Kisses and Scandal (A Survivors Series Anthology ) - Shana Galen Page 0,41

should have known they lied. I expect that of them.” She glanced at him, her eyes still cold. “I didn’t expect it of you.”

“I couldn’t tell you.” He had to twist sideways to avoid bumping into two men walking side by side. “I couldn’t tell anyone. I didn’t even know I’d been reassigned until the day before I was to leave.”

“So you did have time to tell me.”

“I was ordered to tell no one.”

She stopped so suddenly that he walked on for two or three steps before he realized she wasn’t beside him. He turned and walked back to her.

“And what are your orders now, Mr. Smith? Surely not to speak to me.”

She wasn’t wrong. The last thing he should have been doing at the moment was speaking to anyone who had known him before. Unless he had a death wish. Which he didn’t.

She nodded with understanding. “Well, then you had better not be seen with me, and since I am moving into Mrs. Jacobs’s boarding house and have already paid a shilling I can ill afford to lose for the privilege, you had better move out.”

“Bridget—”

“Mrs. Lavery. You’re not the only one with a different name.”

“I’m sorry I missed the wedding.”

“You missed much more than that. Good day, Mr. Smith.”

She turned and marched away, leaving him wondering and wishing things might have been different.

Two

Bridget was famished, but she didn’t go down to dinner at six. Mrs. White was the new cook, and her offerings were still somewhat unpredictable. Bridget still missed Mrs. Redfern’s colcannon, but she did not think she could have kept even soda bread down at the moment. Her thoughts were in turmoil, and her heart hadn’t stopped pounding since she’d seen him.

Caleb wasn’t dead. Some part of her had always hoped that was true. She’d known he was an agent for the Foreign Office, known he might be sent to the Continent on a dangerous mission, but she had never believed he would lie to her. He might lie to everyone else, but she’d trusted he would tell her the truth.

She’d thought he loved her.

Foolish girl.

She’d removed her dress and her shoes and stockings and lay on her bed in her stays and chemise. She was staring at the pattern of plaster on the ceiling when she heard Valérie’s shoes on the wood outside the door. She didn’t look up when Valérie entered.

“Are you ill?” her roommate asked, her voice tinged with the slight lilt of French.

“No, I’m...” She didn’t know what she was.

Valérie closed the door behind her and took a seat on the edge of her bed, just across from Bridget’s. “Then why did you not come down to dinner? Did something happen? Had Mrs. Jacobs already rented the room?”

“No. I rented the room, assuming Mrs. Brodie gives me a good recommendation.”

“She will. Of course.” Valérie cocked her head, her dark curls spilling over her shoulder. She was young and pretty and could have easily found a husband. But she had her reasons for working at the academy—just as Bridget did.

“Then what has upset you, Bridget?”

“I saw Caleb at the boarding house.”

“Caleb?” She frowned, then her dark eyes widened. “Not the Caleb. Not the father of your son?”

“Yes. That Caleb.” The image of him flashed in her mind. He still had that curly brown hair she’d loved to run her hands through and a lean face with a square jaw. He’d been dressed in a dark coat and trousers that didn’t fit him nearly as well as his clothing had in the past, but she suspected he’d chosen to be inconspicuous rather than fashionable.

And then there were the eyes.

Valérie rose. “But this is good news, no? You thought he was dead, and he is alive!”

Bridget gave her a long look from under lowered lashes. “It’s not good news, Val, because it means that he lied to me. He knew he would be sent to the Continent and we would be told he was dead, and he let me believe that along with everyone else.”

“Surely he had no choice.”

Bridget sat up. “One always has a choice.”

“This is true enough, but what would you have done differently if he had told you of the plan? You did not know you were with child when he left. What choice did you have but to marry?”

“I might have gone to the men at the upper levels of the Foreign Office and demanded they contact him.”

Valérie made a pfft sound. “You know they would have perpetuated their lie. You