Page 87 of Romancing the Scot
Grace had a mind for puzzles, and when it came to recognizing connections and patterns, Hugh matched her step for step. They worked through the page line by line, and an hour later they had their list.
Caesar Rising
Black Tulip
Spartan Rock
Shooting Star
Red Phoenix
The list went on. Twenty-seven names in all.
“Code names,” Grace said. “These names mean nothing to us.”
“Their people in Westminster supposedly have a secondary key. A way of linking the code names to the real people hiding behind them.” He shoved the cryptography book away. “I don’t trust them. Rivenhall and Elliot. We have no way of knowing whether one or both of them are on this list.”
Grace watched him go down the names again. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“It’s more than the fact that they failed to provide security for your father,” Hugh explained. “Days before your father was to meet with them, he was murdered. It could be a coincidence, but I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“We were traveling under assumed names. They had to be watching for us.”
“They were. They must have known you’d disembark in Antwerp. What do you remember about the attackers?”
Grace thought back. The cool recklessness of the killers. Their relentless pursuit through the back alleys of the waterfront. The shouts as they got closer.
“At least one of them spoke English.”
Hugh sat back. “These two said that when they recovered the bodies, all your personal possessions had been stolen. And what did you say happened to your trunks from the ship?”
“They’d already been taken,” she replied. “All six of them. Probably by the same men.”
“Exactly. The villains who killed your father took possession of everything where that list could possibly have been hidden.”
Still, Mrs. Douglas had shown up here, Grace thought. They knew for a fact that her father didn’t have it.
“They didn’t find it, so there was only one place that list could possibly be.”
“With me.”
“When my man MacKay arrived in Antwerp, they learned that you’d escaped in that crate. That you were here recuperating. They had to assume that you had the list, and they needed to get it before they were exposed.”
“You were certain that Mrs. Douglas wasn’t working alone,” Grace said.
“She was notified by her partners in Antwerp, and she came here directly. The time of her arrival in the Borders fits perfectly. But the one in charge couldn’t trust her to succeed where they’d failed.”
“Captain Rivenhall told us that they had only the ‘slimmest hope’ that I had the document. But Sir Rupert had insisted that they come.”
“And he insisted because he knew the list wasn’t in Antwerp.” Hugh’s scowl was dark. “Hehadto come here. Elliot is our man. His name is on this list.”
Anger that had been building in her threatened to erupt. She had been sitting in the room, speaking with the very man who was responsible for the murder of her father and their servants.
“I’ll tell you something else,” he added grimly. “If we turn this list over to them, it will never reach London. An accident or a robbery on the road will happen. Rivenhall will be killed, and Elliot will say the list was taken.”
Grace forced herself to think calmly as she read through the names again.
“Mrs. Douglas. If only she hadn’t escaped,” she said fervently. “She was intimidated enough to run for her life. She might have been persuaded to cooperate in exchange for leniency.”
