“And yet here I sit beside you, hale and hearty.”
“Do not be flippant with me,” the eldest Deville said.
“It is done. Let it drop now, Gabe,” Nathan said.
He’d told them about the man with the American accent and the woman who should not have been there. The woman he’d held, kissed, and been unable to stop thinking about. Who was she? Where was she? It felt good to think of someone other than Beth, even if it was likely he’d never see the woman again.
“Yes, well, see it does not happen again, especially now we know they are trying to uncover our identities.”
“But why the unrest? What reason do they have for getting those men riled enough to march or worse?” Zach asked.
“That I don’t know,” Nathan said. “To my mind it’s a diversion; I’m just not sure why?”
“It seems strange that lady was there,” Michael said. “And you think she had a thick accent. Hungarian or Russian, do you think?”
“How am I to know if she’s German, Hungarian, or Russian? She could be from any number of places,” Nathan said.
Michael shrugged. “You said she had quite a guttural tone.”
“She did, but I doubt it will help us. I wonder if she was a prostitute just watching the goings-on.”
“With her big American companion?” Zach said.
Nathan didn’t like to think of her with a man, which was ridiculous as he did not even know her name.
“Did she seem like a prostitute?” Michael asked.
“How does a prostitute seem?”
His brothers thought about that.
“Like any other woman, but dressed a little more risqué,” Gabe added.
“Exactly,” Nathan agreed.
The day was one of those rare gems that had a cloudless blue sky above and sun beaming down on those fortunate enough to be out in it. Looking about him at the carriages, horses, and people, Nathan thought it almost idyllic, and if there wasn’t a sharp thorn jabbing him in the side now that she was back, he’d think life was close to perfect.
It wasn’t, however, anywhere near close to perfect.
“I spoke with Jack yesterday,” Gabe said.
Jack was an informant who had also been with them for years.
“He confirms your rumors of an uprising. That fires are being stoked by two men. He said they sound like the men you saw, Nathan. But he also confirmed there is someone lifting things from noblemen, which we already knew.”
“Lifting?” Zach asked.
“How is it you have no idea that lifting means stealing?” Nathan asked.
“I don’t steal!”
“But you mix with the seedier underbelly of nobility. I’m sure some of them do.”
Zach’s face flushed with color. “I do not mix with seedy nobility.”
“If you say so,” Nathan said, quite content he’d annoyed his brother.
“I was speaking to Tramborne last night. He said seeing as things seem to have cooled between you and Miss Carlow, he might move there.”
