Kissing The Enemy (Scandals and Spies Book 1) (2 page)

Freddie forced a smile. She didn’t want to worry her mother. “Yes. He informed me that he secured us invitations to the house party at Tenwick Abbey.”

Mama broke into a smile. “Isn’t it exciting?” The weight on her shoulders didn’t quite lift as she gracefully descended the stairs. Her back was perpetually bowed with it, these days.

“It is.” Excitement warred with anxiety in her stomach.

“Have you taken ill? You look pale.” Mama reached up to touch her warm hand to Freddie’s forehead. “You don’t feel hot. Was it something Lord Harker said…or did?”

Worry infused her voice. Freddie had a good idea of why Mama was concerned. Over the past four years, the way Harker leered at her and the look of despair on her face when they retired to a locked room to ‘go over the family budget’ had been impossible to miss.

Freddie was nineteen, old enough to know what that ‘budget meeting’ really entailed. Though she didn’t know the specifics, she knew her mother was submitting to Harker’s advances in order to keep the three of them living in the manner they were. It broke her heart to see the life draining out of her beautiful, vivacious mother each time Harker descended on her.

She was certain Mama was worried Harker would soon turn his attentions to Freddie in the same manner—or worse, Charlie. Freddie, herself, feared it was only a matter of time before he did. What would she do then?

You won’t have to find out.
Now that she had a way out from under Harker’s thumb, she was determined to take it. As soon as she delivered the book, they would be free.

But she couldn’t tell her mother. Not only because Harker had warned her to keep silent but because Mama might try to do something drastic to keep Freddie from delivering on the agreement. She might even try to do it herself. When Freddie’s father had left them in the cold, Freddie had been the one to hold the family together. Freddie had met with and accepted Harker’s generous offer to stay with him when the creditors had ejected her family from their home. Freddie had consoled her mother and sister through countless tears and a year of official mourning. Freddie had ensured that her sister received a proper education in the maidenly arts, even though that left Freddie with little time to practice. Through it all, Freddie hadn’t cried. She’d remained strong, for them all.

And she would do it all again, if need be.

Freddie put on her most dazzling smile. “I’m not ill. It must be the excitement about the party.”

“What party?” Charlie poked her head in from the sitting room door. She left her embroidery in the room.

Mama beamed. “We’re attending the spring party at Tenwick Abbey.”

Charlie’s pale blue eyes grew even bigger. She gaped as she glided closer. “We are? But that’s
the
party of the Season. You have to have a special invite.”

“We have one.” Mama reached over to tuck a corn-silk blond curl behind Charlotte’s ear. “We leave tomorrow morning, which means we’d all better get upstairs and start packing.”

Charlotte squealed. She bounced up and down in excitement, then grabbed Freddie’s hand and pulled her toward the stairs. “Oh, Freddie, it’ll be so much fun. All the most handsome bachelors of the
ton
will be there. I just know you’ll find your true love!”

Freddie’s chest warmed. Trust Charlie to care more about Freddie’s matrimonial prospects than her own. She had a heart of gold.

Gently, Freddie said, “Charlie, you know I don’t care to marry.”

Charlotte stopped on the stair above Freddie. She frowned at her sister, her eyes on the same level as Freddie’s. Charlie’s gaze swept down the plain, outdated gown that Freddie wore.

“No one will offer for you if you keep dressing like a nun.” Charlie met Mama’s gaze over Freddie’s shoulder. “Mama, can we alter some of my dresses for Freddie? I don’t know why she refused to accompany me to the modiste at the beginning of the Season for new gowns.”

Freddie knew why. Their annuity could support only one new wardrobe. In fact, only one Season between them. It had to be Charlotte’s.

Charlie, of course, had no idea of the state of their funds. Freddie was determined that she never find out.

She swallowed, her throat suddenly thick. It was hard to be cheerful with the black cloud of what she must do hanging over her head.
Think of the reward.

Freddie forced a smile. “Lud, I hardly think that will work. Your head is barely past my chin.

“So?”

”So,” Freddie said, drawing out the word. “The dresses would be too short. No, I’m quite happy with the gowns I have.”

Charlie caught and squeezed Freddie’s hand. “Please let us try. My pale green gown would be gorgeous on you. It’s all wrong for my complexion anyway. We can have Lisane add some lace to the bottom.”

“A dress won’t make much difference. No one notices me. Compared to beauties like you, I’m plain and uninteresting. Besides, Lisane will be much too busy getting us all ready for the parties,” Freddie lied. The three of them shared an abigail, Lisane. Even so, none of them required much fussing over and Lisane often found herself with spare time.

“Fiddlesticks!” Charlie turned, pulling Freddie once again upstairs. “I insist. You’re beautiful
and
intelligent. That’s a rare combination. Any man will be happy to have you. You only need to present yourself better. Besides, if you don’t have a beautiful dress, it will spoil all my fun.”

Freddie sighed. She didn’t want to take a dress from Charlotte, but she didn’t want to ruin the event for her sister, either. Freddie glanced to her mother for support.

“Just
one
dress won’t hurt, Freddie,” Mama said as she followed the girls upstairs. A fond smile curved her lips.

Freddie sighed. “Very well. If you can find the time to alter it before we leave for the party tomorrow morning.”

Charlie bared her teeth in a grin. “I’ll stay awake all night if I must. You’ll see, Freddie. You’ll be a smashing hit.”

Freddie didn’t want to attract a man to marry. She was too busy taking care of her family. Besides, she’d learned a keen lesson in marriage by watching her father hurt her mother over and over again as he gambled away the family money without a fig of a care for the three of them. If that was what marriage was about, she wanted no part of it.

Not to mention, given the task Harker had set her, it was better to be invisible.

She decided not to argue about it for the moment.

Mama shooed both girls up the stairs with flaps of her hands. “Get a move on, you two. It will be a long trip tomorrow and you girls need to finish packing before the clock strikes midnight.”

Charlotte released Freddie’s hand and all but skipped up the stairs. As Freddie followed, tripping over the next stair, an ominous rip of the stitches in her hem raised the hairs on the back of her neck. She pin-wheeled her arms to keep from losing her balance. When she righted herself, she found the butler staring at her. She gave a little flourish of her hand, as if she’d put on a show, but didn’t dare chance a curtsey while on a staircase. If she did, she would end up in a heap at the bottom.

With a smile, Mama shook her head at the sight. She, like Freddie, was used to Freddie’s abominable clumsiness.

As Freddie faced forward, she watched one of Charlotte’s long curls swing jauntily with her movements. For once, Freddie wished she could share her sister’s excitement. But instead of the carefree happiness her sister enjoyed, Freddie felt a pressing weight of foreboding.

The future of her family, and possibly all of Britain, rested in her hands. How far would she have to go to secure it?

T
ristan Graylocke flattened
his palms on the smooth mahogany railing of the second floor balcony overlooking the front hall at Tenwick Abbey.

A sigh escaped his lips as his eyes grazed over the throng of people in the entryway below him. “I can’t think of a single thing I hate more than these parties.”

Next to him, his older brother smirked. “Prinny?”

Tristan grimaced. Heaven help Britain, because the indolent, self-indulgent heir to the throne, and his senile father certainly wouldn’t. It was a wonder the country hadn’t gone up in flames the moment Pitt had died three months ago.

Tristan ran a hand through the longer forelock of his hair. “Prinny has never tried to marry me off.”

Morgan’s chiseled face and square jaw, almost an exact replica of Tristan’s, hardened as he watched the crowd. His gray eyes showed no sign of emotion. The only indications of the pressures of being a duke were the slight tic in his cheek and the streak of silver in his hair.

Tristan shot his older brother a grin. “Luckily, I have you to distract Mother. She’ll likely try to marry you off to any lady healthy enough to produce an heir.” Tristan laughed. “Once again, I’m happy I didn’t inherit.”

It was Morgan’s turn to sigh. He had been only twenty when their father passed, leaving him with the title and responsibility of a duke. Early on, their mother and grandmother hadn’t pressured him about marrying, but now that he neared thirty years of age, that changed with remarkable quickness.

The only pressure Tristan received from Mother was to stop his carousing. Impossible. He couldn’t exactly say,
I’m a spy, Mama. I get my best information that way.
No, in the
ton
’s eyes, his gambling and carousing labeled him a degenerate. To the families with the bluest blood—in other words, almost everyone Mother had invited to this charade—it made him unmarriageable. A relief, to be honest. Tristan preferred to spend his money on investments of his choosing, not on feminine fripperies.

“If I’m lucky, she’ll focus her efforts on Lucy.” Morgan nodded toward the entry where their younger sister, Lucy, stood next to Mother as they greeted the new arrivals. Compared with mother’s steely gray and brown hair, Lucy’s jet black hair—the same color as all the Graylocke siblings—provided a stark contrast. Lucy wore her hair in an elaborate coil around her head, threaded through with creamy pearls that matched her dress. Though he was too far to see from his vantage point, Tristan imagined her dark brown eyes, the exact same color as his, sparkling with delight. This was Lucy’s first Season and she thrived beneath the attention heaped on her.

“Does she have that confounded journal sticking out of her dress again?” Morgan asked as he squinted across the room.

Yes, there it was. The brown leather corner of the journal his sister carried everywhere stuck out of the bulging reticule hanging from her wrist. Lucy fancied herself to be a novelist. The notebook, she insisted on keeping on hand to record various moments of inspiration as they came to her.

“She does,” Tristan confirmed.

“Well, at least she isn’t sequestering herself away from everyone like Gideon.”

Tristan scanned the room for their youngest brother. The tallest of the Graylockes, he should have been easy to pick out from the crowd. If he was there. Which he wasn’t.

“I suppose we’ll have to drag him out of the orangery again.”

Upon completing his education, Gideon had foregone his Grand Tour and shut himself in their orangery instead to put his extensive knowledge of botany to good use by inventing a new species of orchid. He barely thought of anything that didn’t have roots and the brothers often had to remind him to eat and bathe.

“Mother will be livid if he doesn’t make an appearance,” Morgan agreed.

Their mother, Evelyn Graylocke, hosted the annual house party at Tenwick Abbey for one reason: to show off her children to advantage. Along with the rest of his brothers, Tristan would rather have been in the middle of a battlefield between Napoleon and the Third Coalition. However, none of the Graylocke brothers had the heart to disappoint her. Since the death of their father, the party had been one of the few things that brought her joy.

Tristan’s heart warmed as he watched his mother greet the newly arrived guests, a wide smile of genuine happiness on her face. She chatted with each new arrival before sending them off to mingle with the other guests or turning them over to one of the many footmen who would lead them to their rooms.

The whole of Tenwick Abbey, the expansive, centuries-old monastery that the Graylockes had called home for nearly twelve generations, had been aired out for the party. The granite stones scrubbed, the carved mahogany polished, the twenty fireplaces cleaned and stocked with wood. The maids had laundered enough linens and towels to paper the walls of the abbey from floor to ceiling twice over. Under his mother’s supervision, the entire east wing had been reorganized into comfortable accommodations for the two-week-long affair.

“Operating with all these guests underfoot will be a nightmare.” Tristan gritted his teeth to keep from making a face at the thought.

Even if all parties in the war had entered into a shaky truce or fled home to lick their wounds, in the case of the Russians, the war was far from over. Britain and France had entered into an economic stalemate. Britain held command of the trade routes by sea; Napoleon held most of the continent. Times like these, in the lull between battles, was when Tristan’s job was most important.

Morgan’s, too, though Tristan was loathe to admit it. The one thing Tristan could do that Morgan couldn’t was enter the field to spy. Tristan could afford to take risks. Morgan, as Duke, could not. But, with so much information to comb through, his contribution to the spying network was invaluable. Without Morgan, Tristan wouldn’t be in possession of the book he was tasked with passing along.

Morgan ran his hand over the railing, his face impassive. “Mother will expect us to attend most of the activities.”

Games, contests, dinners, and balls. And all while under the scrutiny of vicious
ton
gossips and matchmaking mamas.
Oh, joy.

“We can’t let that deter us.”

Morgan nodded, shifting his gaze to Tristan’s face.

“Where is the book now?” Although they stood alone on the balcony to the family’s private wing, he whispered.

Tristan rolled his eyes. “Safe.”

“We must get it into the right hands before the war turns.” Morgan pressed his lips together.

“Passing it off beneath the noses of the most meddlesome matrons in the
ton
is a foolhardy plan.”

“To the contrary. This party provides us the perfect cover.” Morgan’s voice was hard, steely to match his eyes.

Tristan thrust his shoulders back. He met his brother’s gaze, unflinching. “If the wrong person happens across it…”

“It’s your duty to protect it.” Morgan spoke in his ducal voice, a voice sharp enough to chip ice.

“And I will.” Tristan bit off his words. He turned away. “But once I pass it off, it will be someone else’s responsibility.”

“Our agents are trained well.”

Morgan should know. He trained most of them.

A rotund gentleman in a brown redingote and topper swaggered into the foyer. Tristan swore.

“Harker!” Morgan clenched his fist as he turned. “Who invited him?”

“Mother must have.”

“
Why?
”

Tristan wondered the same thing. Even though Mother had no idea about the brothers’ spying efforts—and therefore no knowledge of the fact that Harker was an enemy spy, albeit one labeled untouchable by Tristan’s superiors—Harker was no better than swine. The mystery of his invitation dissolved as a joyous squeal lit the air. Lucy embraced one of the three women Harker escorted, a blond girl about her age.

Tristan sighed. “On a guess, I would say that Lucy begged her to.”

“Who is that with him?”

Tristan leaned forward on the balcony. Aside from the blond and a pale-haired older woman who must be her mother, Harker stood next to a plainly-dressed young woman. Her brown hair was coiled and pinned without flourish. She wore a brown spencer that rose to her chin, coupled with a faded blue dress. Her bonnet, which she held in her hand, was equally drab. She couldn’t possibly be related to the striking blond beauty. A companion, perhaps?

“That must be Miss Charlotte Vale, the beauty everyone is talking about.” Tristan nudged his brother. “Perhaps Mother thinks she’d make you a good wife.”

Morgan snorted. “I don’t think so. I usually find the beautiful ones to be rather dim-witted. Besides, I’m not ready to settle down yet.”

“What about your heir and a spare?”

Morgan’s gaze turned piercing. “I’m not dead yet. I have time.”

Tristan chuckled. “Less of it than you think, if this year’s guest list is any indication.” Almost every family invited included one or more unwed daughters. With the way Mother waged war, Morgan ought to recruit her into his spy network.

His smile fading, Tristan turned to study Harker and his companions once more. That scoundrel’s presence complicated his mission. He would have to be even more discreet than usual.

As for his companions… The blonde was pretty enough. In comparison, her companion should have faded into the background. Tristan found himself studying the curve of her cheek, the way she carried herself, and her protective manner toward the blonde. A beam of sunlight filtered in through the open door, highlighting rich chestnut hues in her hair.

“Sisters, do you think?” Morgan asked.

Tristan shook his head. “Too plain. My money is on companion.”

“Can the Vales afford to hire a companion?”

“Harker can.”

As if his name carried weight, Harker lifted his beady gaze to the balcony. He leaned close to whisper in the brunette’s ear. Slowly, like clouds parting after a rainstorm, she turned her face up. Toward Tristan.

Their eyes locked. A strange tightness clamped over Tristan’s chest. He couldn’t look away. From this distance, he couldn’t make out the color of her eyes. At that moment, he’d never wanted to know such a banal piece of information more.

“What are they whispering about, do you think?”

Morgan’s voice pierced Tristan’s strange daze, but he still couldn’t summon the will to look away. “I haven’t the faintest. Do you suppose Harker has put her in place to spy on us?” The vise around his chest tightened, rebelling at the notion.

“An interesting thought.” Morgan drew out the words, as though tasting them while he spoke. “Perhaps Harker has outfitted himself with reinforcements…I say we might be well served by keeping an eye on that one.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Tristan replied. He broke his gaze in order to follow his brother toward the stairs leading to the hall below.

* * *

F
reddie’s heart
skipped a beat as the cold, dark eyes pierced into hers. Traitor’s eyes. A tingle traversed her spine—a chill of foreboding. Strangely enough, it wasn’t an altogether unpleasant sensation.

“Don’t stare at them,” Harker hissed, low enough so only she could hear. “You’ll give yourself away.”

Ripping her gaze away, she returned her attention to the people in front of her. Mama watched with narrowed eyes, her gaze flitting between Freddie and Harker.

“Do you two have a secret?” She smiled, but Freddie noticed the concern in her eyes.

Freddie laughed to lighten the moment. “Of course not, Mama. Lord Harker was just pointing out the architectural details on the banister above.”

When they glanced at the railing again, the balcony was empty. Freddie’s heartbeat quickened. Where had the brothers gone? She bit her lip.
Hurry up, Charlie.
Never before had Freddie felt such a keen urgency to retire to her room to freshen up.

Beside her, Lucy and Charlotte pulled away from their embrace in order to link arms. Both wore broad smiles. From the moment they’d been introduced earlier in the Season, they’d formed an instant friendship.

“I’m so happy you could come. We’ll have a smashing time!” Lucy leaned her head so close to Charlie’s that the curls at their temples brushed. She lowered her voice. “The other girls are so boring, only interested in sizing up the peers for marriage.”

Charlotte laughed. “I have no such aspirations for myself, though I will be looking for Freddie.”

Freddie found herself pinned beneath Lucy’s shrewd brown gaze.
Lud, Charlie. Why did you have to say that?
She forced a smile.

In answer, a sly look crossed Lucy’s face. “Between the two of us, I think we should be able to find someone who will suit her. Will the two of you join me later? I’ll give you a tour of the abbey and we can discuss our plan.”

A plan for marriage?
Freddie’s cheeks heated. They spoke about her as if she wasn’t there!
I don’t want your help.
The last thing she wanted was a husband, a man who believed himself better than her.

She stiffened her back. “I hardly think—”

“Ladies.”

A frisson of awareness leaped up her spine at the deep, male baritone. Freddie spun. Her breath caught in her throat as she came face to face with the man responsible.