Dark Angel (46 page)

Caroline paused, waiting for Emily to respond. She could feel Adam's utter stillness. The sound of the birds outside in the garden suddenly seemed deafening.

Emily considered this fresh piece of information. "You mean we'll all live together?"

Caroline nodded.

Adam moved toward them, hesitantly at first, then with his usual decisive stride. He dropped down in front of the window seat. The sunlight fell across his face, catching him in a rare moment of vulnerability. "I'll be your mother's husband and your friend, but you don't have to think of me as your father until you decide you want to."

Emily smiled. "I'd like you to be my father. I like you better than my other one. What will I call you?"

Adam hesitated, glanced at Caroline, then turned back to Emily. "Whatever you like."

Emily looked thoughtful. "I called my other father 'Papa.' Can I call you 'Daddy' like Sally and Lizzie and the boys call Uncle Will?"

Adam gave a smile that was so sweet it made Caroline's heart turn over. "I'd be honored."

Emily laughed and bounced on the window seat. "I'm glad you're my father." She thought a moment, then added, "I wouldn't have minded if it were Hawkins."

Adam made his way along Downing Street, his mind filled with his night with Caroline and their talk with Emily, though he knew he should be thinking about the interview ahead. He had received a summons from Lord Castlereagh that morning. The committee wanted to talk to him again now that Talbot Rawley was in England.

Adam climbed the steps to the Foreign Office and was shown to the same dark, musty room where the committee had questioned him before. The others were already grouped about the table: Castlereagh and Granby conferring together in lowered voices; Palmerston staring out the narrow, murky widows; Talbot lounging in his chair, an impatient look on his face.

Subduing an impulse to seize Talbot by his shirt front and demand an accounting for what he had done to Caroline and Emily, Adam closed the door behind him and looked at Castlereagh.

Castlereagh turned from his conversation with Granby and nodded coolly. "Sit down, Durward," he said in a colorless voice, "we're ready to get started. You and Colonel Rawley have met before, of course."

Adam looked Talbot Rawley full in the face. He had noted Talbot's casual arrogance when they met in Freneda, but he hadn't realized the danger which lay behind the facade. He had been jealous of Talbot then. Now he felt blinding anger.

"We have," he said.

"So we have," Talbot agreed with a mocking smile.

Adam pulled out one of the straight-backed chairs and seated himself, taking the other men's measure. Their faces told him there had been a change in their view of the situation and the change had not been in his favor. What new lie had Talbot invented?

Castlereagh shuffled a sheaf of papers on the table in front of him. "Colonel Rawley has clarified one question. The informant Limon is not a British spy but a man who happened to stumble upon information he thought would be of value to the British. Limon had met Colonel Rawley some months previously, so it was Colonel Rawley he sought out when he reached the British army."

"Ah," said Adam, folding his arms. "I knew there must be an explanation." He glanced at Talbot, but Talbot merely continued to smile.

"Colonel Rawley has also provided us with some additional information," Castlereagh continued, a repressive look in his eyes. He glanced down at the papers in front of him, then back at Adam. "In the course of your journey across Spain with Mrs. Rawley was an intercepted French dispatch placed in your keeping?"

Adam was caught off guard. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a look of satisfaction on Talbot's face. Talbot had done something far more clever than invent a lie. He had told the truth. Wellington must have spoken of Adam's actions with the dispatch and the story had got back to Talbot. Adam understood at once why Talbot had repeated it and where Castlereagh's inquisition was leading. "It was," he said, cursing himself for not having foreseen this turn of events.

"Why didn't you mention it at our last meeting?" Castlreagh demanded.

Adam settled back in his chair and crossed his legs. "You didn't ask."

Palmerston's eyes glinted with appreciation. Granby continued to regard Adam with an impassive expression. Castlereagh's brows drew together. "Cleverness will get you nowhere, Durward. Did you deliver the dispatch to Lord Wellington as promised?"

"I informed him of the contents of the dispatch."

"But you didn't actually give it into his hands."

Adam looked levelly at the Foreign Secretary. "I did not."

Castlereagh returned Adam's gaze, his eyes cold and appraising. "Why not, may I ask?"

"Because by the time I reached Freneda, I no longer had the dispatch in my keeping."

"I see." Castlereagh leaned forward, elbows resting on the table, and tented his fingers with careful precision. "You had lost it?"

"In a manner of speaking. I was forced to give it to Colonel Lescaut in exchange for his help in rescuing Mrs. Rawley's daughter"

At this confirmation of the story, Adam heard a faint exhalation of breath that might have come from Granby or from Palmerston. Talbot, Adam knew, was watching him, probably with the same bloody satisfied look on his face. Why should he speak? The scene must be going exactly as he wished.

"Let me get this straight," Castlereagh said. "You gave a French dispatch, intercepted by our Spanish allies, no doubt at considerable risk, into the hands of a French intelligence officer?"

"I did. It seemed the only way to secure the return of the child. But I very much doubt if Colonel Lescaut found the dispatch of any use. After I read it I took the precaution of giving it a thorough soaking. It was illegible."

None of the men looked surprised by this information. They would have already had the story from Talbot. "But you memorized the contents and were able to give Wellington a report," Castlereagh said. "Convenient. There will, of course, be no way to verify the accuracy of the information until the coming campaign. If it is false, it could prove costly."

"It could prove damnable." Talbot leaned forward in his chair. "By God, Durward, if you've misled Wellington—"

"Talbot," Granby said sharply.

"Your concern is understandable, Colonel Rawley," Castlereagh said, "but it's Durward's story we're interested in now."

"I can't vouch for the information in the dispatch," Adam told him. "I merely acted as a courier."

"Quite." Castlereagh's eyes were hard. "You also can't prove that the information you gave to Wellington was the same as that contained in the dispatch."

"Very true," Adam agreed cheerfully. "But if I really were in Colonel Lescaut's employ, couldn't I have obtained a fresh dispatch from him to present to the general? Much tidier all around."

There was a brief silence. "I'd heard you were clever, Duward," Palmerston said. "It seems the stories were right."

Castlereagh frowned at the younger man, then turned back to Adam. "Do you have anything else to say for yourself, Duward?"

"I don't think so," Adam said. "Colonel Rawley seems to have reported the story quite accurately."

Castlereagh cleared his throat. "Apparently Wellington was impressed by your ingenuity. When he repeated the story of the dispatch he did not, of course, know of the accusations made against you. Colonel Rawley thought it prudent not to mention them to Wellington until we had come to some decision on the matter."

"Did he?" Adam glanced at Talbot, who was observing the scene with ill-concealed triumph.

Granby gave a faint smile. "My son has never been known for his restraint, but in this at least he seems to have shown some sense. There is still a great deal we do not know."

"I've written to Wellington and Stuart," Castlereagh said, "but it will be some time before we hear from them. Until then, you will continue to remain in London, Durward."

Adam inclined his head. "Of course, sir. I have nowhere else to go."

"One last question, Durward," Palmerston said over the scrape of chairs being pushed back from the table. "Why did you accompany Mrs. Rawley to London? I understand Lord Sheriton was also on the ship. Surely he could have served as her escort."

For the first time Adam saw a flicker of fear in Talbot's eyes. Adam hesitated, weighing consequences and possible outcomes. "I had reasons of my own for coming back to England," he said.

"And they were?" Granby who had started to rise, settled back in his chair.

Adam leaned forward, resting his hands on the worn table top. "Five years ago I was charged with investigating the mater of some faulty cannon which were used at Vimeiro. Recently I obtained evidence which leads me to believe the matter was more complicated than I at first supposed."

"Complicated how?" Castlereagh demanded.

"I would prefer not to say," Adam told him. "As yet all I have is supposition, not fact. But I mentioned my suspicions to Stuart and he agreed to allow me to come to England."

There was a moment of silence. Castlereagh and Granby exchanged glances. Palmerston regarded Adam speculatively. Talbot sat very still. Adam was sure Castlereagh at least thought the story was a lie to divert their attention. He wondered if Stuart would support the story when he answered Castlereagh's letter or if he would find it safer to deny any knowledge of the affair.

"In that case, I believe we are done," Castlereagh said at last. "Anything else? Granby? Palmerston? Colonel Rawley?"

"Nothing." Talbot's voice was expressionless. As they got to their feet, he met Adam's gaze. There was no doubt that he knew Adam had just thrown down the gauntlet.

Adam had accomplished what he wanted. Talbot must realize it would no longer do him any good to silence Caroline. He would have to turn his attention to Adam. And in the process, Adam hoped, he would betray himself.

Adam left the Foreign Office, wondering what demons he had just unleashed.

Chapter Twenty

It was just past noon when Dorothy Rawley called a second time at the Wellstone house. She was more agitated than Caroline had ever seen her. "Caro, love," she said, giving her friend a hasty embrace, "tell me you're all right." She drew back and studied the other woman's face, seeing, Caroline guessed, the pallor of her skin and the dark circles beneath her eyes and putting it down to what had happened in the Granby salon, not what had followed. "Yes, of course you are," Dolly went on. "I would have spoken last night, but a dignified exit seemed the only way to end that ugly scene, and you did that superbly."

"Dolly, do sit down."

"I can't, I'm too angry."

Caroline sank onto the sofa, unable to face Dolly's outbursts of energy without support. "I'm angry, too, but it's over. There's nothing to be done."

Dolly looked at her in amazement. "There's everything to be done. Talbot is an absolute beast. I told him so. I shall never forgive him for what he did and I told him that too. I forbade him to ever speak of the matter again. It won't go beyond the family. Jared's father has no reason to spread the story about, and Granby is too much the gentleman to do so. Edward won't either. I told him he mustn't, and in this he stands firmly beside me."

Caroline laughed helplessly. "Dolly, Dolly, what can I say? It doesn't matter now whether the story is spread about."

Dolly threw her reticule on a table and sat beside Caroline on the sofa. "Of course it matters. Don't you remember how these things are done?"

"I can't pass off Emily as Jared's child."

"Why not? Jared acknowledged her. That makes her a Rawley."

"Jared's father knows differently."

"Jared's father knows only what Talbot accused you of. You must give him the lie."

"It's not a lie." Caroline felt unspeakably weary. "Emily is not Jared's child. Dolly, I made a dreadful mistake."

Dolly opened her mouth, closed it, and took a deep breath. "What kind of bourgeois morality are you spouting at me? I know dozens of women who have children by men other than their husbands, and I've yet to hear of a husband who objected. They're too busy on their own account. Think of Lady Cowper. She's accepted everywhere. Jared said Emily was his daughter and therefore by law she is. He owed you that much after the hell he put you through. And it's not as though Emily were a boy and there were a question of a title or property entailed on the heir."

"There's no question in any case. Jared left us nothing."

Dolly looked shocked to the soles of her blue kid half-boots. "Nothing?"

Caroline wished she could recall her words. She had no wish to rouse Dolly's pity. "It's no surprise. You know how we lived."

"It's outrageous." Dolly made a large gesture that encompassed Jared's past folly and Caroline's present poverty.

"I'm not wholly destitute," Caroline said. "And I'll have a widow's pension."

Dolly shuddered. She knew that the pension for a lieutenant's widow would barely keep her in hats.

"I'll be all right," Caroline insisted. Jared had left her with a little money in Lisbon, some of which she had used to pay the guide to take her to Acquera. Granby's solicitor had told her she was entitled to an allowance for both herself and for Emily and that she would be paid the value of Jared's commission as well. But Jared's commission had been bought by his father and perhaps should be returned to him, and her own pension might stop when she married Adam. "I really don't want to talk about it," she said when Dolly showed signs of wanting to pursue the conversation.