When a Duchess Says I Do - Grace Burrowes Page 0,94
schemers.”
True enough, alas.
She sketched a portrait with possibilities. Parker poured her a cup of tea and set the cup and saucer by her plate.
“We will make a list and consider the evidence,” he said. “Strategy is a skill every senior officer commands in quantity. Trust me, my dear, and all will come right. Tell me exactly what sent you alone into the night.”
Parker had hit upon the notion of exposing a single spy out of expedience. Career advancement in peacetime was difficult, and then the opportunity to ensnare Wakefield had fallen into his lap. A comment overheard here, a quiet suggestion there, a pointed remark from a grumbling general, and he’d been given the means to use Wakefield to his own advantage.
But if instead Parker uncovered a whole nest of spies, quietly, and on terms that would reflect well upon his superior officers? Even the marquess would have to applaud such an accomplishment. A baronetcy wasn’t out of the question.
“You promise you won’t laugh?” Matilda asked, cradling her teacup in her hands. “I need you to take my situation seriously, Atticus. I did not leave my home on a whim.”
“You fled because you were afraid.”
“And shocked, also horrified. I don’t know what exactly I found—my foreign languages have grown rusty with disuse—but what I was able to deduce frightened me.”
She had been pathetically relieved to see him, embracing him right in the innyard and before the servants.
“What did you find?” And where was that evidence now? Parker had made a copy, but she’d said the original was in the servant’s—the Corsican’s—handwriting. That development was just too lovely to ignore.
“Atticus, I am not certain, but I have reason to believe that Spain is planning to invade England. The defeat of the Armada was Spain’s greatest humiliation, Papa always said, and England’s resources are spread thin now. We are vulnerable to attack, and Spain has never forgotten the drubbing they were given. The French are happy to aid in England’s downfall, and I might have seen evidence of French collusion with Spain.”
Good heavens, she’d garbled everything. “Why not bring this evidence to me straightaway, Matilda?”
“I am not clever like you, Atticus. I must think and consider everything before I come to a decision. I was shocked, upset, bewildered, and thought only to remove the evidence from Papa’s household. Without the document that I found, nobody could move that dastardly plot forward, could they?”
An old saying popped into Parker’s head: Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
“You set out alone, with little coin, and nowhere to go, because you were trying to save England?”
“Of course. Why else would I abscond with the villain’s plans? Why else would I travel in secret at great risk to myself? For all England’s enemies knew, I did give those plans to you, because we most assuredly have not been invaded, have we?”
The logic, or lack thereof, was stunning. Parker nearly burst out laughing. “We have not been invaded, but Matilda, while I applaud your patriotism, I must inform you that another perspective might pertain to the facts.”
“You think Papa is a traitor? When that satchel was carried by Carlu more often than anybody else?”
“Your father has much to answer for, which we can discuss at greater length at another time. I am more concerned, madam, that you will be accused of treason, which is a serious crime indeed.”
Matilda stared at him, her expression blank, then filling with ire. “I risked my life for months, I thwarted King George’s foes, I solved a very delicate problem without involving anybody else, and I’m to be tried for treason? If that’s how you foresee this situation unraveling, then I’ll thank you to set me down at the next crossroads. You offered me safety, Atticus, not the threat of a noose. You’re a war hero and you have strategy coming out your fingertips. You will set the generals and ministers straight, or there will be no wedding.”
There had to be a wedding. Had to be, for the sake of all Parker held dear. Then too, Matilda had been well dowered before her short-lived marriage to the German. She had a widow’s portion now, as well as most of the original settlement funds under her control.
“Calm yourself, Matilda. I said I’d resolve the situation, and I will.”
“For months, I’ve hidden myself away, expecting Carlu or one of his cohorts to leap out of the bushes and cut my throat. Now I find my heroism will be rewarded with mutton-headed histrionics