A season for spies, p.1
A Season for Spies, page 1
A Season for Spies
GOLDEN ANGEL
Contents
A List of Characters & Titles
Prologue
1. Present Day: Anthony & Evie
2. Late Night at Camden House
3. It’s A Trap!
4. An Unexpected Breakfast Guest
5. Investigating the Staff
6. Dinner and the Warrens
7. Spilled Wine
8. The Tramp’s Den
9. A Fitting Punishment
10. Henry & Yvette
11. Elijah & Josie’s Return
12. New Arrivals
13. The Society of Sin
14. Quickly
15. Unfaithful
16. An Awkward Breakfast
17. Nothing but Tea and Gossip
18. An Unexpected Arrival
19. A Lady Needs Her Friends
20. The Gentlemen Convene
21. The Tramp’s Message
22. Mitchell
23. A Private Discussion
24. The Best Laid Plans
25. Paying the Penance
26. The Belt and the Hand
27. An Untimely Arrival
28. Explanations
29. An Unexpected Apology
30. The Chase
31. Say Yes
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Titles by Golden Angel
A List of Characters & Titles
A List of Characters & Titles
Captain Anthony Browne – third son of Viscount Browne
Miss Eveline Stuart - niece of the Marquess of Camden
Oliver Stuart – the Marquess of Camden
Elijah Stuart – Earl of Durham and first son of the Marquess of Camden
Josephine Stuart – Countess of Durham, married to Elijah in A Season for Scandal
Joseph Stuart – second son of the Marquess of Camden
Adam Stuart – third son of the Marquess of Camden
Captain Nathan Jones – the Earl of Talbot
Lily Jones – Countess of Talbot, married to Nathan in A Season for Smugglers
Sebastian Jones – the late Earl of Talbot, Nathan’s elder brother
Rex – Michael Hartford, the Marquess of Hartford and founder of the Society of Sin
Mary Hartford – the Marchioness of Hartford, married to Rex in A Season for Treason
Lucas Beckett – the Earl of Devon, childhood friend of Rex
Julian Mitchell – former secretary to Lord Warwick and former spy under the direction of the Marquess of Camden
Prologue
Two Years Earlier
Evie
“Someone tried to assassinate the Duke of York?” Evie burst into her uncle’s office, no longer content to listen at the keyhole as her eldest cousin reported in. Though her uncle was the Crown’s spymaster and all three of her cousins assisted him in one capacity or another, all four of the men were dedicated to keeping her out of the ‘men’s business.’
Despite surviving the streets of London on her own when she was a mere child and had proven her usefulness over and over since her uncle had found and taken her in. She wanted to be part of the family business, and since she did not consider herself a ‘lady’ of the ton, she did not particularly care if such things were not fit for ladies. High Society did not fit her.
Uncle Oliver groaned, rubbing his forehead with his hand.
“I thought you were in your room resting.”
Evie narrowed her eyes. She was very aware he would have been happier leaving her out. She did not need him to say it out loud.
“I was. Then I saw Elijah return home in a hurry from my window, and I wanted to know what the problem was.” Evie kicked the door shut behind her and crossed her arms over her chest, lifting her chin defiantly. “If there has been an assassination attempt on such an important personage, you are going to need all the help you can get.”
“It is too dangerous,” Elijah said immediately, raking his hand through his dark hair. Like father like son, Uncle Oliver and her cousin were cut from the same cloth, though the grey in her uncle’s hair made their age difference clear. “The Duke was nearly killed.”
“As if I have never been in dangerous situations,” Evie retorted, rolling her eyes. “Need I remind you how helpful I was in France?” She had spent two years there during the war and had done just as much work as any of her uncle’s operatives. Even saved one of them from capture when he had been set up in a trap—she pushed that memory away.
She did not need her thoughts distracted by him.
“You were very helpful, even if you were supposed to be in Denmark at the time,” Uncle Oliver said through gritted teeth. He was honest to a fault, even when he did not want to admit the truth. Telling her she had not been helpful when she had provided him with information that none of his other operatives had been able to suss out was beyond him, no matter how much he likely wished he could.
Evie smiled thinly.
“Then let me help now. I can be even more helpful here than I was in France.” England was her home, so she should be able to do more in familiar territory than in unfamiliar.
The two men exchanged a glance, and Evie’s jaw locked into place. Stubborn fools. They were going to deny her again! When would they learn? As determined as they were to keep her safely tucked away in the manner they thought best, she was even more determined to live her life on her terms. To make her own choices.
Though she would never bring public or societal shame to her family, not after Uncle Oliver had rescued her, and so she ensured no one ever knew of her extracurricular activities. No lord or lady would believe their eyes, even if they saw her in one of her myriad disguises—not that they ever looked—especially among their social set. The ton was so convinced of its own importance, they rarely paid attention to anyone who was not on their level, often to their own detriment.
“If we need you, we will certainly call on you,” her Uncle Oliver said carefully.
Truthful to a fault. In his opinion, they never needed her, so he was not telling a lie. Evie knew she would not be included in their escapade, regardless of her work in France, which had assuredly been far more dangerous.
Unfortunately, the one witness to her most brilliant rescue had no idea who she was, nor did she want him to. Captain Browne was alive because of her… but only because she had infiltrated a brothel. It was not a rescue she had been able to take the claim for with her uncle unless she wanted to admit that she had masqueraded as a whore. Despite the outcome, she knew it would not help her cause.
Bloody daft men.
“I see.” Attuned to her tone of voice, both her uncle and cousin were still watching her warily, ready for her outburst. Evie was tired of the fighting, though. France had been much more productive after she had slipped her ‘leash,’ the companion her uncle had sent with her, and taken matters into her own hands. She would learn from that lesson and apply it here.
Nose in the air, she turned on her heel and yanked the door open.
“Thank goodness. Browne should be here any moment,” Elijah muttered, likely under the impression she either could not hear him or was so upset, he was not paying attention. He must have forgotten she had unusually excellent hearing.
Evie’s back stiffened as she slammed the door shut behind her. Hopefully, the two men would think she was in a snit and not give her another thought, especially when they had such important matters to deal with.
She needed to clear out before Captain Browne arrived. The operative had never met her as Lady Eveline Stuart, and she intended to keep it that way. If he recognized her, it would be an utter disaster.
Anthony
An assassination attempt on the Duke of York.
Things had been so quiet since the war ended, Anthony had wished for a bit of action, but it sounded like this had come a bit too close to actual tragedy for comfort. The war was over, dammit. It was one thing to find action for himself, quite another to nearly lose the second in line to the Crown.
“How can we even begin to investigate this?” he asked irritably. The Duke was a public figure, so any number of people may have wanted to assassinate him. This was a thorny puzzle and not one he was looking forward to.
“To start with, I believe we must have been betrayed by one of our own,” the Marquess of Camden said seriously.
Anthony started in his seat. A traitor? That was a very serious accusation.
“The Duke’s trip was not widely advertised,” Elijah said. “It was also rather sudden. Too sudden for it to be likely that a foreign power organized the attempt.”
As the Marquess’ son, Elijah would one day hold the title, the lands, and his father’s position as spymaster, but for now, he had the ceremonial title of the Earl of Durham. He and Anthony had been friends for years and had given each other permission to use their Christian names years ago.
“Unless it was already organized, and they were waiting for their opportunity,” Anthony murmured, his mind already working. Mistrustful and often accused of being a pessimist, Anthony could always see the worst possible scenario. The other two men grimaced.
“I do not know whether or not to hope for that,” Camden said, running his fingers through his greying hair, a mannerism mimicked a moment later by his son. Their hair had already been mussed, likely because this was not the first time they’d done so. When stressed, they both reverted to type. “That would indicate something bigger than we know is o n the horizon. On the other hand, I would rather have to deal with almost anything than a traitor.”
Anthony nodded, fully understanding the dilemma. Britain did not need another war so soon on the heels of the last when they were finally recovering from the previous one. He was regretting wishing for a bit of action. He had only wanted some excitement back in his life, not another damn war.
Knowing someone was willing to betray their country and attempt to assassinate one of the heirs to the Crown, his deeply ingrained sense of honor was infuriated by the very notion. All the years he had spent protecting the Crown, putting his life at stake in service of it, it was a personal slap in the face from one of his own countrymen.
A foreign power or one of their own… there were no good options.
“What do you need me to do?” It was luck he had been nearby, and Elijah had known of it to call him in. The house party he had allowed himself to be talked into at his family’s behest had been both dull and dangerous—the danger was he might find himself affianced before the end of it. The matchmaking mamas were very determined, and Anthony was of the right age. Unfortunately for them, he had no interest in marriage. He did not do long-term relationships. They did not appeal to him.
The one and only time he had the thought of setting a woman up as his mistress, she had disappeared in the middle of the night after saving his life. He had never found out who she was, though he had searched for her. All he knew for certain was she was not a whore in a French brothel—though she had pretended to be.
So, he had no mistress and no interest in leg shackling himself to some young, wide-eyed debutante whose sole ambition in life was to become someone’s wife.
“I am sending you and Elijah to York to question the Duke and his retinue. You will take the same route, stop at the same places, and investigate every angle you can. In the meantime, I will depart for London.” The Marquess leaned forward on his desk. There was mounting fury in his eyes, though Anthony knew from experience, the man would keep it tightly leashed. “I am writing to several agents to meet me there. I believe Mitchell is already in London. I am going to send him into the underground to see if the assassins were hired there.”
Mitchell was another operative, although, unlike Anthony, he had no connection to the ton other than being employed by one of them. Anthony might not be a lord, but his father was a viscount, and eventually, his eldest brother would be. Although Anthony could disguise himself and change his manner of speaking to fit in with the less reputable denizens of Society, no one was more adept at it than Mitchell. He was a chameleon, equally blending in with both the upper and lower echelons.
“Yes, my lord,” Anthony said, nodding his head and glancing at Elijah. The two of them had worked well together in the past. “Whatever there is to be found, we will find it.”
Evie
Chewing her lower lip, Evie listened from her position at the tiny hole she had carefully drilled between her uncle’s office and the drawing room beside it. She did not like to use it often for fear of discovery, but in instances like this—before her uncle had finally explained things to Captain Browne—it was far safer than the keyhole, which her cousin now had a habit of checking, thanks to catching her.
As their little meeting broke up, she fingered the bit of wood that slotted into the space to cover the hole on this side, keeping any light from getting through between rooms and giving her away. Unless someone looked extremely closely at the decorative wood paneling, the piece was practically invisible to the eye.
She was about to slide it into place when she heard her uncle speaking to Elijah again.
“I am going to take Evie with me to London.”
“What? But...” Elijah’s voice trailed off.
“If we leave her here, you know she will be after one or the other of us within a day.”
Yes. Yes, she would. Choosing which would have been difficult, but she likely would have gone to London after her uncle. He would be the hub of incoming information, so this suited her.
“Are you going to give her a debut?”
Evie froze.
The very last thing she needed was a husband. She certainly did not want one. The relationships she had seen among their social set had convinced her that her parents’ love had been an anomaly, and she was unwilling to settle for anything less.
The usual tonnish marriage consisted of two people forced together by circumstance or finances, and woe betide the bride who thought her new husband actually meant all those pretty promises. The men were completely in control of everything. There were so many bitter, heartbroken women whose husbands had betrayed them, who then went on to take lovers themselves, but they were still stuck with the man they’d married. They could not take a lover and find even a glimmer of their own happiness until they had born their husband an heir.
The only exception she could think of was Lady Brooke, and the only reason she had not become a complete social pariah was her estranged husband had not allowed it. They were no longer estranged, and it seemed to be a love match, but Lady Brooke’s story was highly unusual.
Not that Evie cared about being a social pariah, but she did not wish that for her family. Her uncle and cousins had taken her in the moment they found her, nevermind that she had been wild, dirty, unmannered, nearly feral, and completely jaded by her time on the streets. They had loved her. Cared for her. Given her food, shelter, and the familial support she never thought she would have again.
No, Evie would never do anything to dishonor her family, but she would not give up her life and her control to a husband for them either.
“I do not have a sponsor for her,” her uncle replied in a tired tone, and Evie relaxed. “I do not even know if Evie wants to debut. She will come with me and run the household. I will give her full control over it, which should keep her busy enough.”
Evie snorted softly. Hardly. Running a household was a difficult and involved task, but their housekeeper and butler had it well in hand. She saw no point in micromanaging them the way some ladies of the house did, though she should not be ungenerous. Those ladies needed something to fill their days, and Society did not provide many options. She shuddered at the thought of becoming one of them.
They had little to no choice. She did.
“Do you really think there is a traitor?” Elijah asked.
Evie went absolutely, completely still, her ears straining for the answer.
“I do. I did not say so in front of Browne, but I have long thought there was a traitor somewhere in the network. I think it must be someone at the home office. We lost several spies in France during the war, and… I do not know if Browne ever told you, but he was nearly caught in a trap there. I think at least some of the others must have been as well. That could only have been done by someone who knew where those agents were and how to contact them.”
Heart pounding in her chest, Evie felt herself flush. She had been the one to save Browne from that trap. They had shared a rather intimate time together, then he’d decided he wanted her for his mistress. Obviously, he had not known who she was.
That the trap had been set by a traitor… she had not even considered such a thing.
Yes, she was going to help her uncle find this person… whether he wanted her involved or not.
CHAPTER 1
Present Day: Anthony & Evie
Anthony
Entering Camden House through the back door, Anthony paused to listen. After riding through the night, it was well past four in the morning, and the house was quiet, but he did not want to take any chances.
