“Agreed,” he said, hardly knowing what he agreed to.
She turned and walked into the farmhouse, and Duncan stood on the steps looking down at his hand. Hers had been warm and soft, though not the silky texture of a lady’s hand. She was a lady in that she was the daughter of a viscount, but she wasn’t the sort to sit about playing piano and doing needlepoint. Her hands had calluses, her day dresses had grass stains and muddy hems. He liked her more because she worked hard.
“Mr. Slorach!” Lucy peered outside again, and Duncan started up the steps. He really must stop behaving like a lovestruck idiot and focus on this mission.
Whatever it was.
He followed Lucy into Baron’s office and found the leader seated behind his desk. This was not the first time Duncan had been here, but he could count on one hand the number of times he’d been summoned here. Before it had always been because he’d been given a good report by one of the instructors at the training camp, and Baron wanted to congratulate him. But Duncan had often imagined what it would be like to be called for an assignment.
And now here he was.
Baron stood when Lucy entered, and then sat when she did. Duncan took the chair beside her, across the desk from Baron. The leader looked like a country gentleman in his brown frock coat and check brown trousers. No one who met him like this would take him for an agent of the Crown, who, by all accounts, had saved the country from chaos and ruin more than once. Duncan supposed that was what made Baron such a good agent.
“Is this what it feels like to be called to your office for good news?” Lucy said, her voice light. “Usually, I’m here to be scolded.”
“Usually, you have blown up a building or narrowly missed shooting one of the groundskeepers in the head,” Baron answered. “But yes”—he looked at Duncan—"as I’m sure Miss Galloway informed you, I have a mission for you both.”
“Yes, sir. I’m ready to serve.”
Beside him, Lucy gave a sigh of annoyance. Duncan might have tried to work out what he’d done to irritate her now, but this was not the time to give into distractions.
“Then let’s not waste any time,” Baron said. “You two will leave on the first train in the morning. That means you must wake early, Lucy.”
“I can wake early.”
Duncan said nothing, but he and Baron exchanged a look. Lucy was not pleasant in the morning, especially early in the morning.
“You will travel to Richmond Park, where you will be met by carriage and taken to Pembroke Lodge, the country house of the prime minister. There you, Mr. Slorach, will be met by the butler, who will provide you with the livery of a footman. Miss Galloway, you will meet with the prime minister’s wife, Lady John Russell, so she might introduce you to her two young sons. You will be nanny to the older boy who is...” He rifled through some papers on his desk. “Ah, here it is. John Russell, also known as Johnny. Age six. George Russell is approximately three months old. He will be in the care of a nurse.”
“Uncle Winn, do you mean to say Mr. Slorach and I will be in the employ of the prime minister? I am to be a glorified nanny?”
Baron gave her a steely look that would have made Duncan cringe. Lucy just glared at him.
“If I say you are to work in the prime minister’s kitchens, then that is what you will do, yes. And yes, you will serve as the Russells’ nanny, but moreover, you will be protecting Master John as he is the target of an assassination plot.”
“Someone wishes to harm the little boy?” Duncan asked. “Who and why?”
“Now those are pertinent questions. A few days ago, I was contacted by one of our agents in the field. He was on assignment in Liverpool and had managed to infiltrate a workers’ rights organization. This group was organizing toward better conditions in their factories.”
“Why should an agent need to infiltrate such a group?” Lucy asked. “Surely you know how wretched the conditions in those factories can be. One can hardly blame them for damaging equipment or striking for better conditions or higher wages. They’re not a threat to the Crown.”
Baron steepled his hands. “True, on the whole. But our agent heard rumblings of a darker plot by some of the members, and that was when he acted. There was talk and even plans being made to assassinate the prime minister’s heir.” He handed a letter to Duncan, who quickly read it then passed it to Lucy.
“As you see,” Baron continued, “this seems to be in retribution for the loss of the child of one of the workers as well as a ploy to capture the prime minister’s attention and force him to pass legislation that would go against the wishes of the factory owners.”
“That letter is over two months old,” Duncan said. “Has the plan progressed?”
“I couldn’t say,” Baron answered. “It seems our agent has disappeared. However, there was an incident just a fortnight ago that caused the prime minister some alarm. The household had gone to bed. In the middle of the night Master George awoke. The nurse tended him, but his cries also woke Master John’s nanny. She was assisting the nurse and went to the kitchens to fetch a warm compress as the boy was thought to have a stomach ailment, and the nanny came face to face with a man climbing into a window of the lodge. She screamed and scared the man away, but the shock was enough for the prime minister to take the threats seriously. He has asked for our help.”
“I assume,” Duncan said, “the household staff will know nothing of our true identities. Who will be privy to them?”
“Just Lord and Lady John. Everyone else will assume you are the nanny’s replacement—she gave her notice after the incident—and a new footman. We can’t be certain there aren’t members of the staff involved in the plot, so you must suspect everyone except the earl and countess, of course.”
Lucy handed the letter she’d been holding back to Baron. “So we are to protect the children and sabotage any efforts to harm the family. If the opportunity arises, do we set a trap for the would-be assailants?”
“I’ll leave that to you. I have plans to send another agent to Liverpool in order to ascertain what has happened to our agent there. If we find him and he has pertinent information, I will pass it along. One would hope you’ll have a quiet summer without incident. But you should be on guard and at the ready.
“Now, if there are no questions, you two are dismissed to begin packing.”
