Jenna Petersen - [Lady Spies] (22 page)

Then he arched a brow. “And would you admit that you should not have gone to Isley’s home today alone?”

“I go to Charlie’s home regularly, and he visits me,” she argued.

“But were you discussing the weather, my dear?” Lucas set his tea cup down. “Or perhaps it was this case.”

She ducked her head as his question sunk in. It was really a statement more than a query. A reminder that while she was up in arms about being shut out, she had done the exact same thing. Going to Charlie, working through the papers that were still in the little bag beside the door, doing those things without giving Lucas the choice of joining her was no better.

And just like her, he deserved to know the truth. No matter how much it pained him.

“We
were
talking about this case,” she admitted as blood rushed hot to her cheeks. “I was wrong to go there without you. And I’ve been wrong to investigate Henry behind your back.”

Lucas stood stiff, his face a mask of unreadable emotion. No. It wasn’t unreadable. It was pain. It was anger. It was disbelief…but that disbelief was starting to waver, revealing fear. Fear that she was right.

“Did
you
uncover new evidence?” Lucas asked.

She nodded slowly. “I did. And I would like to share
it with you now if you’ll hear it.” She reached out and touched his hand and was relieved when he didn’t yank back. “Lucas, it’s time we put our differences aside and really work together.”

He nodded. “Show me what you’ve found Ana. No matter what, I want to know.”

L
ucas stared at the evidence Ana had collected against his best friend. A man he considered as much a brother as Peter or Martin or his sisters’ husbands. There was so much. It was so damning.

And Lucas hadn’t known about any of it until that moment. Oh, there had been whisperings of internal investigations against spies. He and Henry had even discussed them, wondering who it was who had been accused of stealing from a case, of tampering with evidence.

And all along it had been his friend. Henry had lied to him over and over about his whereabouts and his associations.

Lucas set the last report aside and rubbed his eyes.
His first instinct was to deny these things. He wanted to push them away and pretend he didn’t now know that his friend had so many dark secrets. But he couldn’t. Those were his emotions talking.

He couldn’t ignore the truth. Perhaps Henry wasn’t involved in the attacks on the spies. After all, he had been attacked, as well. That was the missing piece of this puzzle. But his friend had kept things from him. He’d lied.

And that didn’t bode well.

He hated the doubt, the questions, but he had to look deeper now. Because he couldn’t ignore Ana’s evidence or her instincts.

Getting to his feet, Lucas looked around the room. They had relocated to Ana’s chamber, the one attached to his by a lone sitting room. In just a day, she had already begun to transform it into a new laboratory. A new place for her to break codes and invent things.

Which meant she was making it a home for herself. And that warmed him. Despite everything, that pleasant emotion could wiggle its way through the despair.

“I’m so sorry, Lucas.” She stood up from the chair where she had been quietly watching him read over the proof she had gathered. “I swear to you, I would rather bleed than cause you such pain and doubt. But I cannot ignore what I’ve found.”

He nodded, reaching out to cup her cheek. Just touching her gave him a little relief. “Nor can I, Ana.”

Her face softened. She’d been ready for him to argue, to deny her abilities, yet again. But he couldn’t do that anymore.

“I need to go to the War Department,” he said, shocked by how his voice rasped with emotion. “I need to speak to some of our superiors about these charges against Henry. And I need to access some files from his office there.”

She immediately turned toward her armoire. “I’ll come with you.”

“No!” Lucas said the word much louder than he had intended. She winced as she spun back to face him, pain and disbelief reflected on her face.

“Lucas, we promised to work together, we promised—”

He caught her hands, gave them a brief squeeze, then let her go. “I know. But if you come with me, we’ll lose time with explanations. Some of these men won’t speak in front of you when they realize who and what you are. And if Henry is there…” He sighed. “If Henry is there and all that you believe about him is true, it will rouse his suspicions. I need you to stay here and work on that coded letter Isley uncovered. Please, Ana.”

She looked up into his face and he saw she understood. She felt his pain and recognized his desire to prove all these accusations wrong. And she also saw that he was beginning to realize they might not be disproved.

Her fingers brushed his cheek, tracing the lines
around his mouth gently. Then she lifted up on her tiptoes and drew him down for a gentle kiss. One that gave him the strength that had been sucked from his body when he read about the checkered past Henry never shared with him.

“I will do that,” she promised as she stepped away. “And I’ll also pray that I’m wrong, Lucas. Because I don’t want to see you come to even more pain.”

He nodded, numb. “I know.”

Then he moved to the chamber door and away, feeling her eyes on him with every step. As he went downstairs and got into his waiting carriage, he too prayed that every accusation, every rumor about Henry was unfounded. Otherwise, he had been best friends with a stranger all these years.

A stranger capable of devious deception…and worse.

Ana held back a gasp as her eyes strayed to yet another graphic illustration of the intricacies of mating animals. She had to give it to Sansbury, he’d chosen an interesting subject matter in which to hide his correspondence. Anyone who found it would be more distracted by the illustrations than interested in the sheet of numbers inside.

She was beginning to understand the cadence of the code. Just by looking at it, she could see where sentences ended and began, as well as which numbers were page
numbers in the book and which were line and letter numbers. Now that she had the system down, it was just the tedious business of sorting out which number corresponded to which letter and transcribing them onto a new sheet.

Her fingers flew over the page, writing letter after letter, pausing for sentence breaks, flipping to the next page in the husbandry book. Finally, the last letter had been decoded and she faced the task of breaking hundreds of letters into a series of sentences.

Slowly, she sorted out the work until finally she had a complete, neat message sitting before her. Drawing in a breath, she began to read from beginning to end.

And her heart sank into the pit of her stomach, even as the thrill of clicking the last piece of the puzzle into place roared through her.

She had been right all along. Henry
was
involved in the plot against the War Department spies. In fact, he was the mastermind. And Sansbury had been ready to blackmail him. This letter, which had clearly been a bargaining chip Sansbury planned to use, detailed evidence of all kinds that would put Henry in Newgate for the rest of his life, if not have him hanging from the gallows for his part in the plots.

Her hands shook as she got to her feet and backed away from the damning evidence. Nausea hit her in a wave, tears stung at her eyes. Never had she been so unhappy to have her theories proven as she was at that
moment. All she could think about was Lucas. Her husband would be destroyed by this.

“Ma’am?”

She jumped at the sound of one of her maids at the door. Ana turned to give a false smile at the woman. She was so used to the servants in Emily’s home, who had been trained not to disturb her when she was at work.

“What is it, Harriet?”

“This was just delivered for you, Mrs. Tyler. From Mr. Tyler.”

Ana rushed across the room and took the note from Lucas. As soon as she excused the girl, she broke the seal on the envelope and quickly read its contents. He had uncovered something at the War Department that he needed to share with her in person and gave an address for her to meet him.

She shook as she put the letter on the table beside the damning evidence against Henry. Dear God, how much deeper did this conspiracy go that Lucas couldn’t write down his suspicions? That he wanted to meet her somewhere outside of their home?

There was only one way to find out. She got her wrap and rushed downstairs. And hoped she could find a way to comfort Lucas when he learned the truth about a man he loved as much as his own brothers.

Lucas hardly acknowledged his butler as the servant opened the door for him. His mind was spinning and
his heart was breaking. He needed Ana. Needed to see her and feel her.

He needed to tell her she was right and apologize for his denials before they went to confront Henry. He owed her that.

“Is my wife still working upstairs?”

He pictured Ana huddled over that encoded letter, her spectacles balanced on the end of her nose. He hardly needed to see the letter now. Dear God, the evidence. Things he never knew existed. Lies Henry had told. It was too much.

He’d seen Henry’s solicitor and after some prodding, bribing, and a small bit of threatening, he’d discovered his best friend was drowning in debts and involved in a hundred questionable schemes to make money. Worse, he’d started to have an increased flow of capital about a year ago. The first large deposit had been made into his accounts just a few days after the first attack. The one that nearly took his friend’s life. Every time another spy was killed or injured, Henry’s bank account increased.

Lucas wanted to vomit.

The butler cocked his head. “No, my lord. Is she not with you?”

“Of course not.” Lucas looked at the servant. “Why would she be with me?”

“We understood that she was going to meet you as you asked her to do in your message, sir.”

Blood roared to Lucas’s ears, and it took all his self-
control not to grab his butler by the lapels and shake.

“What message?”

“The one you sent nearly an hour ago.”

The servants stared at him like he was crazy and Lucas was beginning to feel like he was. It certainly felt like a mad, out-of-control fear in his belly.

He spun on his heel and rocketed up the stairs, praying that Ana had left the supposed message behind. Or at least some clue as to where she had gone.

Because it hadn’t been to him.

He burst into her room. Paperwork was in piles everywhere. He raked a hand through his hair as he swore. Damn it, he might never find a note here if it did exist.

He rushed to the nearest table and began flipping through piles, finally sweeping the entire mess onto the floor in frustration. The next pile was the same, odd notes and formulas, encoded bits, things he didn’t even understand. All in Ana’s neat, even handwriting.

And then he saw the book and the encoded letter sitting on her escritoire. He hurried over and found, sitting on top, a note that was in his hand. On his personal stationery. In an envelope that had been sealed with his mark.

But he had done none of it. He poured over the letter as horror froze colder and colder around his heart. The note fluttered from his trembling fingers, landing on top of the encoded one. He picked it up, only to discover the paper beneath wasn’t the encoded work
from Sansbury’s home at all. Ana had solved the riddle while he was gone.

He read over her notes.

Oh, God. Henry.

The building had been abandoned long ago, that much was clear. Ana shivered as she stepped inside through a back entrance Lucas had instructed her to use. The neighborhood was one of the worst in London, and she knew her carriage would attract too much interest. She’d sent it away, but now she longed for the protection the vehicle and Lucas’s driver gave. Her only consolation was that soon she would be with him and feel safe again.

Until then, however, she dipped her hand into her reticule and pulled out the perfume bottle she had been carrying with her for weeks. She had worked so hard to get the correct blend of diluted kerosene and pepper extract, but hadn’t tested it yet. It was meant to blind. To incapacitate without killing.

She didn’t want to have to test it in the field, but she pumped the dispenser a few times to prime the spray mechanism. Then she put it back in her reticule carefully.

“Lucas?” she called out into the dusty, dim hallway. This had clearly been a shop of some kind at one point, but a fire had ravaged a portion of it, collapsing the roof on the east end. But on the west, one room had survived. As she peered around, she saw a dim, sickly light coming from beneath the door.

Pushing on the aging wood, she stepped inside.

“Lucas?”

There was a man standing in the shadows beside a low fire, and he tossed on a log to raise the light before he turned. But it wasn’t Lucas who awaited her. It wasn’t safety that she had discovered. It was something else entirely.

“Henry,” she gasped, stumbling back. “Henry, you’re standing!”

He smiled as he raised a pistol and pointed it straight at her heart.

“H
enry,” she repeated, still too shocked to fully comprehend everything that was happening. All she knew for certain was that Henry Bowerly was coming toward her, a gun pointed at her.

And he was walking.
Walking
without any aid.

“Thank you so much for joining me, Anastasia,” he said as he reached for her.

She shook off her astonishment and turned to bolt from the room, but Henry was faster. He grabbed her shoulder and yanked viciously, pulling her back inside before he kicked the door shut and threw her across the room. She hit the floor and her reticule skittered away as the air was knocked from her lungs.

She flipped over on her back, trying to remain calm.
Trying to recall all her training, all the times she’d practiced the art of physical defense with Emily in her cellar work room.

Fighting a man who was probably five stone or more heavier than she, not to mention actually willing to kill her, was an entirely different experience.

“Henry—” She pushed herself to a seated position on the floor and scooted backward toward her bag. “What are you doing here?”

He advanced on her in long, sure steps. The gun never wavered. From the look in his eyes, it was clear that he’d lured her here with one intention and one alone. He was going to kill her. Judging from the smile on his face, he was going to enjoy it.

“Don’t play me for a fool,” he said as he stepped between her and her bag. She spun around, ready to use her feet and hands as weapons if she had to. “I have already fallen prey to your act of innocence and meekness before. I won’t again.”

She shook her head. “Act of innocence?”

He nodded. “When Lucas was ordered to work with a Lady Spy, I never thought she would be a threat. But Lady Allington was clearly too intelligent for her own good. I thought if I got rid of her, that would end this foolishness. But they assigned you, instead. Who knew you would end up being more of a threat than anyone else?”

Ana flinched. “You. You
did
orchestrate the attack on Emily.”

He smiled. “No. I attacked her myself. Wiley little thing managed to slip into the shadows, even after I put a bullet through her.” He shrugged. “But it served its purpose.”

Rage boiled up inside of Ana. She’d never felt something so powerful, so overwhelming, before. “How could you? How could you do any of this? These men you attacked, they were your comrades. Some were your friends! And Lucas—” She broke off as she considered all the ramifications. “My God. He loves you like family.”

At that, Henry’s face twisted. The pistol shook in his hand and she cowered back in the fear he would depress the trigger. “I know that. Why do you think I’ve worked so hard to keep him from the truth?”

She wanted to scream, but didn’t. Calm was her only weapon. Unless she could distract him enough to attack physically or get to her reticule and use her special “perfume,” there was no escape in sight. And riling him would do no good. Her only recourse was to keep him talking as long as she could.

“What do you mean?”

He smiled. Thin. Unpleasant. “How do you think I was shot that night?”

She thought of all she knew about Henry’s attack. Lucas had been so emotional, so guilt-ridden about his wheelchair-bound friend and how he hadn’t been able to save him. She’d focused on his emotions. On his vulnerability.

But now she recalled another detail.

“Lucas wasn’t meant to be there,” she whispered.

Henry nodded. “It was supposed to be another man. Another spy. I never liked the bastard, it was a pleasure to use my connections to bring him down. But at the last moment, Lucas arrived in his stead. I couldn’t signal the shooter. I couldn’t stop the attack. So I pushed him out of the way.”

Nausea built in her stomach again, churning to her throat where the sharp taste of bile choked her. “And let him believe that you had been hurt even worse.”

“I was already suspected after my prior investigation.” Henry smiled. “Oh yes, I know you’ve been looking into my past, my lady.”

“But why pretend to be confined to a wheelchair?” she asked, trembling at the twisted nature of the man before her.

“Once I was hurt, the War Department turned its eye from me. They saw me as a cripple, so they saw me as no threat. And they gave me more power than ever when I made my triumphant and miraculous return to the offices.”

She lifted a hand to cover her mouth. “They put you in charge of the cases. The spies.”

Henry’s handsome face broke into a wide smile. It would have been likable and friendly if she hadn’t known the true nature of its owner.

“I hope you know—” Henry took a step closer and raised the gun to her head. “That this is not a personal
problem I have with you. I actually like you, Anastasia. But you are interfering with my business. And if Lucas begins to believe your accusations, you’ll be interfering with my friendship and ability to protect him.”

Ana shook her head, though she was surprised she could make the action when she was trembling so hard. “Killing me won’t prevent that. Lucas already knows. He has already looked at the evidence I’ve collected and is following up on it even as we speak.”

Henry shut his eyes for a moment, too brief for her to push past him or risk an attack. Then he looked at her and his face had twisted.

“You bitch,” he growled. “Don’t you know what you’ve done?”

“Please.” Tears pricked her eyes. “Please, don’t make things worse for yourself by hurting me.”

“If Lucas truly does have knowledge of what I’ve been doing, then everything I’ve done to keep him safe, to keep him away from death will be for nothing.” Henry backhanded her so suddenly that she wasn’t prepared for the strike, and her head snapped back with the force of the blow. Stars exploded before her eyes as she fell back against the dirty floor, her cheek throbbing and her head spinning.

The fearful parts in her, the parts that had allowed her to hide for so many years after Gilbert’s death, told her to just lie back and let Henry Bowerly take her life. That fighting wasn’t worth the pain. That it
would be over sooner if she just allowed him to do as he wished.

But the other part…a part she hadn’t recognized until earlier that day on the roof…a part that she never would have found if not for Lucas and his searing touch and belief in her, screamed at her to sit up. To use her training. To fight to get home to the man she…

She loved.

The shock of that thought jolted Ana into a seated position and she held up her hands to defend against any more blows to come.

But before Henry could move again, before she could plan her next action, a voice boomed from the entryway and shook the very rafters.

And gave her a blossoming flower of hope and a burst of powerful, undeniable love.

“If you touch my wife again, I will blow your fucking head off.”

Lucas staggered back at the sight before him. Ana, reeling from a vicious blow. And who was threatening his bride?

Henry. Henry, who was standing on his own two feet. Henry who was no longer the man Lucas had called friend most of his life. A Henry who was a stranger.

A stranger Lucas wanted to rip apart with his bare hands for daring to threaten Ana. For daring to
betray everything Lucas had come to love, honor, and cherish.

His first instinct had nothing to do with training or investigation. He wanted to run in and sweep Ana out of danger. To make sure she was unharmed.

But the spy in him knew that would only guarantee death for them both. Especially when Henry’s pistol didn’t waver from its position against her skull. Even as he inched his way around her to face Lucas.

“Just step outside, Lucas,” he said, in the same low, calm tone he had used many a time during their years as friends. As if Lucas was deep in his cups and wanting to cause trouble, and Henry was there to get him home in one piece.

God, it made him sick. And sicker still when he saw the fear in Ana’s eyes and the welt already forming on her cheek as the light from the fire touched her face. But she met his gaze with a strength and calm he never would have guessed she possessed the first time he met her, when he dismissed her for a hysterical woman who would only get in his way.

Instead, she had shown him the way.

“Step outside,” Henry continued. “And let me take care of this problem. Then you and I can talk rationally and decide what our next step will be.”

Lucas moved forward, just one step. Easy and smooth, though it took all the willpower in his body and soul to do so.

“You expect me to walk away while you harm her?”
His harsh voice echoed in the empty shell of a room. Around the empty shell of his former friend.

“I realize it is difficult.” Henry was still trying to soothe with his voice. “Because you have married her and you don’t want to see her harmed. But you must realize that she will only get in my way. And it could be
our
way, Lucas. Together as it used to be when we were boys, causing havoc all over the countryside.”

Lucas blinked, disbelieving what he was hearing. “You want to compare a few childhood pranks to the deepest treason there is?”

“You don’t understand.” Henry’s hand shook slightly.

“Make me understand.” Lucas kept his gun pointed at his friend as he moved forward a few more inches. He stole a glance at Ana and realized she was sliding her eyes back and forth between him and her discarded reticule on the floor. He edged in that direction. “Tell me why you’re doing this.”

“If you’ve listened to
her
”—Lucas motioned toward Ana with the pistol, and she sucked in her breath through her nose with a noisy gasp—“then you have probably looked into my finances.”

Lucas nodded. “I know the debt you are facing, but greed, Henry? Could all this only be for greed?”

“You don’t know.” His friend’s eyes grew vicious. “You have been and always will be golden, Lucas. You were always the strongest, the best, the brightest. Even when I introduced you to the world of spies, you
quickly overtook me in talent and ability. I wanted more. So much more. I tried to get it and failed. This was only supposed to happen once. Just reveal Warfield to the enemy. I would garner a handsome reward and eliminate a man I hated all at once.”

Lucas swallowed against a tidal wave of nausea. “But I showed up instead.”

“Yes.” Henry jerked out a nod. “And I was hit while trying to protect you. The War Department was ready to dismiss me, but the other side embraced me all the further. They offered me money. And I had power, Lucas. Once I started, I couldn’t stop.”

Ana met Lucas’s eyes. He saw her fear lighting higher, but it was matched by pity. Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes, and he knew they were for him. For the friend he had lost long ago, but never known was gone until she opened his eyes.

He let his gaze hold hers.

“I don’t want to have to kill you, Lucas.”

Henry’s statement shocked Lucas’s attention back. “You would kill me?”

Henry nodded, but the movement was erratic. “I’ve tried to protect you all this time. I fed you false information, I tried to assign you to cases that would keep you clear of my involvements. When Anastasia was assigned to partner you, I believed that would be perfect. I encouraged your desire, knowing she would resist. I thought her inability and your want for her would keep you busy, keep you away until I could cover myself. But
she interfered, Lucas. She put you in danger. Now I can’t let her go.”

He moved the pistol against her head again, and Ana’s eyes squeezed shut for a brief moment. Lucas jumped forward before he checked himself. No. Remember the training. He was so close to the reticule now. Clearly there was something inside that Ana thought could aid her. If he could distract Henry long enough, she might be able to grab it and get free.

Henry leaned forward, his expression pleading. “But if you join me, we will be unstoppable. The money, the women, Lucas. The power. I would split it all with you.”

Lucas shook his head as he slipped his boot toe beneath the little bag. “I could never join you, Henry,” he whispered. “And I cannot let you harm the woman I love.”

Henry’s face twisted. “Love her?” He swung the pistol away from Ana and toward Lucas. “You’re telling me you love her?”

Lucas locked eyes with his wife, despite the danger of the weapon now pointed at him. He smiled.

“I love Ana more than I have ever loved anything in my life. I would die for her. I would kill for her.” He let his gaze move to the best friend he’d ever known. The worst enemy he’d ever had. “Even you, Henry.”

Then he flipped the reticule toward Ana and fired a shot.

The world seemed to slow to a frustrating crawl as Ana watched her reticule circle toward her. The explosion of Lucas’s gun rang through the air as she caught the bag and tore it open to pull out the perfume bottle.

Henry staggered back and Ana jumped to her feet as she saw he had been hit in the right shoulder. But somehow he managed to keep the gun in his hand.

“For her?” he bellowed as he raised the gun again. Lucas kept his ground, reloading his pistol.

Ana stared at him. How could he not run? How could he not take cover when Henry was armed?

Because of her. He wanted to protect her.

She turned on Henry, who was lifting his mangled arm to point his pistol at Lucas. Gripping the perfume bottle and praying the concoction she’d created would work, she charged him.

“Don’t you dare!” she screamed as she sprayed a mist of the kerosene and pepper oil directly into Henry’s eyes, then followed with the hardest punch she’d ever thrown.

He howled with surprise and pain, lifting his hands to cover his face. Ana staggered back as some of the mist back sprayed at her, filling her lungs with the pungent odor and making her eyes water.

Henry collapsed to his knees, swearing as he rubbed at his eyes. Ana coughed and backed away.

But he wasn’t ready to quit. He swung the gun in the direction she had approached from.

“Bitch!” he screamed over and over as he waved the
gun in her direction. She tried to move, but her own vision was clouded by the backlash of her invention.