A Thin Line (4 page)

“Where were you when I needed you?” Kala asked Southerby teasingly.

“What do you mean?”

“You failed to ask to escort me to Chatham’s ball tonight and now I’m forced to attend with Dewhurst.”
 
She dropped onto the settee next to Drucilla.

“He’s a fop and a dandy.
 
What makes him think he can even keep up with you?”

“I haven’t a clue.”
 
She watched Southerby stroll to the window and look out the curtains.

“The man has the oldest nag I’ve ever laid eyes on.
 
Seems to me if a man is going to claim to be a peer of the realm he should spend money on better horseflesh.”
 
Kala jumped up and crossed to the window in time to see the man turn the horse around and leave the square.

“Funny, it does look inferior.
 
I’m just glad he’s gone for now.”
 

“Kala, you really should not talk about others in front of people.”

“Please, Dru.
 
Even you have little patience for Dewhurst.”

“I apologize, Kala.
 
I thought, well, I don’t know what I thought.
 
But just because he escorts you doesn’t mean he has your sole attention.”

“Too true.
 
So did you come just to visit?” She asked blatantly.

“Actually I came to ask if I could escort you to the Chatham’s ball,” he replied a bit sheepishly.
 
This looked somewhat comedic on a man of his stature.

“Southerby,” Kala laughed.

“How about I make it up to you and escort you to the masquerade ball in Vauxhall Gardens on Saturday?”

“Dru?”
 
Kala looked at her anxiously, finding that she did enjoy spending time with Justin.
 
He didn’t set her heart to racing, but they got along well together.
 
And most of all he seemed truly to care for her.

“The masquerade is one of the last things Richard and I planned to attend this season.
 
I don’t see any problem with it.
 
Perhaps Derek and Tessa would like to join us as well.
 
Masquerades tend to be unlike anything else that takes place among the
ton
.”

“Wonderful.
 
I will even let you escort me from here.”

“I truly feel special.”

“You should,” she answered cheekily.

“I promise to rescue you tonight from Dewhurst.”

“You’d better, or I’ll never forgive you.
 
But if you don’t, I imagine Mr. McKenzie will.”

“So that is the way of it.
 
May the best man win,” Southerby chuckled good-naturedly.
 
Southerby left after dropping a kiss on Kala’s cheek.
 
His lips were firm, not at all like Dewhurst’s.
 
She felt a sense of friendship and peace, for lack of a better description.
 

“You seem to truly like Southerby,” Drucilla interrupted her thoughts.

“I enjoy his company.
 
I also enjoy Mr. McKenzie’s companionship.
 
Lord Dewhurst, however, is another tale entirely.
 
There is just something about the man that I can’t quite put my finger on,” Kala replied.
 

“Have you given up on Gabe then?”

“Dru, the only thing between Gabe and me lived in my childish fantasies.
 
It’s time I moved on.
 
He has.”

“Oh?”

“Lady Clarissa Blackerby.”

“I see.”

“I can’t even hate her.
 
She’s so nice and personable, almost delicate.
 
So, it is time that I move on.
 
Put the past behind me.
 
Gabe has only ever seen me as a little sister, and perhaps that is the way it is meant to be,” she broke off and stood.
 
“Pardon me Dru, I think I will have a bath.”
 
Dru watched Kala thoughtfully as she left the room with carefully controlled movements.

***

Gabe saw Lady Clarissa delivered to her house and finalized plans for escorting her to the ball that night.
 
He turned Diablo toward the War Office.
 
He had several things to attend to.
 
There were several titled men that worked for the government in various capacities.
 
This gave some of the nobility a chance to feel as if they were doing their part in the fight against the little tyrant.
 
Gabe had, however, truly served the government as a sailor, but since acquiring his title he was relegated to primarily office work.

Gabe thought back over the encounter with Kala.
 
He gave her credit for hiding the shock of seeing him with Lady Clarissa.
 
Gabe knew that growing up she had developed a crush for him, but that it would never lead anywhere now that he held the title of Duke of Hawkescliffe.
 

His position within the government also put paid to a relationship with Kala.
 
Kala knew too much about him.
 
In his position, she would be a liability.
 
Enemies used weaknesses and Kala could definitely be called that.
 
No, he would marry someone he could keep at a safe distance, both emotionally and physically.
 
That would be the easiest and safest thing.
 
However, he did disapprove of her choice of riding partner today.

Gabe rode Diablo up to a large, gray building and absently handed the gelding off to a groom.
 
The weight of the world felt as if it rested on his shoulders as he recalled the many recent conversations with his grandmother.
 
Each of them led to the inevitable fact that he had to produce an heir of the correct lineage for the line to continue.
 
What his grandmother did not know was that he desperately needed someone who could provide much needed funds to the family coffers.
 
He also worried about his mother’s episodes and what might happen if he brought another female into the household.

His older brothers had raised hell and most of the trouble they had gotten into had required the duke to financially rescue them.
 
Gabe’s father had also been a poor money manager in his own right, trusted the wrong people and made several bad investments.
 
Gabe refused to let either his mother or grandmother know what dire straits he found the family to be in.

He had taken part of the money they had left and invested in shipping with Derek.
 
Their first two shipments had paid well, but risks still abounded, especially considering their ship had to avoid Napoleon’s.
 
The risk of meeting pirates was high as well.
 
Although they didn’t rule the seas as they once did, the sea remained a dangerous frontier.
 
And then they risked society finding out that they, high-ranking members of the
ton
, were merchants.

Gabe wound his way through the hallways of the building absently nodding at the men he passed.
 
The inside of the War Office seemed as dark and dismal as the outside on some days, and unfortunately this happened to be one of those days.
 
He walked up a tight flight of stairs and passed a man with a large stack of books and papers.
 
He reached the floor his office was located on and men buzzed everywhere.
 
The walls felt like they were closing in and people bounced off him as they attempted to rush to the bidding of the man whose voice carried out into the hall. Gabe felt his chest constricting and quickly ducked into Derek’s office and shut the door.

“Do you know who your sister rode about in Hyde Park with today?”

“No, but I feel certain you are going to inform me.”

“McKenzie!”

“Truly?”

“What in hell is she doing keeping company with that man?”

“I don’t know.”

“You should.
 
You’re her brother.
 
Isn’t she supposed to answer to you in lieu of her father?”

“What do you care, Gabe?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is it true or not that you have been seen courting Lady Clarissa Blackerby?”

“Well, yes.”

“So, in that case, what does it matter if Mikala is escorted about by other men?
 
I am sorry if one of them is your bastard brother, but other than not inheriting his father’s Lairdship, he is considered legitimate by all purposes.
 
If he makes my sister happy, then who am I to stand in her way?”

“So you are going to sit there and do nothing?”

“That is correct.
 
I also have it on good authority she is being squired by Lord Southerby and Lord Dewhurst as well.
 
Do you expect me to talk to them as well?”

“What is she doing, becoming a loose woman?”

“Gabe, I think you should really reconsider what you just said about my sister.”

“I’m sorry,” he said after several minutes.
 
“I don’t know what has gotten into me.
 
It seems like we take care of one threat to the government and another is waiting in the wings.”

“And you feel the weight of taking care of your family as well, don’t you?”
 
Silence greeted Derek.
 
“Is your mother having another spell?”

“No.”

“Perhaps you should have her taken to the dowager house.
 
I am certain someone from the village would be willing to stay with her.”

“I’m not ready to do that.”

He pushed off the door, walked further into Derek’s office and rolled his head, attempting to ease the tension in his neck that caused his head to pound.
 
Gabe rolled his shoulders and crossed the room dropping into a visitor’s chair.
 
He saw the huge pile of paper littering Derek’s desk and knew a similar one awaited him in his office.
 
Gabe studied the paperwork and noticed that one paper had “URGENT” scrawled across it.
 

“What’s that?”
 

“I’m sure you have a similar one waiting for you in your office,” Derek passed the piece of paper over to him.

He picked it up, and began to read through the missive.
 
Gabe read the paper three times, not believing his eyes at first before he threw it down on the desktop.
 
He reared back in his chair and contemplated what this meant for the government.
 
Someone that worked in one of the government offices divulged secret information to the French.
 
Finding that person would be difficult, but they had done it before and would do it again.
 
People that worked in these offices had access to everything.

“Not another one.”

“And this time McKenzie doesn’t have a secretary to blame it on.”

“That’s right gentleman,” the man they had just spoken of walked through the door and shut it once again behind him.
 
“I had a feeling I could find you both in here,” he looked pointedly at Gabe, but neither man commented.
 
“What are we going to do about this?”

“Find the son-of-a-bitch,” Gabe said, offhandedly.

“And how do you propose we do that, Hawke?
 
Hire a town-crier asking all spies to turn themselves in?”

“You arse,” Gabe jumped up and pushed McKenzie into the wall.
 
Derek quickly lit from his chair and rounded his desk getting between the two men.

“That’s enough!
 
McKenzie, sit behind my desk.
 
Gabe, you sit there,” Derek pointed at the chair the man had recently vacated.

“You can inform me of what you two decide to do later.”
 

“Hawkescliffe, if you walk out that door, you might as well keep walking because I will take it as your resignation.”

“Go to hell.”

“Been there.”
 
The two men stared each other down.
 
Gabe refused to sit down and instead stood by the door with his arms crossed in an attempt to appear superior.
 
“Now, if we can address the matter at hand,” McKenzie looked at the two men.
 
“When Pitt and Canning get wind of this they will be on us like hounds on a fox.
 
Hawke, I am putting this solely in your hands.
 
Blackburn deserves a bit of a break after the last couple of months.”
 

“That is kind of you, McKenzie.”

“Don’t let it get around.
 
Hawkescliffe, this problem is on you.
 
It must be taken care of as quickly and silently as possible.
 
Do you understand?”

“Yes.
 
Do you have any idea what or who it is we are looking for?”

“There have been rumors spreading around that the person is looking for an object that will help empower Bonaparte, and that they are a member of the
beau monde
.”