So it was no wonder she turned away from him. He’d been foolish to think to kiss her. It was not a mistake he would repeat, for both their sakes.
The door behind him opened and he turned as Stenfax and Gray entered, followed by another man. Stenfax and Gray both grinned as they crossed the room to him.
“There he is,” Stenfax said with a laugh. “Asher!”
Asher held out a hand to shake, but Stenfax bypassed it and Asher was surprised when his old friend and employer dragged him in for a brief hug.
“Good to see you,” Stenfax said, stepping aside.
Gray was smiling too, but he held out a hand rather than embraced Asher. “This brings back memories, for certain,” Gray said. “Do you remember that time when we stole Father’s phaeton and—”
Asher laughed and interrupted, “Don’t! My backside still stings from the tanning I got after that. I couldn’t sit for a week.”
Stenfax chuckled and then turned toward the other man, the one Asher didn’t know. “Let me introduce you to John Dane. Gray’s brother-in-law.”
Asher stepped forward and held out a hand as he examined the man. He looked so…normalfor someone who he now knew had once been a spy. He was tall, with dark blond hair and a beard. But there was no mistaking the intelligence in the other man’s eyes, nor how he was reading Asher as he shook his hand.
“A pleasure,” Dane said.
As Asher pulled his hand away, he looked at the three men and his smile fell. “I appreciate the pleasantries, of course, and I do want to catch up, but I think we all know why I’m here.”
Gray let out a low sigh and all the troubles in the world seemed to descend upon him and Stenfax. “So Felicity told you the truth.”
“She did.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “And I admit I’m utterly overwhelmed by what she said. I had no idea she was being abused and threatened. Or that Elise was dragged into it and blackmailed.”
Stenfax shook his head. “We knew some of it, of course, but not that Felicity was driven so far as to kill her husband. That didn’t come out until Elise came back to me and was forced to reveal the blackmail that separated us.”
Asher’s eyes went wide as he stared at the brothers. When Felicity confessed her story, he had assumed her family had been in the dark about her marriage.
“You—you knew Barbridge was hurting her?” he repeated.
Gray’s jaw set. “Some bruises she couldn’t hide. And her demeanor told the story. The bright and bubbly girl she once was faded further and further away the longer she was married to him. She was reluctant to admit it, but at last she did.”
Rage flooded Asher as he moved toward Stenfax, a fist clenched at his side. “Why the hell didn’t you help her?”
Stenfax’s eyes went wide and Dane moved forward as if to intervene, but the earl held up a hand to stop him. “Steady, Asher. You know I love Felicity and I would do anything to protect her. But nothing I tried could circumvent the law, which labeled her as little more than property of Barbridge, to be kept in line however he saw fit. Nothing I did could free her of his control.”
Gray’s face was pale. “I assure you, Asher, if we could go back, we would. We would change a great deal.”
Asher opened his mouth to argue, but Dane stepped forward. “Gentlemen, none of us can go back and change the past. I suggest we not waste time deciding who was most to blame in the torment of Lady Barbridge. We must instead move forward if we hope to protect her now. Otherwise, in a few months, we will be arguing who failed her most when it comes to her secrets being revealed.”
Asher flinched at that assessment and the room went deathly quiet. At last Stenfax spoke. “You are wise, as always, Dane. I’m happy to have your more detached advice.”
“Don’t misread me,” Dane said. “I am not detached. Could I, I would go back in time and rip that bastard apart, for I have a great deal of respect for Lady Barbridge. But I know from experience that wishing the past could be different is not helpful.” He faced Asher. “I assume she told you what I am…what I was.”
Asher nodded. “She said a spy for the War Department.”
There was the barest flicker across Dane’s face, like he was reliving a life in a blink of an eye. “Yes. Which means I can work on the code, as well as any connections between the victims of this book of secrets. What I need to know is if you can work the money angle. I think Kirkford was blackmailing people around him with the information. We were able to obtain some of Elise’s husband’s paperwork in the chaos after the next duke’s death, and with her help I can see that he was receiving strange sums of money. But those kinds of patterns are not my specialty.”
Asher took a long breath. “They are mine. So yes, if you give me what you have, I can most certainly do my best to decipher them.”
Dane looked at each man in turn, his face serious, his jaw set. “Then I suggest we begin as soon as possible. Roger Beckford murdered his cousin and absconded with the book almost exactly a month ago. That’s a long time, even with as complicated a code as the book was written in. We’re already behind in our investigation. For Lady Barbridge’s sake, we must not get distracted.”
Stenfax went behind his desk, pulling out piles of papers as Gray rang for tea and breakfast to be brought. As everyone went about their business, Asher stepped away from the action. What John Dane said was true, of course. To help Felicity, he would need to keep himself from distraction.
And the biggest distraction of all was the lady herself.
Chapter Five
