Page 69 of Lord Ashley's Beautiful Alibi
He wanted to reach out, take her in his embrace, and have this conversation all over again. But then it occurred to him that, separate as they were atop their horses, this was the best way to put it all before her. “I will. I promise.”
“Then I will rage at you that you did not tell me before this that she might be here in Varennes. That, my dear, is a failure.”
“An omission at the time. But yes, you deserve to learn everything.”
She scoffed. “Aftereverything, I will kiss you and then punch you in the jaw!” She wheeled her horse about, regal and very pissed, then trotted the mare down the country road.
He swallowed his grin and, quite pained, shook his head, then tried to catch up to her.
*
They were alongthe road to town only a few minutes more when Kane examined a figure tracking parallel with their pace in the shadows of the forest. This figure was short. His own man who tracked them was tall and thin, and agile too. So this fellow was not Kane’s—and he wondered who this was and where his own man was.
Gus followed his line of sight. “We have company.”
“Let’s make town quickly. I want you safe.”
They entered town without incident. In the cover of the trees, their stalker kept stride with them.
Gus walked her horse close bedside Kane’s. “If this is Carrot Nose…then I know him.”
“I wondered at your reaction to Solange’s description.” He spied the squat, fat figure of so-called Carrot Nose and buriedhis good intentions in favor of the more immediate problem of ridding them of this nemesis.
He set his jaw. He did not see his own man about. So he had a diversion to effect.
The street narrowed, houses on either side, streetvendeursfilling the cobbles with animals and wares for sale.
“I see him at the street over, toward the rear of the church.” The Varennes church was the one in which the royal family had taken refuge in ’93. A small stone building with one spire, it had gained notoriety as the place where the Bourbons had been discovered by a localgendarme, captured, then escorted back to Paris—and prison.
Gus and he returned their horses to the stables and strode down the thoroughfare toward the inn. On the other side of thevendeurs’stalls, they saw the fleeting evidence of a fellow keeping pace with them.
“What a fool,” she scoffed. “If he’s trying to hide, he’s a failure at it. He is one of Vaillancourt’s men.”
This vermin was sent by Vaillancourt! That filled Kane with a mindless rage. Vaillancourt had killed his friend Brussard, but, by God, he would not touch a hair on the head of this woman.
“How do you know he’s the deputy’s man?” Kane picked up his stride, and she did, too. He kept watch of their shadow.
“He tracked me on my errands to receive information.”
Kane silently cursed. He’d suspected this and wished it were not so.
She gulped. “I saw him. He saw me. Take what you will of it. We saw each other on my recent visit to a bathhouse in St. Denis. I belong to a network of agents who send information to and from London.”
Joy and horror raced through his bloodstream. There was nothing now he would not tell her. Who he was. What he was. What he did. He and she were a team, meant to work together.By all that was rational and all that was real and useful in life, they were meant to be together. He more than wanted her as his friend and his partner in work—he wanted her in his arms as his beloved.
He would have her, too. He’d end this madness that robbed him of sleep at night, robbed him of joy when awake. He would tell her all, his love and his hope and need. He’d ask her to be his own. And all of that, of course, had to come after he revealed all and she took him to task like a fishwife.
“My darling.” He was beside himself, but he dared not stop walking. They had to reach the safety of the inn. He wove them in and out of passersby. “How long have you done this?”
“Years,” she whispered, her fingers clutching the fabric of his frock coat. They walked quickly, and her riding outfit helped her keep pace with him. Many noticed, parted, and let them through. “I have never been followed. Never. But weeks ago, I cannot recall… I saw him with another man of Vaillancourt’s, and soon after I came to you to ask you to help me find Amber.”
He halted and gazed down at her. Awe and shock ran through him in poisonous alarm. This was the proof of all he had suspected. Now Gus would be his in the sight of man, and soon in sight of Bonaparte’s court and God. For her protection first, yes. But also to salve his fear that Vaillancourt, others, would take her away from him.
He would begin now to make known to her who he was, what he did. They would have a union of like minds as well as purposes. That required honesty. He would state now the fact he had known and could not have declared to Gus before now. “Amber is involved in this network of agents too, then.”
“She is my lead.”
He wanted to rejoice. He wished to weep. He knew this of Amber. Now he must go on with all truth revealed between Gusand him. “Hurry. Let’s cross the street. Avoid the church. He’s gone, it seems.”But where?
