Riverdale nodded. “She’s very important to you.”
He caught his friend’s stare. “Who?”
Riverdale barked in laughter. “Who! Who do you gaze at when you think no one’s looking? Who do you mark for her laughter? For what she’s eating. How her gown cups her breasts? Who? Who could that be?”
“I must be slipping.”
“You are.”
Quel dommage!“Do you like her?” Simms had to ask. If she was to become his friend’s wife, go to his arms, his bed, then he had to know now if he could bear the torment or if he had to leave here, run…but to where? Boston? Baltimore? Neither would be far enough.
“I do,Saint Ives. Who does not? She’s got the sweetest face. A beauty. Smart.”
That turned him glum. “Temptation with violent red hair.”
“Along with aggressive.”
“Assertive,” he corrected Jim.
“Of course,” Riverdale conceded with too much grandiosity. “As well as inventive.”
So true.And for his friend? “She’d be an excellent partner in espionage.”
“Oh, Christ. Are youpromotingher to me?”
“No!”
“Good because she’s terrible at cards.”
Simms winced. “That’s your requirement for a wife?”
“You know it helps to have a believable vice. It’s the way one seduces the enemy into believing one is fallible. And then they share their own foibles, silly creatures.”
“You cannot use her for that.”
“No. I cannot and would notuseher, my friend, for anything. I am not blind. She is yours. As you are hers.”
“That’s not true.”
“Then you’re blind,Ives.”
“Thank you,” he said with no small amount of umbrage.
“You’re welcome. Is she here for you?”
He did not wish to discuss it.
“So. She is. And the reason we do not care that she is here to claim you is what precisely?”
“You know why.”
“Indeed I do.” Riverdale rose to his feet and fixed the austere dark eyes of the agentMonsieurupon him. This creature was of the shadows, the owl, the man who saw all, understood all and gave away nothing until he crushed his opponent with the truth…or the most believable lie. “You told me in France. One night in your cups. She is the charm of your existence. The angel on your earth.”
“The earl’s daughter. Not meant for the vicar’s youngest hellion son.”
Riverdale, his friend, glared at him. Suddenly he transformed toMonsieuragain and lifted his head to survey the sky. “You know, for a man who could spot a liar with nary one fault to his tale, you astonish me for how short-sighted you are.”
“You just said I was blind.”
