Destined to Last (24 page)

I
t took Kate four attempts to pen a note to Lord Martin. Her first try she threw into the fire because it felt stilted and unnatural upon reading. The second was discarded because it was much too dramatic, and the third because she spilled half a glass of watered beer onto the page.

The fourth and final note, she deemed acceptable, and after waiting until she was certain the other guests had gone to sleep, she very carefully crept to Lord Martin’s door, only to discover that he was not among those abed. There was a light shining from his room, and the sound of voices within. To Kate’s shock, one of those voices belonged to Miss Willory. Her tone was clipped and hard. Without conscious thought, Kate leaned forward to catch the words.

“It hardly signifies which room I’m in now,” Miss Willory
fairly snapped. “The Coles have already begun a campaign to ruin me.”

“It’s true, then?” came Lord Martin’s reply. “You took a knife to Lady Kate’s reins and—”

“I did nothing of the sort, though my innocence makes no never mind to them. And you, of all people, would have the least cause to blame, had I made some effort to remove Lady Kate from the house.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You are much too friendly with her. If she suspected the smuggling—”

“I’ve always been friendly with Lady Kate.”

“You’ve always tried. Which is why it would have been best had she left. Or better yet, not come at all. I own myself amazed you didn’t confess all to her at the first opportunity.”

Kate shifted her weight to lean closer to the door. So
that
was the true reason Miss Willory had attempted to be rid of her. Miss Willory had been afraid Lord Martin would give away their secret. To give credit where credit was due, Miss Willory was right. Lord Martin
had
given away their secret.

Lord Martin must have been contemplating that very thing. Kate could make out the sound of a chair squeaking, as if Lord Martin was fidgeting in a seat. “It’s just a bit of smuggled brandy—”

“Oh, never mind.” There was a pause in which Kate imagined Miss Willory waving her hand dramatically. “The point is, the Coles have ruined things for me. I’ve no other choice now, but to make a life for my family on the continent. And for that to occur, tonight must proceed without mishap. Tell me what you are to do.”

“For pity’s sake. We’ve gone over it a thousand times.”

“Then we shall go over it a thousand and one. What are you to do?”

Even through the wood of the door, Kate could hear Lord
Martin’s aggrieved sigh. “I am to go one half mile past Smuggler’s Beach, and wave my lantern in a great sweeping arc.”

“Until?”

“Until the signal is returned. I say, how long will that take, exactly? I can’t be waving a lantern about for hours, you know. Why can’t we send a servant—?”

“I’ll not trust a servant with this,” Miss Willory cut in impatiently. “What are you to do once the shipment arrives?”

Another sigh from Lord Martin. “Pay the captain, send the brandy to town, and retrieve your letter.”

“No. You are to retrieve the letter,
then
pay the captain and send the brandy into town. The letter first, Martin. How many times must I tell you?”

“No need to get testy. I dare say I can manage to retrieve one letter. Though why your friend couldn’t post it same as everyone else—”

“He had reason. Tell me again, what are you to do?”

“Oh, for pity’s sake…”

Kate stepped away from the door as her mind sorted through what she’d heard. The shipment would not be arriving at Smuggler’s Beach, but a half mile away. And by all appearances, Lord Martin was neither in charge of the operation, nor aware there was more going on than brandy smuggling. Miss Willory, on the other hand, quite clearly knew there was more at stake. It was
her
secret Lord Martin had referred to during their chess match.

Hunter and Whit needed to know. Simon would warn them once he saw Lord Martin leave the house, but he wouldn’t be able to tell them about Miss Willory’s involvement. And if Hunter and Whit apprehended Lord Martin before he delivered the letter, there would be nothing tangible tying Miss Willory to the operation.

Tucking her note away, with a mental note to deliver it after Miss Willory had returned to her own room, Kate
turned from the door and headed straight for a supply closet at the end of the hall. She reached for the handle, before deciding to knock softly, instead. She didn’t want to startle the boy hidden inside.

“Simon? It is Lady Kate. I’ve a message for Mr. Hunter.”

Hunter crept up the back stairs of Pallton House twenty feet behind Lord Martin. He kept to the shadows, and rolled his feet heel-to-toe as he walked, eliminating the sound of footfalls. But it wasn’t because of Lord Martin that he took such care. The man was clearly oblivious to being followed. It was because the hair on the back of his neck had stood up the moment they’d come into sight of the house. Someone else was watching. Hunter assumed that someone was Mr. Laury, but it didn’t pay to take chances.

Lord Martin, blissfully unaware of having at least two sets of eyes trained upon him, practically skipped down the hallway, happy with his success.

It had been the same the whole way back from the beach. Not once had Lord Martin looked behind him to see if he were being trailed. Hunter supposed the man’s behavior made sense, in a way, if he believed himself to be involved in nothing more nefarious than a bit of brandy smuggling. And if the man was a fool. Hunter figured the latter was obvious, and the former highly likely, given the detailed message Kate had sent with Simon.

Whit had appeared alternately baffled and irritated by Simon’s appearance on the beach, though whether his reaction had stemmed from the news itself, or the fact that the news came from Kate, Hunter hadn’t been able to determine. He’d been preoccupied for the next hour as he and Whit maneuvered their mounts back up the steep hillside, across the fields in the dark, and then found a spot from which they could watch for the smugglers without being detected. The last had required they take up a position some distance from the
beach, but they had been close enough to see Lord Martin meet two other men from town with a horse-drawn cart. Then it had been only a matter of time before the boat arrived, the cargo was unloaded, and Lord Martin accepted the letter from the captain. Hunter had left Whit to follow the cart into town, while he’d followed Lord Martin back to the house.

He stepped into the shadows now as Lord Martin turned and knocked softly on Miss Willory’s door. Miss Willory appeared almost instantly. After a quick glance down both ends of the hall, she grabbed Lord Martin’s arm, pulled him inside, and promptly shut the door again.

Hunter moved toward his own room, but stopped when a door behind him opened softly. He spun around and reached for the pistol at his side.

Kate’s blonde head peaked out from the door. “Hunter. Is it done? Where’s Whit?”

“Kate.” He blew out a quick breath and put the pistol away. “Get back in your room.”

“I am in my room,” she whispered. “Is Whit—?”

“He’s well. I—” Bloody hell, there was no point in standing in the hallway. He gently urged Kate inside, and followed her, leaving the door cracked open an inch so he could keep watch. “How did you know I was here?”

She pulled her wrap tightly around her night rail. “I’ve been keeping watch. Out the window first. I saw Lord Martin. When I heard footsteps, I watched under the door. I recognized Lord Martin’s boots, then I thought I saw yours. Then I heard a door open and close down the hall. I assumed Lord Martin met with Miss Willory and—”

“Never mind.” He couldn’t help but smile at the picture of Kate down on all fours to peer under the door. “You delivered your note to Lord Martin, I presume?”

She nodded. “Miss Willory took to her own room shortly after I sent Simon to you. He reached you, then? You received the message?”

“The shipment arrived a half mile from Smuggler’s Beach, just as you said. Well done, Kate. Very well done.”

Even in the semidarkness of a single lit candle, and the very first light of dawn peeking through the window, he could make out the bloom of pleasure on her cheeks. “I merely overheard a conversation.”

“You gained sensitive information and passed it on in a safe and expedient matter. Sometimes, that is the whole of an agent’s mission.” He caught and held her gaze. “You’ve done well.”

“Oh, well, thank you.” She cleared her throat delicately. “Everything went as expected at the beach, then?”

“As far as the smugglers are concerned, the run couldn’t have gone more smoothly. Whit’s following the goods into town.” He glanced into the hall. “He wasn’t happy about it.”

“He wanted to return to the house?”

“No, I don’t think so. He just appeared angry in a general sense, and that after he was done appearing genuinely shocked at finding the smugglers. He’s still behaving oddly.”

She took a step closer to him, visibly agitated. “Will he be all right, going into town alone? What if he’s discovered and captured? What if—”

“He won’t be. He’ll follow from a good distance. Even if the smugglers come to realize he’s there, which they won’t, he’ll be able to make an escape. Once…” He trailed off and held a hand up for silence as the door to Miss Willory’s room opened and Lord Martin stepped into the hall. They waited in silence until Lord Martin made the short journey to his own room and disappeared inside.

“Will you confront Miss Willory now?” Kate finally whispered when Lord Martin’s door closed with more force than Hunter considered advisable for a man attempting to be sneaky.

He shook his head. “No. She’ll be followed when she leaves. Miss Willory is likely no more than a courier. We want the individual she’s to meet.”

“A courier,” Kate repeated. “However did she become involved in such a scheme?”

“She was approached for the mission, no doubt. Her family’s financial straits; her reputation for being a woman of considerable ambition; her connections to a gullible peer with the means to finance a smuggling run.” He rubbed at the back of his neck, where the hair was once more standing on end. The residual effects of having been watched by both Miss Willory and Kate, he told himself. “She would’ve been an irresistible target.”

Kate shifted in an effort to see around him. “What do you suppose the letter contains?”

“We’ll find out soon enough.”

He motioned for Kate to back away from the door as the feeling of being watched grew. He drew out his pistol a moment before a soft male voice sounded from the other side of the door. “Actually, I believe that leg of the mission to be my responsibility.”

In a heartbeat, Hunter had the door opened just wide enough to train his weapon on the man stepping from the shadows.

Kate’s voice came out with a slight crack. “Mr. Laury?”

Mr. Laury tilted his head to look around Hunter’s form. “Are you going to invite me in, Lady Kate? Or shall I wait in the hall until we are all discovered?”

Hunter lowered his weapon and stepped back to let the man inside.

Mr. Laury tossed him a questioning look before taking up the position at the door. “If I’d known you meant to bring Lady Kate into the investigation,” he whispered. “I’d not have asked you to keep my involvement to yourself.”

Hunter shrugged. “Had I been certain you’d keep Kate’s involvement to yourself, I might have brought you in.”

“Fair enough,” Mr. Laury replied agreeably. “My only orders were to trail the paperwork, at any rate.”

“You’ve some talent for trailing,” Hunter admitted.

Mr. Laury’s lips curved up. “I doubt I’d have made it around the door before you noticed.”

“You wouldn’t have.”

Kate took a step toward them. “I do wish someone would afford me the courtesy of an explanation.”

“Mr. Laury was attempting to avoid you,” Hunter informed her, stowing away his pistol once more.

“He’s been successful,” Kate replied.

“I’d no other choice.” Mr. Laury looked away from the door to give Kate a brief smile. “My knowledge of all things musical is limited. You’d have discovered that if we spent any amount of time together.”

“But…you…I’ve heard you sing.”

“I can carry a tune, and play a piece or two on the pianoforte, nothing more. I wouldn’t begin to know how to compose an original piece.”

Kate shook her head. “Why on
earth
would you pretend such a thing?”

“Because musical aptitude was a requirement for an invitation to Baroness Cederström’s salon. And an invitation to the salon was a requirement for spying on a possible traitor…”

Mr. Laury trailed off, glanced out the crack in the door and held up a hand for quiet. The three of them stood in silence for a moment before Mr. Laury turned to them once more and grinned. “She’s off, which means I am as well. Lady Kate, Mr. Hunter, it’s been a pleasure.”

As quickly and quietly as Mr. Laury had appeared, he was gone.

Kate blinked at the empty doorway. “I…Good heavens. Mr. Laury, an agent. I can scarce believe…” Her eyes moved to him. “You knew.”

“I did.” Hunter shut the door softly. “I didn’t want you to seek him out. You weren’t to be involved, remember?”

Kate frowned at him. “You could have simply ordered me not to speak with him.”

“Awareness can be communicated with more than words. Mr. Laury would have known.”

Kate pressed her lips together for a moment in obvious annoyance. “There is no way for me to counter that without positing the argument that I am a skilled actress.”

Hunter swallowed down a chuckle and stepped forward to bend his head and catch her eye. “I didn’t want to risk anyone learning of your involvement. I didn’t want to risk you being sent back to Haldon. I wanted you here, with me. Would you like me to apologize for being selfish?”

She ran her tongue across her teeth. “Are you attempting to charm yourself out of trouble?”

“Possibly.” He gave her a hopeful smile. “Is it working?”

“Possibly,” she conceded with a twitch of her lips. “I’ll have to think on the matter.” She gestured at the closed door. “What happens, now, to the letter, and Miss Willory?”