“And you rode all the way to Lübeck, with that hollow-eyed maid, risking your reputation and safety, for this Englishman?”Each word was measured, controlled.He asked again, “How.Well.Do.You.Know.Him?”
She felt heat rising to her cheeks.“Henrik and I dined at his parents’ home.We attended the same balls.That was all.”
“I see,” Friedrich interrupted.“He is one of the men you danced with.Maybe the one who made you start to doubt our betrothal.”
“No!That is, yes, we danced, but that has nothing to do with this.”
Still speaking so softly, he might have been in the presence of a sleeping babe, Friedrich asked, “Did he court you?”
Good God!Jonathan had done everything except that.Well, not everything!
“Of course not.Henrik told everyone that I had an intended here at home.”
“Henrik is a good friend,” Friedrich said.
“Then will you also be a good friend and help this man?”
“Why isn’t Henrik here, asking me?”
Lise winced.“Captain Albrecht gave him leave to come tell us about ...about Mr.Bowen.”She hoped that was the name Jonathan was using.“But your brother wouldn’t allow Henrik any more time away from his duties.”
Friedrich shook his head.“I cannot credit how your parents allowed you to —” He stopped himself.“Of course they didn’t!They don’t know you’re here.No one does.”
Feeling a frisson of alarm dance along her spine, she nearly said that Jacob knew where she was, but held her tongue.For all the world, she wouldn’t draw the poor lad any deeper into her scheme.
“Lise, it is utterly impossible for me to believe that you would risk everything if you didn’t have strong feelings for this English spy.”
“He is not a spy,” she said, before belatedly denying the more damning part of his statement.“And I have no feelings for him beyond friendship and gratitude for how he treated us in his country.”
Never mind the special treatment Jonathan afforded her in a London hallway.And again in her mother’s garden.And the hay loft.
“I see,” he repeated, and she wasn’t sure what he saw.Then he shrugged.“The French must have their reasons to think otherwise.”Friedrich turned away from her, his hands clenching into fists.“I can understand why you fear for his safety.How very ...compassionate.”
“We should all be compassionate toward anyone being held by the French, especially a civilian.”
“But the French don’t see him as a civilian, do they?”He pointed out, his tone a little less gentle.“If they’re holding him, they must believe they have cause.These are dangerous times, Lise.Bonaparte’s men are quite serious about enforcing the Continental System.”
“Is there nothing that can be done for him?”she asked.“For the sake of Henrik and your brother and all the rest of the KGL?After all, Mr.Bowen was part of the official welcome in London.”
Friedrich stared pointedly at her, then cocked his head, frowning.“Why would a mapmaker be an official anything?”
“Because he is a nobleman,” Lise blurted before sitting on the closest chair without being asked.“May I have a cup of tea?”Her exacerbation was obvious.
“Yes, certainly.I’m sorry to have treated you shabbily.I was merely surprised.We’ll have supper later, too.”
He rang the bell and soon secured her hot tea and a plate of biscuits.Only then did he return and sit opposite, on the sofa.It was vastly different being alone with him when her parents weren’t nearby, watching.Not exciting and tingly like when she was alone with Jonathan.Not like that at all.Merely nerve-wracking and uncomfortable.The room felt suddenly too small, too warm.
“Will you now tell me the truth?”he asked.“For the sake of our long friendship and our betrothal.”
She sighed.“The Englishman is Lord Jonathan Bowen, a viscount and heir to the Earl of Castleton.”
Friedrich’s mouth dropped open momentarily, and Lise continued, “Beyond that, I know only that his hobby is being a mapmaker.”
“And my brother quite sensibly forbade Henrik from attempting any sort of rescue operation,” he said.
“Yes, but —”
“Such an attempt would be extraordinarily dangerous and likely to fail,” Friedrich added, reaching across the space between them and taking hold of her hand, which she thought highly improper given the circumstances.“Then Henrik would have thrown his life away and possibly endangered your entire family.”
