Gravenhurst drummed his fingers on the table. “If Stratmore is guilty then we’ve stopped him. He’s locked up here, and our secrets, as well as our lives, are safe.”
Edward shook his head. “It’s not so simple. Someone tried to shoot me when I was leaving Pearson’s house. I tracked them to the woods, but I couldn’t find them.”
Fatigue crashed into Grey, and he reluctantly pulled out the last chair and sank into it. “So you really think Stratmore was working with someone who is still out there?”
Edward nodded. “And if I’m right, that person will be coming for us.”
Grey rolled his shoulders to combat his mounting tension. Evidence was piling up against Madelaine’s father. Evidence that seemed hard to deny.
Gravenhurst leaned forward. “Keep the faith, Grey. Edward isn’t always right. Only usually.”
Edward took a drink from his flask, then wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, eyeing Grey with what appeared to be amusement mingled with respect. “No, I’m not always right. But I’ve never been wrong when it comes to my work.”
Grey glanced at Gravenhurst who nodded in confirmation.
“Then what do you propose we do? Stratmore isn’t confessing, and I’d venture to say the threat of death won’t even break the man.”
“I’d have to agree,” Edward said thoughtfully. “So we won’t threatenhim. We’ll strike at the one person he cares about.”
“You can’t mean to use…” Gravenhurst began, but got no more than that out before Grey’s fist crashed into this brother’s nose, sending him sprawling backward onto the floor with blood gushing down his face.
White fury consumed Grey as he towered over his brother. “You’ll use Madelaine to break her father over my dead body.”
Edward glowered up at Grey while searching for a linen square. Growling when he found his pockets empty, he snatched the rumpled cravat that Gravenhurst shoved at him. After the bleeding of his nose was stopped, he lowered the blood-soaked cravat, his eyes narrowing into dark, green slits. “Am I to take it,” he said, in a voice muffled by his blood-clogged nose, “that you care for the lady?”
“Take it any damn way you please,” Grey snarled, unable to bring his temper down. “You won’t use her. I won’t stand for it.”
Shrugging off Gravenhurst’s help, Edward stood and dusted himself off. “Need I remind you that you vowed to serve the king over all others?”
“You need not,” Grey said. His father would be damned disappointed if Grey failed at being a spy on his very first assignment. His stomach burned with the poison of what he had to do. He could not fail the king,andhe had to somehow protect Madelaine. “Whatever you have in mind for Lady Madelaine, I’ll be the one to do it.”
“You’re sure?” Edward’s eyes lost their hard edge, softening now with sympathy. “Wouldn’t it be easier for you to let Gravenhurst or myself handle the lady? If what I have in mind doesn’t work, then we’ll have to use her, deceive her, and maybe even put her life in danger.”
He recoiled at his brother’s suggestion. “I’ll do it,” he said, determined to protect Madelaine from his brother, her father, and whoever else might be lurking out there. He’d promised to protect her, and that was one promise he’d keep, no matter what he had to do not to break it. He may have given the king his vow, but he’d given Madelaine his heart.
With the queen gone from the castle for the last month life should have been perfect for Madelaine. Yet despite, her solid friendship with Elizabeth and having as much time to slip away and practice archery as one could hope for, unhappiness shrouded each day that Grey failed to return. The least he could have done,ifhe had a sensitive bone in his body, was to write a letter and let them know he’d arrived home safely.
Maybe he was not writing because he’d decided that courting her was more trouble than she was worth, but he should be kind enough to send word to his sister. Elizabeth had almost died for goodness sake. Didn’t the man know worry could put a person back in their sick bed? Convincing herself she had to write Grey for Elizabeth’s sake, Madelaine put pen to paper and demanded he write to his sister immediately if he wasn’t planning on coming back before they were all old and gray.
She reread the letter when she was done. It was good. Commanding without being harsh,andshe’d managed to resist mentioning how much she missed him nor had she reminded him of his promise to come back for her. She folded the letter to seal it, but her backbone dissolved as she thought of never seeing Grey again.
What good would being stoic do her if he married another? Carefully, she opened the letter, dipped her quill in ink and penned one last line.I do miss you terribly, in case you doubt my feelings. She sealed the letter and took it to be sent before she could reconsider how desperate the last line probably made her seem.
She didn’t expect the letter to make Grey magically appear, though she half hoped it would, so several days later when Elizabeth confided that her eldest brother Edward was coming to collect her and take her home—as it had been decided by the family that Court life might be too stressful on someone recovering from near death—Madelaine had to hurry from the room before Elizabeth saw the tears threatening to spill over.
Once in the safety of her room, Madelaine dashed the tears away as she paced back and forth. Just because Grey wasn’t coming did not mean he didn’t still want to court her. Perhaps, something had arisen at home that required his attention or maybe Elizabeth’s eldest brother simply wanted to be the one to collect Elizabeth since he’d not seen her in so long.
There was no point in believing the worst, until the worst was confirmed. And if it was? She flopped down on her bed with a groan. If Grey had changed his mind about her, she would simply have to carry on. Exactly how, escaped her at the moment, since she was quite certain she had fallen in love with him.
Two days later, Madelaine was helping Elizabeth pack her last few things when a knock resounded at the door followed by a gruff, “Elizabeth. Might I enter?”
A broad smile spread across Elizabeth’s face. She dropped the shawl she’d been folding and gripped Madelaine’s arm. “That’s Edward. Perhaps Grey has come as well!”
Despite Madelaine’s best intentions not to get her hopes up, the emotion swelled inside her. Elizabeth swung open the door, and Madelaine barely managed to gulp back her cry of joy. Instinctually, she moved toward Grey, but stopped when his gaze locked on her. She’d seen that frigid look before when he’d sized up Lord Thorton, but this was worse than Grey’s murderous gaze of anger. He stared at her as if he’d never seen her before, as if she were a stranger.
“What’s happened?” She didn’t care that it wasn’t her place to demand any answers. Grey blinked, his expression changing from cold to warm, as he seemed to so easily do. He didn’t fool her. A haggardness of body and spirit clung to him. It wasn’t just the beard and blood-shot eyes that made her think so. He was different. There was a hardness to his eyes that he’d not possessed a month ago.
“Let’s all go into the chamber,” Elizabeth’s eldest brother suggested.
