“Thank you,” she said softly.
“Come,” Stenfax said, holding out a hand to Felicity. “Let’s sit while we wait.”
She cast one more long look at Asher, then took her brother’s offering and a seat between him and Gray on the settee. Rosalinde took a chair across and motioned to another for Asher, but he shook his head slightly. He couldn’t sit. He couldn’t pretend like this was tea with friends when he knew Dane was picking apart the book, trying to break the code.
Until he knew Felicity was safe, there would be no sitting. No resting.
“Why didn’t the War Department keep the book?” Felicity whispered, her voice broken.
Asher jerked his gaze to her. “What do you mean?”
“You took Beckford to them, I assume, as he was under arrest. And we all know that the book must contain some kind of secrets of the nation or the department wouldn’t be so interested. So why didn’t they keep it?”
“Dane’s former superior, Stalwood, arranged it. After much discussion, some of it very loud, I’m afraid, he said your family is a friend to the country and he would allow Dane twelve hours to get what he needed from the book before he expected it back for further investigation.”
Rosalinde exchanged a look with Gray. “I’ve always liked that man.”
He smiled slightly. “Have you? I recall when everything happened with Celia you called Stalwood a cruel bastard who could—”
She held up a hand. “All right, all right. Enough of that.”
Asher drew in a long breath. He saw what Gray was doing, trying to make Rosalinde smile in the midst of this chaos and pain. And he wanted to do the same for Felicity.
Only that wasn’t his place. Was it?
The door to the parlor opened and Dane stepped back inside. His face was drawn down in a long frown, and both Elise and Celia looked upset behind him.
“I’ve flipped through the book from beginning to end,” he said. “The only things that weren’t encoded by Elise’s husband were the names of those he blackmailed. And Felicity…”
She stood slowly. “My name isn’t in the book?”
Dane shook his head. “There are two sections of pages missing. I assume one is Fitzgilbert’s, as Beckford admitted to selling those. The other is likely yours.”
“Fitzgilbert bought her secrets,” Asher said, grabbing the back of the chair hard enough that he felt the wood strain beneath his hands. “That was what Beckford meant when he said Fitzgilbert bought other secrets. But why? Why would he take Felicity’s pages?”
Gray pushed to his feet and cursed loud and long and creatively before he shook his head. “Because of me. Because he lost Rosalinde and Celia because of our family. Because he’s a petty fool who would revel in destroying what he could not control.”
Rosalinde covered her face with her hands. “Gray isn’t wrong,” she said in a muffled and pained tone.
“No,” Celia admitted, wiping at a tear. “He isn’t.”
Dane straightened his shoulders. “We suspect this and I’m sure it’s true. But I want to hear it from Beckford’s mouth. I’m going back to Stalwood and I’m going to find out the truth.”
“Do you want one of us to go with you?” Stenfax asked.
“No,” Dane said, his tone low and dangerous. He faced Celia. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She took his hand, and Asher flinched at the raw pain on her face. “Be careful.”
Dane nodded and left the room. The moment he did, all eyes turned to Felicity. Asher saw her wince, saw her beginning to buckle, and he strode forward, propriety gone, protecting himself gone. All he wanted to do was help her.
And he couldn’t, not truly. But he could at least get her away from the pity she often said she feared.
“Come,” he said, holding out a hand.
She stared at it, then back to his face. “What?”
“You and I are going for a ride,” he said, looking toward her brothers and daring them to refuse him.
