She considered him, as if weighing the truth of his words. “Why tell me now?”
She still hadn’t softened her stance. She looked instead like the goddess of judgment, her posture unbending, her aristocratic nose a bit in the air. And he hurt for her and wished he could just pull her into his arms. A worse idea than the iris, though, from her posture.
“Besides the fact that I just asked you to put your life into my hands?”
“Besides that.”
“Because I found out your father already knew. And because for some reason I trust you more than the government.”
A smile? No. He didn’t dare risk it as stern as she still looked.
“The government?”
“The government asked me...well,strongly suggestedI go.”
“Why? I know you don’t go to a battlefield. We have recently dispensed with those. What else demands such alacrity?”
He shrugged, feeling more and more uncomfortable. This had all been so clear to him when he realized how well the marriage would serve him.
Servehim.
But it meant so much more now. He wanted to hold her. To lay her head against his shoulder and promise that she would always have his support. She would never have to carry another burden alone.
But she would, of course. In a matter of little more than a week.
“Because I trust you,” he said, not pausing when he heard the disbelieving huff, “I will share what I am not supposed to.”
“And it will be the truth.”
His instinctive reaction was to bristle. One look at the brittle expression on her face convinced him not to. “It will be the truth. From now on, it will always be the truth.” He took a breath and a quick look out to the blooming flowers, peonies and primrose and lilacs. And useless damn iris. “When I was on the Continent, I was asked to perform a few...extra...commissions beyond my duties. I am fluent in French, German, and Spanish. It came in handy.”
“I imagine it did. Was it during these extra commissions you kept running across my brother and cousins?”
Well, that took his breath. “How did you know?”
She shrugged. “I suspected. Things they said to each other when on leave.” Finally, she afforded Grey a wry smile. “Men have a disconcerting habit of underestimating the comprehension of women. We kings figured it out long ago.” She stopped for a moment, as if struck by a revelation. And not a happy one. “Oh, lord. You’re part of Drake’s Rakes, aren’t you?”
Grey opened his mouth and yet couldn’t seem to get anything out for the longest time. “Drake’s…how do you know?”
She huffed in frustration. “I’m fairly certain every girl who attended Last Chance Academy knows about Drake’s Rakes. Except I thought they were only the sons who weren’t allowed to fight on the Continent who helped the government in…shall we say, other ways. How did you come into it?”
“Last Chance…?”
She waved him off, much like her father would have. “The nickname for our boarding school. You are a member of Drake’s Rakes, then?”
He shrugged. “I’d call it more a cadet branch.”
“And my brother and cousins as well.”
He nodded, feeling more than a bit disconcerted. “I also served with them on the line. They are fine officers.”
“If a bit reckless and impulsive.”
He smiled. “If that.”
“And now that Napoleon is on Elba?”
His first instinct was to lie. He truly wasn’t used to breaking confidences, especially if they were state secrets. But if he could not trust her with this, he could not trust her with his children. And if he did not tell her the truth now, she would never be able to trust him again.
