“Well, if what I heard is correct, he is also a Lion. Please. Take these blasted plans before I throw them into the fire…oh, and here,” she said, striding over to her dresser. “Take my copy of the false papers as well. I have marked them as such. The ones you retrieved are now under Pamela’s mattress in place of the real ones. Unless they look very closely, whoever picks them up will think they are the real ones. It might introduce a bit of chaos into things.”
He grabbed the papers and then just stared at them. Then with a snap, his head came up. “A Lion? What are you talking about?”
She sat back down again. “I was wondering when you’d catch on to that.”
“Yes,” he said, clutching that paper as if it posed a new threat. “That.”
She shrugged. “I supposed I should begin by telling you that I have known about Drake’s Rakes since I was quite young.”
It was as if he’d turned to stone. “Of course, you know about Drake’s Rakes. We had some of our better entertainments at Delamere when you were at your grandmother’s next door.”
Pip scowled at him. “Really, Beau. Isn’t it a bit late to be protesting your innocence? You are holding plans you were supposed to recover at the behest of Marcus Drake. I. Recovered. Them. I imagine that means I know exactly what Drake’s Rakes are.”
“What do you think they are?”
“None of you were able to go to war,” she said, looking down at her hands. “The heirs who were left behind while their brothers were allowed to fight for king and country.”
Theo. Theo had been allowed to go in his bright blood-red uniform, the anticipation in his eyes terrifying. Theo, whose body was lost somewhere in France. But Pip couldn’t tell Beau that she knew Theo was the reason he worked so hard for the Rakes and the government. Why he’d tried half a dozen times to enlist since Theo’s death, although evidently Horse Guards had recognized a death wish when they saw it. She and Beau hadn’t been able to mention Theo’s name since the day they had gotten the news.
Pip cleared her throat and began again. “I found out about all of you when I was a little girl. You and Alex gave it away, actually, when you used to whisper in the corners about your plans. You had no idea I was paying attention. But I was always paying attention.”
The paper crinkled in his hands. Pip looked up to see a mixture of emotions skim across his eyes; frustration, anger, pain. Ah, she thought. Here is where we should talk about how I once shadowed Theo, how I copied his every move and lesson so I could follow them both into the breach. But we won’t. We won’t let Theo’s shade loose between us, no matter how badly we need to.
How sad that they couldn’t even bring the person they both had loved most with them into their marriage.
“In fact,” she said, deciding it was far better to get over the hurdle quickly. “You should know that all my friends from Last Chance know. Ever since we found out we were in that godforsaken place because our brothers or fathers are in sensitive positions—like the Rakes. And, well, it has been becoming increasingly difficult to ignore it lately.”
Lately being when they had uncovered even more spies in Lizzie Ripton’s cellar just four days ago, leading to the exodus of four other rakes to London, leaving the house party sadly unbalanced at dinner and Beau in charge of their original mission when he showed up later. Which Pip had just accomplished.
“What do you all think you know?” he asked.
“I told you. Marcus Drake collected all you restless, frustrated oldest sons to do what you could here to support your siblings. And then to pull the teeth of the Lions before they tried to topple the throne. For some reason your Pamela and Lord Burke decided to lure you out of the shadows this week. Although how they didn’t know the place was swarming with Rakes, I do not know.”
For the longest moment he just stared at her. Then he lifted the papers as if presenting evidence. “What did you think?” he demanded. “That by pilfering these from that group you could act out your childhood fantasies?”
“The Lions, Beau. You know their name. I know their name. And no. I thought I could save you from being murdered by giving you another reason for being in the library with the plans. And then I finished the job of getting the actual plans and replaced them with the fakes, because I was in a position to do it. You can thank me any time you want.”
She got up then and walked to the door, suddenly so tired she wanted nothing more than to cover her head and disappear. “And now I need to call my maid back in so I can change for bed. I hear I have an appointment in the morning I shouldn’t miss.”
Looking a bit as if he’d been kicked in the head, Beau slipped the plans into his inside pocket. “No one else can know about this,” he warned.
She almost laughed again. “St. Stella’s suspenders, Beau. You really do think I’m still ten, don’t you? Go on. You have an appointment as well.”
He approached her as if she were feral. She turned the knob and paused. “One more thing,” she said.
“What?”
She looked up at him, so she could make sure he heard her. “I had a lot of time to think while I was listening to Pamela snore.”
“She doesn’t--”
She silenced him with a look. “I fear that I realized something else tonight. Whatever you expected from this marriage, you’d better expect it with my participation. I cannot be a complacent bystander. Whatever we do, whatever decisions we make, I will be involved.”
His jaw worked like it did when he ground his teeth. She was positive if anything called for it, it was her challenge.
“We’ll have enough time to work that out later,” he said.
“No,” she said equably. “We won’t. If you cannot take my decision into account, leave before dawn. I will take responsibility, say I changed my mind.”
