Enticing the Spymaster (War Girls) (3 page)

Chapter Four

“Jude?”

Michael sounded shocked and confused, and she wanted to hit him for it. She settled for shoving at his shoulders. “Off.”

He sighed and levered himself away from the cot, but caught one of her hands in his before she could scramble away.

She tried to tug it out of his grip, but he held her fast. “We need to talk.”

He might be able to control her body through desire, but her mind and heart knew the truth.

He did
not
love her.

“What time is it?”

The pause before his answer was long and cold. “About two hours before dawn.”

“I slept longer than I planned.” She brushed several strands of loose hair from around her face and tried to free her hand again.

He doggedly kept hold of her. “You have a plan?” He sounded amused.

“Yes, I was going to rescue you then get you on your way to the Netherlands.”

His laughter died quick enough when she didn’t respond. He tried to cover his faux pas by clearing his throat. “A lovely thought, but how could a lone woman have accomplished that?”

“I’m not working here alone.”

Michael’s voice was hard. “I told you your messenger was captured.”

“He isn’t my only contact.”

There was a dark, deep silence. Finally, he released her.

She fumbled with the matches for a moment before managing to light the candle.

Michael’s eyes gleamed, though the rest of his face appeared solemn. “You’re not working alone?” His question was asked with perfect clarity, like a lawyer arguing before a judge.

For heaven’s sake, he should know all this. “No. A sort of underground chain of people has formed, working together to get civilians and allied soldiers out from behind enemy lines. People from all levels of society. My aunt Sylvie, the Duchess De Croy, has been hiding men in her house, moving them from room to room when soldiers come to search it. From there, miners, farmers, even shopkeepers help them pass through the country to safety. I work most closely with Rose Culver, a British nurse in charge of another hospital here in the city. I trained under her for several months.”

“I was unaware that you were working with Nurse Culver.” His scowl would have frightened most people, but not her. He shook his head. “This is a very dangerous game you’ve been playing. You shouldn’t have risked yourself.”

“I should fold my hands and do nothing as my country—as
Europe
—is torn apart by greed?” She snorted and stood. “How little you know me.”

Michael got to his feet and leaned over her. “I know you.” He touched her with only his gaze, letting it caress her in an unhurried exploration.

She glared at him, wanting to scream, to pound his chest with her fists and deny he knew anything about her. How could he after what he’d done? Taken her love for him, her trust, and turned it into a thing to be bargained for.

She drew herself up instead, releasing her anger and shame, letting it flow out of her along with the air in her lungs. “Perhaps you did once, but I’m not the same naive girl I was two years ago. War changes everyone. I know my duty, and I know what I can do and what I cannot.”

He stared down at her, his face unmoving, his mouth a hard, immobile line. “You cannot stay here.”

“You have my promise to leave already.” She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. “Or did you forget?”

A sound rumbled out of his chest, like the growl of a Bengal tiger stalking its prey.

Jude began gathering her things, though there wasn’t much to collect. Just her cloak, clean apron, and a small bag she’d prepared containing some medical supplies and two small loaves of bread she’d stolen from the kitchen.

She shouldered the bag and donned her cloak. “I’m ready.”

For the first time since she’d seen him the day before, he smiled at her, crookedly, and stepped close enough that his uniform brushed her cape. He trailed an index finger down her face. “Such ferocious courage.”

She jerked away. “Don’t be absurd.” He knew nothing of her activities since the war started. The chances she’d taken, the secrets she kept or the men she’d saved by smuggling them out of the country dressed as washerwomen and farmers.

They left the room, Jude first to be certain no patrolling soldiers were in sight.

“The rear kitchen entrance,” he whispered in her ear.

She led the way, walking with purpose. If she hadn’t been living in the building for several months already, she wouldn’t have recognised it. Where once the palace had been a jewel in a city that boasted many beautiful buildings, with polished floors and gleaming walls glittering with gold leaf, now there was dust, dirt and grime on every surface. Palace servants had been pressed into service for the Germans, chased out or shot. Most were dead. Virtually none remained in the palace itself.

What used to be a monument to the beauty of the Belgian people was now a festering scar on the country’s soul.

If she’d been a man, she’d have gone into battle, willing to die for her country’s freedom. But as a woman, she contented herself with the knowledge that her systematic spying would hurt the German bullies in ways they’d never understand or recognise.

She, a woman with no skills beyond those of a nurse, would see the occupiers chased out.

At this hour, there were few people about. One or two guards patrolled the interior hallways, but all were familiar with her and simply nodded when she and Michael passed. The kitchen was a large, open room with two huge ovens and several tables for preparing food. At first, it appeared deserted, but several steps from the door leading outside to the servants’ gate, two soldiers called out to them.

“Where are you going?”

They were seated at a small table in a corner, a deck of cards between them. One stood, his rifle in hand, and approached them, asking again, “Where are you going?”

“To the other hospital,” Jude answered. “We’ve run out of ether.”

“Ether?” the soldier asked, looking over Michael’s uniform.

“It’s what we use to make a wounded man sleep while he’s being operated on. Without it, you’d be awake while the surgeon is cutting into you.”

The soldier’s face paled and he swallowed, then he flared his nostrils and thrust his chin out at Michael. “What about you?”

“I’ve been ordered to accompany her. A solitary woman at night is not safe.”

The German grunted but didn’t change his stance.

The other soldier strode over to them. He looked from Jude to Michael and back again, then reached out with one hand towards Jude’s face. She instinctively retreated behind Michael.

The soldier grinned. “And if your errand takes a little while, no one will care, eh?”

Michael smiled back and shrugged one shoulder.

The soldier laughed and licked his lips. “Next time maybe you’ll take me with you on your
errand
.”

She kept her mouth shut and her eyes down, frightened they might do more than insinuate whatever disgusting things they were imagining.

The two men moved back to the table to pick up their cards, sniggering and making kissy sounds at Jude.

Michael put his hand at the small of her back and pushed her towards the door and outside. “Don’t stop, don’t slow down, keep walking,” his whispered in her ear.

They walked down the cobblestone path and past one, then two patrolling soldiers who did no more than nod when Michael saluted them. Another knot of men at the stables glanced at them curiously, but no one made a challenge. Then they were out the back gate and heading into the city.

Jude allowed her shoulders to relax, thinking they were out of danger, but as they rounded a corner, she spotted a roadblock at the end of the lane. It was guarded by four men with a motorcycle on either side of the gate. A simple salute would never do.

Michael brought her to a stop about five feet away from the barricade, came to attention and saluted the guards. One of them stepped forward.

“Where are you going with this woman?”

“For medical supplies from the other hospital. They’re expecting more wounded here in a few hours.”

“We just allowed a shipment of bandages in.”

“We’re almost out of ether.” Jude spoke up. “Without it we’ll have to operate on the wounded while they’re still awake.”

The guard winced and stepped aside. The barricade rose and they were waved through.

“That excuse works well,” Michael said as they continued down the street.

“I’ve had plenty of time to think up excuses for all kinds of things.”

“Why is that?” His question seemed simple. It wasn’t. Nothing with him ever was.

But she could play dumb. “I don’t understand your question.”

He walked beside her, looking for all the world like a German soldier with a mission and little else on his mind. “Why are you here, Jude?”

“The same reasons you are, I imagine. Duty, responsibility, love of my country.”

“I thought you wanted to start a hospital.”

She glanced at him, her brows pulled low. “I did. Or did you forget about your German friend who passed away yesterday?”

He made a frustrated noise. “I mean—”

“I know what you mean.” She sighed. “But war broke out and everything changed.”

He grunted, the sound reflecting his disapproval.

At one time she would have let that go, but she was a different woman now. “Women aren’t allowed to be patriotic? We’re not allowed to serve our country?”

He answered without hesitation. “Not if doing so puts your life in danger.”

“Only men are allowed that risk? Do you know how many women and children have been murdered in Belgium since the war started? Hundreds, perhaps thousands. Here, simply being alive puts me in danger.”

“But you don’t have to be here.”

“Yes, I do.” She gave him a secret smile. “Because I’m the best person for the job.”

He frowned at her. “Which job is that?”

“Finding out things I’m not supposed to know.”

“Like what?”

Had her father told him nothing?

“Like the massive offensive the Germans are planning in five days’ time.”

* * *

“Offensive?” Tension filled Michael’s body. His hands tightened on his rifle and he looked around expecting the enemy to attack them at any moment. How did this one small, vulnerable woman manage to find this out without getting caught?

“It’s huge,” Jude told him. “They plan to throw several thousand men at the trenches with a new weapon. Poison gas. I found out where yesterday and hoped to send a message to my father, but before I could meet the messenger, you arrived.”

He could barely make his jaw work to grind out the question foremost in his mind. “How did you discover this information?”

“The palace library is being used for meetings between the German generals and their commanders. There’s a direct passage between the nursery and the library. I’ve been listening to many of their late-night discussions. The passage was never meant to be a real secret, but the entrance and exit were designed to blend into the walls, to make it fun for the children.”

Michael squeezed his rifle so hard he was sure his knuckles were white. “So they could
play
at spy?”

“Yes.”

“Good God.” His voice sounded ragged even to himself. “You could’ve been caught at any time.”

“Yes. But I wasn’t. I refuse to apologise for doing what I had to do.”

“Your father would not approve.” He was absolutely certain of that.

Jude stopped walking.

He went two steps farther then stopped as well, turning to look at her with an impatient frown.

“My father knows.”

Michael’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“He’s known since the day I started work at the palace hospital.”

The idea alone astounded him. The colonel had an analytical mind and the ability to view even the most heinous of acts dispassionately, but this went beyond that. No man could use his child in such a way.
No man
. “I don’t believe it.”

“What you believe is not my concern.” Jude shrugged. “He wasn’t particularly happy about my ‘sneaking about’ as he put it, but since he knew I would be doing it with or without his permission, he advised me on how best to organise things.”

Michael rocked back as if she’d struck him. “He said nothing to me.”

“No. We decided to keep my involvement absolutely secret. If the messenger hadn’t been caught no one would have known.
Ever
.”

Her courage and tenacity staggered and terrified him. “Who was the messenger?”

“A palace servant who knows every member of the royal family on sight. I’m not the only one engaged in this game, just the one in the best position to obtain information.”

Michael’s nostrils flared and he had to restrain himself from physically confronting her. How dare she put herself in such a precarious position? “You allowed yourself to be a pawn? To be thrown away in case of capture?”

“Yes.”

That one word, that simple word cut the last cord leashing his control. He grabbed her arm and set off again at a brisk pace, dragging her with him. “Your father deserves to be set on his ass.”

She snorted. “You’d strike a superior officer? Never.”

There was much about him she didn’t know, like how much he was willing to risk to keep her safe. “For endangering the life of civilian? His daughter?
You?
Yes.”

“You wouldn’t dare. You idolise my father and you’re too well trained an officer to break regulations in such a manner.”

“This has nothing to do with regulations and everything to do with keeping the fighting up to the soldiers.”

“What happened to the
Lusitania
changed the rules of war. There are no civilians anymore. Why can’t you see that I can contribute to the war effort? I want, no, I
have
to do my part.”

“The
Lusitania
went down nine weeks ago. You’ve been dancing this complicated jig for months.” His pace sped up and he brought her along with him. He was going to make her see, even if he had to scare her a little to do it.

She tried to pull her arm out of his grip, but he ignored her struggles. “For God’s sake, stop hauling me about like a criminal. We’re going to attract attention.” She froze. “Too late.”