“Compliance?” She swung to Leam. “Did you know of this?”

The viscount replied first. “Lord Chamberlayne’s name was on the list I sent to Mr. Seton some months ago. But earlier this week when Lord Blackwood failed to mention your mother’s connection to him, I began to doubt he had seen the list.”

“You might have asked.” Leam’s voice grated.

The viscount held Kitty’s regard. “I suspected he would be hesitant to arrange this meeting if he knew the whole of it.”

“Or even the half.” Leam’s face was grim in the wintery morning. “Lady Katherine, allow me to escort you home.”

She shook her head, her mother’s situation coming to her full force. “What untoward activities?”

“I am not at liberty to say,” the viscount replied. “But you may assist us by revealing what you know about him.”

“I know nothing except that he is a gentleman and very attached to my mother. And I certainly hope there is nothing else to know, for I like him.” She knew not what else to say. She turned about and walked swiftly toward her groom holding the horses, a tumble of confusion.

“Lady Katherine”—the viscount’s voice carried to her—“the bullet that caught you in Shropshire was not intended for you. But the next one may be. Has my friend here yet told you that?”

She halted and turned. Leam stood very still.

“I don’t understand,” she managed, but she did.

“There is a slight possibility of revenge,” the viscount said as though reading her thoughts. “But we don’t believe that Lord Poole is now in a position to provoke such an action, and it would be too easily traceable to him if he did. He is only in France, and our informants there are impressed with the rather modest lifestyle he has taken up. They are under the impression he hopes to someday win a pardon based on good behavior and to have his estates returned to him.”

“But you do not yet know who the shooter is, clearly.” She looked to Leam, and it was nearly painful to do so. “Is that so?”

His eyes said he did not wish to tell her, but he spoke. “Not entirely.”

“Lord Blackwood received a message from the shooter less than a fortnight ago in Scotland.”

“I don’t understand.” Her voice quavered. “If someone wished to harm me, why would he tell you about it?”

A muscle flickered in Leam’s jaw.

“My lady.” Lord Gray’s voice remained firm. “Through his work for the crown in the past, Lord Blackwood may have displeased one or two persons intent on Scotland’s disunion from Britain. We suspect you are being threatened to control his actions now, to ensure that he does not further impede these rebels’ plans.”

Her heart pounded. She could not look away from Leam. “Is this true?”

“I don’t believe it is.”

“You also said you aren’t a spy.”

“I am not. But you are in danger.”

“And how shall I wrest myself from that danger?” An unfamiliar, sticky hysteria bubbled up in her with the fear for her mother, and that perhaps he had sought information from her in Shropshire, and that was all she had been to him—the same way Lambert had only used her to dishonor her brothers.

“Shall I admit to you and Lord Gray here everything I know of Lord Chamberlayne?” she continued. “Well then, I have found him partial to claret but truly fond of port. He prefers whist to piquet, and likes his matched grays overly much, although in my opinion they are too showy for a gentleman of his maturity. He recently gave my mother a lovely necklace, quite tasteful really, and I believe he intends to ask her to marry him shortly, although perhaps he already did last night, but I haven’t seen her yet today as I was obliged to come out at an early hour to be lied to by a pair of men who insist they are not spies but who behave remarkably like one might imagine spies do.”

Lord Gray extended a placating hand. “My lady—”

“What do you wish to know? Ask me and I shall give you my considered responses. Then you can tell me what I must do to protect myself and my mother.”

“You needn’t protect yourself,” Leam said quietly. “We will.”

She closed her eyes. Was this reluctant connection all that she was to have of him now? Someone threatened her and so he must remain involved with her?

“My lady,” Lord Gray said into the dreary silence. “We do not wish to detain you here longer this morning. Would you consent to writing down what you know of Lord Chamberlayne so that our agents may analyze it?”

These men were not playacting as she had once done in spying on Lambert Poole. This was real, and she should help, especially if it could exonerate her mother’s beau. And if it did not… For her mother’s sake, she could not imagine that now. Nearly thirty years with a husband who lived a double life should not be rewarded with another such man. But why would the crown suspect him otherwise?

“How are you protecting me?” she finally asked.

The viscount gestured beyond her shoulder. Fifteen yards distant, a hulking man stood with his back to the trunk of a leafless tree, hands in his trouser pockets.

“That is Mr. Grimm,” he said.

“A bodyguard?”

“My lady, we must make another request of you.”

“No.” Leam moved toward her. “Lady Katherine—”

“We wish you to interview your mother about Lord Chamberlayne, and to encourage her to share private information with you, as well as your servants and Chamberlayne’s as you are able, then to write that in your report as well.”

“Goddamn, Gray.” He came very close but did not touch her. “Kitty, you must go now.”

Tears pressed at the backs of her eyes, and a horrid thickness in her chest and throat. “Yes.” She made herself look up into his face, and what she saw there twisted her insides—steel again, and anger, but also something else, that warmth and intensity that had been there from the first and drew her to him.

“Did you come back to London because of the message that threatened me? Is that the purpose you spoke of that keeps you here when you wish to be in Scotland?”

He took a tight breath and drew her hand to his arm. “Allow me to help you mount.”

“You wish me gone so that you can speak with your friend openly. You are very angry, so clearly this interview did not proceed as you expected. What are you going to do, Leam, hit Lord Gray now like you hit Mr. Yale at the inn?”

“It’s possible.” He drew her toward her horse.

“I saw his bruise on the way to church on Christmas.” She spoke whatever words occurred to her because to feel now was too difficult. “I am all curiosity. What was Mr. Yale going to ask me that you found the need to ‘send him to the snow,’ as he so colorfully put it? Did he want me to put my skills to use interviewing Mr. and Mrs. Milch, or perhaps Emily and Mr. Cox? That would have been wonderful. Just think, I could have learned all their secrets and begun playing them off one another right there trapped in the village. What a drama I might have precipitated.” Her voice was brittle, her heart in a welter.

“Yes, that was it,” he replied stonily. “You are very clever.”

“Mr. Yale does work with you and Lord Gray and Jinan, doesn’t he?”

“Yes.” He set his hands for her to step into, then tossed her up. She leaned forward on the saddle and he assisted in adjusting her skirts as though he were any gentleman assisting any lady at such a mundanely courteous task. It was all quite normal, as nothing had ever actually been between them and most certainly would never be now.

“I wonder how he felt about being dragged into Emily’s petty domestic troubles,” she murmured.

“A spy pretending to court a girl to save her from a fish man.”

“I believe she called him a fish troll. And there is nothing petty about attaching oneself to the wrong person.” He finished adjusting her stirrup and his gaze came up to hers. It seemed for a moment that he would speak. Then he stepped away from the horse and smacked it on the flank. It started forward, and Kitty did not look back. At least this time she would not be obliged to watch him leave her.

Leam rounded on Gray.

“Goddamn you for tricking her into this, Colin. And goddamn you for using me to do so. The only reason I arranged this meeting was because of your threat to have me confined to Scotland if I did not.” With Cox threatening Kitty, he could not leave London. The blackguard had not yet revealed himself in order to collect the object Leam supposedly possessed. But when he surfaced, Leam would have his neck.

“We need the information.” The viscount stood at ease, apparently oblivious to the menacing growl of the wolfhound bitch before him.

“What can she give you that you cannot acquire from another source? From an actual trained informant?”

“I know you went to the Secret Office yesterday, Leam. You went there to read the file on Poole.”

His hands fisted. “How proud you must be of your network of clerks and footmen, Colin.

Admirable.”

“You saw the documents. Her letters are detailed, her observations keen. She did all of that for years without the assistance of training, or any other advantage. The director was impressed, and at least two admirals on the board said they hadn’t ever seen such careful work from an informant, especially not one thoroughly embedded in society as she. Including Constance.”

“Kitty Savege was not an informant. Since you have also read the file you know very well it was a personal matter to her.”

“Then it is high time she turn her talents to matters of state.”

“Damn you, Colin, I would call you out if I could bear the idea of it. But you know very well I cannot.”

“I don’t wish to fight you, Leam. I am only here to convince you to come work for us.”

He stood stunned for a moment. “Us? There isn’t an us any longer. Or hadn’t you noticed that amidst your covert plans? I didn’t read the goddamned list of names Jin brought because I don’t give a damn.”

“I am not speaking of the Falcon Club. They want you in the Home Office. Quite adamantly.”

“Tell them to take Yale. He’s anxious to be back at it already.”

His jaw tightened. “They are suspicious of Yale, though I have assured them they needn’t be.”

“He is the cleverest one of the lot of you, and they’re fools if they cannot accept that.” He pivoted about. “Go find yourself a proper candidate, someone in need of work, without a family and estate to see to. Someone who wants your damned secrecy and lies.” He strode to his horse. The mist had coalesced into rain and it pattered chill on his hat and shoulders and his roan’s glossy coat. Anger roiled in him, hot and desperate. Betrayal had shown in her eyes thicker than the overhanging sky.

Perhaps she had trusted him before, but she would not now.

It was for the best.

“They follow you.”

He slid the reins into place. “You mean Wyn and Constance. Of course they do. I half raised both of them.”

“Even Seton has listened to you on occasion despite his cavalier attitude toward the Club and uncertain loyalty to the crown. Every single one of your quarries has returned home without complaint. People lead where you tell them to go, Leam. The kingdom needs you.”

Yes, people did what he wished, like his brother who walked into a duel with his closest friend because Leam arranged it. He set his foot in the stirrup and mounted.

“I’m not interested.”

“Would you be interested if I told you Lady Katherine would not be bothered again for information if you agree to their offer?”

Leam’s head swung around.

“They want you to resume your previous role and head the unit in France,” Gray said.

“You are using her to convince me of this?”

“Not entirely. Her assistance with Chamberlayne would be helpful. Possibly essential. They have no doubt she could continue to be useful after that, with her social connections and natural ability.

Unwed she has no husband to hinder her.” His brow drew down. “Leam, I am sorry to be the messenger. I truly am. In this case, I am telling you what I have been told to convey. They are willing to give her up for your promise.”

Leam fought for breath. How could he have allowed this? He had been blind to everything to which he should have paid the closest attention. Again.

“Colin, I must find David Cox.” He had claimed to be with Lloyd’s, London’s premier insurance company. He’d searched there first, but apparently Cox had not worked for Lloyd’s in years. Yet another reason to suspect him—whoever he was.