1
April 1818
London, England
Graham Wynchester turned away from the carriage window. “Are you certain you won’t need me?”
Beside him on the seat, his sister Tommy sent him a flat look. “It’s a simple infiltration and recovery. We’ve done it a thousand times.”
Across from her in the carriage, Miss Philippa York didn’t look up from the mountain of books open on her lap. The toes of her half boots played with Tommy’s beneath the lace of Philippa’s gown. “I’m fairly certain I’ve memorized every word written on the topic.”
“Righting a miscarriage of justice isn’t something you read,” Tommy teased as she smoothed the distinctive red waistcoat of her Bow Street Horse Patrol uniform. “It’s something wedo.”
“These aren’t gothic novels,” Philippa protested. “They’re Graham’s intelligence albums on the building, owners, and staff. Each one is incredibly thorough.”
Graham grinned at her. His reconnaissance was always useful, but Philippa was the first to cling to his compendiums as though she adored the journals just as much as he did.
If all went well, that would soon change. A week ago, one of Graham’s informants had learned that an important foreign dignitary would be visiting London and had requested the Crown provide documentation disclosing potential security concerns at all the significant places a royal guest would be likely to visit.
Graham wasmadefor a task like that!
The Crown hadn’t requested his intervention. The Home Office had begrudgingly accepted Graham’s offer to submit his own report… after he pointed out that he wouldn’t even beawareof the project, were it not for clear holes in security that Graham knew of and the Crown did not. The Prince Regent would see Graham’s talents firsthand. In the meantime, he was sworn to secrecy about his involvement in the upcoming diplomatic preparations.
After a lifetime collecting other people’s secrets, Graham finally had a delicious one of his own. And if all went very, very well, he might even achieve the dream he’d cherished since he was a child: acknowledgment by a royal.
“Someone can helpme.” Graham’s sister Elizabeth sat across from him, sheathing and unsheathing three different sword sticks. “Which deadly blade should I wield? The one with the serpent handle, the one shaped like a raptor, or the one Marjorie painted with daisies?”
He pointed at the innocuous-looking cane covered in flowers and festooned with ribbons. “They definitely won’t anticipate a rapier through the heart if you sally in with that confection.”
Philippa looked up from her reading, alarmed. “Do you really think—”
“He’s bamming you.” Tommy adjusted her beaver hat. “Elizabeth willpretendto be violent, which will distract the inn’s proprietor. You’ll slip in and out undetected whilst I detain my sister after a prolonged and dramatic tussle.”
“I don’t have to pretend,” said Elizabeth. “I could poke a few of them, just for flair.They’rethe villains who stole…”
While Tommy and Elizabeth bickered over the appropriate bloodiness of a staged altercation, Philippa met Graham’s eyes.
“What about you?” she asked. “Do you need help with your mission?”
Bursting into sisterly laughter, Tommy and Elizabeth ceased their row at once.
“Help with…a wild-goose chase?” Elizabeth said in disbelief.
“It is nothing of the sort.” While performing reconnaissance for his government, Graham had stumbled across a mystery—one that gave him the perfect cover for going out on research expeditions in person, rather than relying exclusively on his network of spies. There was legitimate work to be done. “A woman is in grave danger, and I am going to save her.”
“You don’t know that she’s in danger,” Tommy said. “You stumbled across a series of personal advertisements in the newspaper implying a ‘package’ was being tracked and subsequently went missing.”
“He didn’t stumble across anything,” Elizabeth said. “He reads every word of every advertisement and every column in every publication. It’s where half his intelligence comes from.”
“Twenty-three percent,” Philippa said helpfully. “His network of spies are also quite informative.”
“And so is my own personal reconnaissance,” Graham reminded them. “Such as today. Just think! Perhaps I shall finally rescue a princess.”
Elizabeth scoffed. “How would someone lose a princess? We’dknowif someone lost a princess!”
“This is your second day looking for her,” Tommy added. “Have you considered you might be misreading the situation, and no one is missing?”
He waggled his finger at her. “You’re a doubting Thomas, both of you. You’ll see.”
