“I imagine they see what they expect to,” she murmured in her own defense.
His whole attention was on the locket. Felicity’s was on him. She was feeling the ground slip out from under her. She had been subject to too many warring emotions in too short a time.
Suddenly his words caught up with her. “You said our,” she said.
He didn’t look up. “Hmmm?”
“You saidour. We. We who?”
That got his attention. He looked up, and suddenly those sharp green eyes had somehow gone opaque. “Well…,” he said, finally looking up. “The, uh, government...”
Felicity blinked, waiting for more.
“The government,” she prompted when he stopped. “You serve thegovernment?”
He shifted, as if anxious to flee. “In a way.”
“In what way?”
She kept watching him, waiting for more. Feeling as if she should already know the answer. He kept turning the locket in his hand. She had a feeling he was in the process of inventing some outlandish answer. And then, out of the blue, she swore she could hear Pip’s voice.
“Nobody can know, of course. He’d murder me if he knew I told you.”
The pieces of the puzzle clicked right into place.
“Oh, my heavens,” Felicity breathed. “You’re a rake!”
He froze as if she’d called him a witch, but only for a second. Then his patented grin flashed. “Merely popular.”
She scowled at him. “You know perfectly well what I mean. You work with Pip’s brother Alex and his friends. Don’t you?”
“How do you…Oh.” If he weren’t so in control, his shoulders would have slumped. “Pip knows.”
“Well, of course Pip knows. We are speaking of Pip here. She told us when her brother Alex brought her friend Fiona back to school after she ran off. Pip was trying to convince us that we could trust Alex to get her back. Because he was a spy. A member of Drake’s Rakes.”
“Not a...”
She scowled. “Aspy. Among a group of other spies who were all sons of the aristocracy. Have you done this since you left the army? Or did you do it then too?”
It was his turn to scowl. “I help when I can. I have helped on the Lion investigation. But you cannot tell anyone else.”
Felicity spared him a scowl. Something still made her feel uncomfortable, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Maybe she would be able to better contemplate it later when she was in her room. Away from the very distracting presence of Lord Flint Bracken.
In the meantime, she could protect her locket.
“You’ve seen it,” she said, her own hand hovering over his that was closed around her necklace. “Would there be any harm in my having it back?”
She didn’t want to beg, but she would.
Flint’s smile was rueful. “Not yet. This has to be shared with others who might be able to recognize something important that I don’t. Fortunately, a couple are in the vicinity.”
She would never get it back. She didn't know how she was so certain, but her little locket was already lost. Her throat closed a moment against the sharp sting of tears, but she nodded and deliberately took a step back.
“I’ll take very good care of it, Felicity,” he said, his voice soft.
She nodded again and backed a few more steps away. “I’ll, uh, just...” She gave her hand a little wave. “You need to change, don’t you?”
And before he could say another word, she turned and walked out, shutting the door behind her, her emotions in more of a turmoil than she could ever remember. Without thinking, she headed down toward the servants’ stairs and the kitchen. Cook looked up in surprise as Felicity hurried past, but she couldn’t stop.
