He approached Dalton’s office with Alice by his side, giving a curt nod to the guard disguised as a footman posted at the door.
“Lord and Lady Greystone. Dalton’s expecting us.”
The man must have been aware because he opened the door with alacrity. Stepping through, he seated Alice in one of the chairs fronting Dalton’s desk and took the other.
“Dalton, you bloody bastard, you knew and didn’t tell me.” His tone was casual as he sat back and crossed his legs in a picture of nonchalance. He felt anything but.
Dalton was well versed at reading moods rather than tone, for he looked up from his papers and narrowed his eyes at him.
“I take it you two finally had a sensible conversation.”
“You could have saved us several days of misunderstandings if you had just informed me that Ardmore was Alice’s brother, not her lover.”
Dalton raised his brows. “It was not my place to interfere in your personal business. Besides, I didn’t even know that was the issue, or even that you didn’t know about your wife’s relationship to Ardmore until a couple of days ago.”
“You still should have told me as soon as you knew.”
“Like I said, it isn’t my place to go divulging other people’s secrets. You should know better than that, Nathaniel. I did tell you to talk to your wife. I’m glad that, for once, you took my advice.”
“He didn’t,” Alice contributed. “It was John who told him when he found out Nathaniel had named him co-respondent in the divorce suit.”
“I had planned to talk to you!” he protested. “Just hadn’t had the chance to do it, what with all your middle-of-the-night outings and the action going on.”
“If it hadn’t been for John, we might still be going in circles,” Alice said.
Nathaniel glared at her. “You are not blameless either. You purposely withheld information from me and even failed to open your own divorce papers!”
“My goodness. I wonder how on earth you two can be such good agents and yet fail to see the obvious in your own lives.” Dalton shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Now that you have resolved your marital problems, let us get back to the investigation, shall we?”
“That’s why we are here. Have you got anything out of the Russian man?” Nathaniel asked.
“No. The worst part is I may have to let him go if I can’t find evidence of wrongdoing.”
“Why? Those men attacked us,” Alice protested.
“For the same reason I haven’t been able to arrest Dimitri. They are foreigners in the employ of a foreign embassy. Diplomatic immunity and all that. Have you made any progress with the code? We need to know what information is in those coded messages. It might be the proof that we need or, at the very least, a clue.”
“No. I haven’t made much progress, but my mind has been otherwise occupied,” Nathaniel replied. “I’ll keep working on it. What about the other man? The Englishman?”
“What about him? I need a better description from you, so we can at least try to narrow down the possible suspects.”
“Well, at least John is not a suspect anymore,” Alice said, throwing a smug glance his way. “The man we saw was taller, more corpulent, and his voice was different as well.”
“In fact, the man was similar in height and build to you, Dalton. But rounder around the middle. I only saw him in the shadows, but something about his profile reminded me of you.”
“Yes!” Alice turned to Nathaniel. “I kept thinking that he sounded familiar, but I think it was just that he looked like Dalton.”
Dalton’s gaze had become sharp. Focused. Bouncing between the two of them. “I need to know what’s in those papers. Now more than ever. If my suspicions are true…” He shook his head. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Stay focused. Now more than ever, we need to find out who’s involved and what their aim is. I’m afraid this may be bigger than any of us imagined.”
They left Dalton’s office, and he dropped Alice off at home. She turned at the door. “Are you coming in?”
Oh, how he longed to stay with her. There was a time when his coming in and staying over was a given. Back when they called this house their home. How he wished they could move in together again. But she wasn’t ready yet. It was too soon. Patience. He reminded himself. Stick to the plan. Give her time to think, space to breathe. She would come around.
“Not now. You heard Dalton, I need to work on deciphering those documents, and between the issue at my estate, and all the other personal revelations, I’ve barely had the time or the mind to work on it.”
“We could work on it together. I’ll help you.”
“Alice, we both know that if I enter this house, the last thing I’m going to want to do is work on those ciphers. You are too much of a distraction, and I need to focus.”
