Respectfully,
T.
PS: I must insist that if an infection sets in, you notify me at once.
She foldedthe epistle thrice before entrusting it to the man who waited in the shadows. Silently, she handed him the response.
With a tug at his forelock, the man slipped back out the window into the night, leaving her alone.
Alone with her panic.
Princess Anastasia had been somehow injured this evening. And although Tierney’s vaguely worded note had intended to reassure her, Tansy felt anything but calm. She felt utterly helpless and powerless. In a state of abject despair, in fact. She was deeply worried for the welfare of her friend. If she’d been seen by a doctor and couldn’t return, that meant something significant had occurred. Tansy didn’t know Archer Tierney from any other man in London. Was he trustworthy? What if his note was a lie and he was holding Princess Anastasia captive?
More questions swirled, a long line of them as Tansy paced the length of the chamber.
How was she to keep the guards satisfied indefinitely? One false move, and their deception would be discovered, and Tansy would be in certain danger as well as King Maximilian.
If the reason for their subterfuge were ever to become known…
If something were to happen to Princess Anastasia…
No, she couldn’t think about that now. She had to remain calm and formulate a plan.
Tansy halted suddenly, staring at the empty bed where she had artfully placed pillows and rolled-up garments to resemble the princess’s sleeping form. A sudden realization hit her. She needed help, and there was only one man in London she trusted.
King Maximilian.
But the hour was very late, far beyond the time he had ever paid a call. The servants and guards were likely abed. If she wanted his aid, she was going to have to go to him.
She hastened to the bed, making certain the counterpane was pulled over the pillows, and then she took the missive from Tierney, tossing it into the fireplace, watching it burn to ash. If she were to leave the chamber, there was a risk she would be seen. However, unlike the princess, who was believed to be ill, Tansy’s movements within the household wouldn’t be remarked upon. She could likely slip away with ease and find herself in the mews. The only risk would be in someone venturing inside the room while she was gone.
But it was one she was going to have to take. For the princess’s sake as much as for her own and King Maximilian’s. Everything they had been working in secret to build was in grave peril.
Tansy retreated to her room and gathered her cloak, preparing to venture out into the dangerous night.
CHAPTER 9
“Your Majesty.”
“What is it now, Felix?” Maxim demanded in a snarl from his position slumped on a chaise longue in the small town house library before a contrarily merry fire. “I told you I’m not to be disturbed for the rest of the evening.”
“Of course, Your Majesty,” his bodyguard said from the threshold, his voice placating. “However, there is a visitor come to pay a call, demanding an audience.”
“Tell the visitor to go to the devil,” he growled, lifting a glass of whisky to his lips and taking a long draught.
After the loyalist rebels had been dealt with—their bodies weighted and delivered to the River Thames—he had slunk away to the relative solitude of the library to be alone with his spirits and his demons. Nando had left in search of diversion between some Englishwoman’s milky thighs. The household had settled into an eerie calm.
But Maxim hadn’t settled at all. He wasn’t fit company for anyone, even if he were expecting a visitor at half past midnight.
Which he decidedly wasn’t.
“I’ve suggested to the lady that she isn’t welcome,” Felix said, lingering, although he’d been dismissed. “She begged me to tell you it is a matter of grave importance concerning Her Royal Highness, Princess Anastasia St. George.”
Maxim shot to his feet. “The lady?”
He was already moving, striding across the library, intent upon his course. It had to be Lady Tansy who had come calling upon him at this late hour.
Felix attempted to block his path. “Your Majesty, it may be a trap. I don’t think it wise for you to meet with her.”
