at the trees, their branches swaying in the morning breeze. “I know.”

“Already their reputations may be subject to scrutiny. Your arrival here last night did not go unnoticed.”

“I know.” His eyes never left the trees.

“Then you must also know I cannot allow you to stay another night, even another day, under my roof.”

“No, you couldn’t.” Ethan glanced down at the brown-and-green Turkish rug. “Unless—” Clenching his fists, he took a steady breath, then another.

There was no way around it. He’d known Brigham would object to his presence at Tanglewilde, would have objected himself if it was his daughter. God knew he’d tried to think of an alternative, something to appease Brigham and himself. He’d lain awake for hours turning the matter over in his mind, examining it from every conceivable angle. There was only one solution.

“Unless you tell everyone we’re”—Ethan’s throat seized, and he had to clear it—“betrothed.” The word sounded alien, one of the guttural foreign languages he could neither speak nor understand.

“Betrothed!” Brigham scoffed from behind him. “You? AndFrancesca? No one will believe it!”

Ethan turned to face him. “They’ll believe it when the news spreads I’m staying at Tanglewilde. Your wife should have no difficulty with that task.”

Brigham inserted a finger between his red neck and the cravat. “My wife is a bad liar.”

“Then let her believe it’s the truth. Leteveryonebelieve it’s the truth.”

Brigham banged his hand on the desk and shot up. “By God, this goes too far!”

“Why?” Ethan demanded, crossing his arms over his chest. “Don’t you want to do everything possible to protect your daughter? Plus thetonloves a romance. We’ll tell them your daughter and I fell in love after I rescued her from attack.”

“Yourescued?” Brigham groped for the decanter of brandy behind him. Ethan didn’t think the man was even aware that he did so.

“It makes the story more believable.”

The viscount splashed a healthy dose of the brandy into a glass and drank. “For Francesca’s sake,” he said, lowering the glass. “I’d intended to keep the whole incident quiet.”

“You can’t. The news has already spread. How do you think I heard of it?”

Brigham’s eyes widened. The viscount apparently hadn’t considered that.

Ethan saw his opportunity. “You have two choices. Take control of the situation, and make it what you will. Or, allow thetonto twist it into something of their own creation.”

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