“This is no scheme. I was recruited by the King himself.”
Gabe raised an eyebrow. “Recruited?”
“Yes. And if you are amenable, I have a modest training program at my estate in…”
Gabe sliced his hand through the air, cutting Mr. Richards off. “Nae. Whate’r it is ye’re tryin’ te fool me on, I’m nae interested.”
A piece of paper appeared in Gabe’s hand.
Gabe raised an eyebrow. Mr. Richards was deceptively silent in his movements and on his feet. What sort of man was he?
“My documentation, sir.” The man had the audacity to wink.
Gabriel looked at the fine parchment lying in his palm and turned it over. The royal signet had been pressed into the wax seal. He arched an eyebrow at the smiling Mr. Richards before he ripped open the seal with his index finger and opened the missive.
This document does hereby royally certify that Colonel Kieran Richards…His eyes scanned the parchment, and his doubts swiftly fled.
“Ye’re aspy?” He lifted his incredulous gaze toward the mysterious, smirking Colonel Richards.
“Don’t bandy that about, wot?”
“If ye’re a…” he slid his gaze quickly around the stables, then focused on the spy in black in front of him. “Then wha’ do ye want with me? I’m nobody.”
“You are not nobody, Mr. Ashley. You are a man of good breeding with knowledge, capability, and are able to take down a veritable giant with just your hands.” His eyes glittered. “You are honest, you have learned how to control your accent—or at least affect an English one—when you feel like it, and you are not a stranger to hard work. The Secret Service is very interested in you.”
Gabe was nonplussed; his eyebrows rose nigh to his hairline. “Ye know me?”
The horse in the next stall shuffled his hooves against the straw-covered ground, kicking up the fresh scent of manure and hay.
Colonel Richards casually shrugged one shoulder. “I cannot very well recruit men that I do not know.”
Gabe took a moment to wrap his thoughts around the fact that this man had obviously been having Gabe followed and had likely questioned his family. It was invasive. It was prying. It was…rather flattering.
Despite the impetuousness of this potential decision, Gabe was intrigued. “Ye deem me worthy, then, aye?”
Richards’ grin grew into a full smile. “I do, Mr. Ashley. Training is intensive and rather time consuming, but you would learn how to easily traverse this world; how to blend in with the highest of society or the lowest, depending on where you are needed.” He raised one gloved hand and patted Hunter’s neck.
Gabriel did not know what to think of this man. The documentation was indisputable; the man was a spy for the crown, and for some unknown reason he wished to recruit Gabe.
Oddly enough, Gabe was intrigued by the notion. After his fisticuffs with the giant in the pub, he’d intended to mount Hunter and ride away…but he had nowhere to go, no one to seek refuge with.
Richards hadn’t mentioned it, but Gabe suspected that there was one aspect of Gabe’s life that was likely a very appealing aspect of his potential recruitment: few attachments.
Both of Gabriel’s parents had gone to meet the good Lord, and no one else particularly cared whether he lived or died. He had no siblings to speak of—only a few odd members from his mother’s clan that lamented his half English blood—and his disreputable cousin who likewise hated his half-Scottish blood. He was alone.
A vision of Mary Wright flashed through his mind’s eye, but he quickly brushed it away. She might have cared about him at one point in their lives, but that time had long since passed.
Accepting this man’s offer for recruitment would change his life, would give him a new purpose.
“I’ll do it,” he said.
