“I will admit that my feelings and realizations are the same.”
Was Rhys saying that he cared about her?
“It is true.” He shrugged. “I do care about you; I am just not certain of the depth.”
“Nor I,” she admitted. “These are extraordinary circumstances.”
“The kind that could make a person believe that there is more when there is not.”
There it was. How could anyone know what was real when they were always afraid of getting caught by the French or worried that they would not be rescued, and having to watch over younger siblings, and needing to rely on the other.
“It is likely we will never know,” she finally said.
“Why is that?”
“You are a spy and I am the daughter of a diplomat who lives in Dominica.”
“Ah, but this is my last mission as a spy,” he whispered.
She pulled back to study him to gauge if he was telling the truth. “Really?”
“Actually, I had been retired for a year when I was recruited to be an operative in the Caribbean.” He leaned close. “Though that is supposed to be a secret so do not tell anyone.”
“I promise that I will not,” she returned just as quietly.
“I wanted to come home to Antigua, where I was originally from, but lacked the funds. The agreement was that they would send me here, pay me well, and I would continue to work for them here until I was no longer needed.”
“Then this isn’t your last mission, unless the war has ended and nobody told me.”
Rhys chuckled. “I agreed because I wanted to go home. Once this mission is complete, I will write my employer and tell him that I have had a change of heart and no longer wish to spy.”
“I cannot imagine that the Home Office will be pleased.” Her father had various dealings with men who were spies and they were serious and had expectations.
“I do not work for the Home Office, at least, not directly.”
“If not the Crown, then who does employ you?”
He smiled slowly. “It is another secret.”
“I promise not to tell.”
He turned and studied her. “I believe you, Tempest, so I shall tell you.”
He then turned and looked out at the ocean without saying anything further.
“If you are going to tell me, then do so.”
He chuckled. “You are not a very patient person, are you.”
“You are back to being difficult, I see.”
“No. Simply teasing you.” He smiled. “My employer is The Lion Watch, founded by a former spy who had to give up the game when he inherited a title. He has formed his own agency with men and women across the world, and I am one of them. It was the Home Office who needed someone like me and why I was recruited.”
“Someone like you. What does that mean?”
“Because I know the area. My father was a British Revenue Man who sailed these waters looking for smugglers. I sailed with him when I was younger. I also speak the languages as if I were born here, which I was, and why I was the perfect candidate.”
“Is your father still a Revenue Man?”
