He held out his glass, and Nicholas silently refilled it. After throwing it down, he lowered it to the desk softly. “Well, speak then.”
He felt the eyes of everyone in the room go from him to Samantha. Warwick didn’t care what they were thinking. He wanted answers and had a feeling she could supply them.
“I will because I want to. Not because you tell me to.” Her chin rose, and he refused to acknowledge how much he enjoyed seeing the fight in her.
“I will gag you if you speak again, Warwick. Now shut up,” Eden snapped.
He folded his arms but kept his eyes on Samantha.
“I wasn’t going to tell you this. I-I thought it best I dealt with it alone,” she said slowly. “I wanted to protect you all.”
Warwick opened his mouth, but Eden gave him a look that had him shutting it. She’d always been able to do that.
“But after today I knew I had to,” Samantha continued.
“What did you not tell us?” James demanded.
She opened her hand, and a piece of paper he hadn’t even realized she’d been holding was there, folded into a small square. It drew every eye in the room.
“Th-this could destroy us,” she whispered.
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
“What is it?” Max moved closer to her, resting his hand on her shoulder.
“I received this letter two days before I left Ireland.”
She was nervous now. It was there in the way she talked. Samantha was always still when she was scared or nervous. It was a trick she’d learned young in life. Be still and small, and no one noticed you. He rarely saw her do it now, and only when she was distressed. Warwick fought the urge to go to her, as clearly she was that and more.
She lifted the paper and began to read. He listened with the others, grappling with what she was telling them. And then he heard the words Duck and Goose and only just refrained from roaring again.
“Itwasyou,” he whispered. “Nathanial Deville said a woman bumped into him at the Duck and Goose, and that he thought it was you. And getting into that hackney, that was you too?”
She nodded.
“You…” Warwick could barely speak for the fear that gripped him over what could have happened to her that night. “I shouted at you to stop.”
She scoffed. Actually scoffed at him. “I would not have stopped then had you called my name. I knew you would be in a towering rage if you realized it was me.”
“You left the safety of this house to go to that tavern at midnight?” James had lost all the color in his face.
“I feel ill,” Nicholas added. “The things that could have happened to her and we would never have known.”
“I need food,” Cam rasped.
“Oh, for pity’s sake,” Dorrie snapped. “Let her finish. She is here and safe, so there is no need to think of the what-ifs. Now we need to work toward resolving this.”
“What she said,” Cam added as he moved to hug his little sister.
“Well, tell us the rest then,” Warwick snapped.
“The man I spoke to said he wanted money for the information he had and his continued silence and that I was to bring it to the Duck and Goose at midnight tomorrow. He then left some correspondence for me behind.” Samantha produced another piece of paper and started reading.
“In 1911, The Duke of Raven met with French spy Theo Lavigne, one of Napoleon’s most trusted men, four times. The location for these rendezvous was Withers Peak. I accompanied him and watched as he handed over a wealth of information relating to the United Kingdom’s political situation and war office details such as troop movements and Englishmen working behind enemy lines in France. In exchange, he was handed gold. I wrote an accounting of this for fear one day I may be incriminated. I also kept the correspondence that the duke received from Theo Lavigne.”
Silence settled over the room briefly while they all grappled with what she’d told them.
“I will read the other note he handed me now,” Samantha said in a tight, controlled voice. “Raven, we meet at midnight two miles from Crunston Cliff at Withers Peak. I have gold, which I will exchange for information.He also said he has more of the correspondence our father shared with Theo Lavigne.”
