Page 87 of The Viscount's Seduction
Her breath whooshed out. “Did you send Mr. Gibson north to draw out Hollister?” She shook her head. “I’m so confused.”
Shaldon almost smiled. “It is only a figure of speech. I should have known Hollister was here. I didn’t.” He drummed his fingers on the desktop. “My intelligence was lacking, but it’s all the fault of these many plots and schemes against the government, and the preparations for the coronation. We’re spread too thinly.”
Bakeley’s skinrippled with awareness, the two people who should be the closest in the world to him, his father and his wife, were tied together by this intrigue and he wasn’t sure he could trust either one of them to share everything. “Sirena, why did you believe your brother might be alive?”
Her momentary press of lips was matched by a widening of her eyes, and his own excitement built, wondering if she would lie to him.
“The first mate on the packet we took from Dublin was, well, he was very friendly with me, and I did tell him about my brother, as I tell everyone so that they…will be warned off, as it were, and he said he’d met a sailor who’d told him there were survivors of the sinking, and that he’d sailed with one of them on an Atlantic crossing. Well, I asked the O’Brians to check at the docks for me, to see if anyone had names of survivors, and they came up with Donegal. I suppose that was your ploy, Lord Shaldon.”
He shook his head. “They did make contact with him. Brief, and he was very careful, very cagey. They let him know that you were looking for your brother. And we believe he may have known your brother some twenty years ago. We have no reason to believe he knew your brother was working for us.”
“So why would he have any interest in Sirena?”
“Ah, well, about that. What the O’Brians also told him is that you might have clues to your brother’s whereabouts.”
Her head shot up and color spiked her cheeks. “Which I do not. Which means that Jamie is d-dead.”
Bakeley reached for her, but she pushed him away and glared at his father. “You’re using me, Lord Shaldon and I know not if this man Donegal is quite so bad as you suspect.”
“Perhaps he does have information about your brother, my love,” Bakeley said, “or knows something that will set us on the path to investigate more.”
Her gaze met his, and he felt the fire melting out of her. This one was not used to gentling. Themy lovehad disarmed her.
“You are still willing?” she asked, her voice shaky, as if she expected him to turn on her.
“Of course. I’ll do everything to help you find your brother, if he’s still alive. Father, tell us about Donegal. What leads you to believe he’s plotting?”
Shaldon sighed deeply. “What I tell you must be held in confidence.”
“Agreed. Sirena?”
She bit her lip. “Agreed.”
He lifted her hands. “See, Father. No fingers crossed for either of us.”
