Page 77 of A Translation of Desire
“You didn’t think to share this,” Addie snapped at him before she turned to Augustus. “We asked for your help. How could you keep this from us?”
“I made him swear not to share the details with anyone. It is a matter of national security.”
“Did Rose know?” Lisbeth asked. “If so, why would she meet with someone alone?”
Augustus nodded. “We believed at the time that the break-ins were coordinated by a collector. We made the decision not to share what Hawley mentioned because of its sensitivity.”
Diana shook her head. “I still can’t believe she met with someone alone.”
“Rose is fearless, but sometimes it can border on foolish,” Lisbeth added.
“Again, she and I were both under the belief that this had nothing to do with whatever Hawley is embroiled in. He assured us it wasn’t,” Augustus reiterated.
Hawley’s eyes flashed. “That was what the British Secret Service knew at the time.”
Augustus’s anger raged within him. All of this had been caused by a bunch of men, none of whom they had ever met.
“What else aren’t you telling us?” he asked Hawley.
“I’ve told you everything I know.”
Augustus didn’t believe him, and he suspected that neither did anyone else in the room. The man was up to something. “I want to speak with the men you are working with.”
Hawley started to shake his head, so he added, “I’m not asking.”
Any further discussion was halted by the arrival of Augustus’s assistant Henry and Bradford, the man from the illicit market! He rose to his feet, ready to pummel the man, but then spotted the bloody cloth wrapped around his shoulder. Henry said, “Your Grace, he arrived at the warehouse, and I immediately brought him here. He was with Miss Calvert.”
Augustus strode to the man and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. “Where is she?”
Bradford yelped in pain, and everyone surrounded him. He shook his head. “The Frenchman said he only wanted to speak with her, and if I arranged it, he would pay off all my debt.”
Fury washed over him as Devons pulled him away. Augustus knew he needed to calm down. He asked, “Where is she now?”
Bradford frowned. “He wanted her to translate something. He is taking her somewhere quiet so she can work.”
Augustus nodded. “You better hope nothing happens to her.”
The man frowned and said, “He isn’t a good man. He wanted to finish me off, but Miss Calvert said I was already gone. She saved my life.”
Augustus turned away from him and said to Hawley, “Take me to the men you are working with. Enough of the games. This has to be connected to what they are involved in.”
Hawley studied him, quietly, and finally said, “Very well. I’m to meet with them after I leave here. They will only speak with you and me.”
“We are going with Sinclair,” Devons and Derry said in unison.
Lisbeth, Addie, and Diana said, “So are we.”
“If we all are waiting for them, they won’t show,” Hawley explained.
Something in the scholar’s tone suggested he wasn’t exaggerating or being dramatic. “Fine, you and I will go together.”
Hawley nodded, looking relieved. Augustus addressed everyone. “The sun is coming up soon. Hawley and I will see this part through. You all need to rest in case this is a dead end.”
“Are you sure?” Derry asked.
Augustus nodded. Finding Rose was what mattered, nothing more.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
