“You wouldn’t,” she breathed.
“I wouldn’t need to.”His countenance relaxed into something resembling sympathy, though his eyes remained cold.“If the French learn that your family allowed one of King George’s spies not only to dine at your table but to evade capture by hiding on your estate ...,” he trailed off, looking pained.
Lise shook her head.“Please,” she said.
“Do you know what they would do?”he continued.“The best outcome would be the confiscation of your family’s lands.The worst, however, is quite possible, too — that your father would be arrested, and Henrik, if captured, would be executed.”
Lise felt ice water in her veins.“Are you threatening my family?”
“I’m trying to save them!”Friedrich insisted, sounding exasperated.“Trying to make you see reason, my beloved.”His tone was so earnest that for a moment, she almost believed him.“Don’t you see?The threat comes from the Englishman.They’ll interrogate him.They probably already have.”
She shook her head at the thought, while a shiver raced down her spine.
“If this pampered nobleman gives in to their methods and reveals where he stayed,” Friedrich continued, “where he hid his horses, your entire family will be implicated as helping the British against the Emperor.”
“But we are not French,” she pointed out.“How can we be expected to choose the side of people who are invading and occupying us?”
“You are expected to do so for self-preservation,” he said calmly.“That is why I’m able to have this nice house and this fine suit of clothes.”
Yet in the midst of his finery, he had never been less appealing.
“Try to get him released,” she said, wishing she didn’t sound like a desperate woman.“Let him go back to England, leave my family out of this, and no one need know anything more.”Then she bit her lip and gave in.“And I will marry you as soon as you can arrange it.”
Regardless of her capitulation, Friedrich’s jaw tightened.“It is unconscionable that you came to me, your future husband, asking for my help to save your lover.”
She tried to protest.“He’s not my —”
“Don’t lie to me again!”
This time she wasn’t fast enough.When his hand shot out, he caught her arm, gripping it as though he would never release her.
“I see it in your eyes every time you speak of him.You love him.”
Lise was done with lying and quite finished being afraid.Glancing pointedly to where his fingers sank into the skin of her upper arm, turning it white, slowly she raised her gaze to his.Her disdain, if not her revulsion, must surely show, for he released her quickly.His expression softened, like a wax mask he had affixed, turning him back to polite Friedrich.
She knew better.“There is no point to this discussion, nor to my lingering in your office while you hurl accusations at me.Even if I did love Lord Bowen, what difference would it make?You say we must marry regardless.”
“We will marry,” Friedrich said flatly.“That much is settled, and you have agreed.The only question is whether your family survives the scandal of your association with a British spy.”
“Be careful, Friedrich.You speak almost as though you are truly sympathetic to Bonaparte’s invasion,” Lise said, studying his face.“What would your parents and your brother think were that to be true?I know you would never collaborate, not for a house or an income.Surely not.”
If she did become his wife, she would denounce him from the rooftops.
Something flickered in his expression.It was there and gone so quickly she almost missed it.
“I am simply adept at making connections and in finding out tidbits when I do.In occupied territory, information is currency.”
“Currency that you seem to possess in abundance,” she tried to keep the bitterness from her voice.She ought to be cajoling, but couldn’t manage it.“Yet you won’t use it to help the country that your brother serves.Is that not correct?”
His face turned ruddy, politeness wiped off like one removed soot with a handkerchief.
“You are the one who needs to be careful, Lise.You’re in no position to question me.You should be worrying about your own brother’s welfare, not mine.”
Lise lifted her chin, refusing to cower, although fear made her heart clench.“Do you still refuse to let me go home?”she asked one last time.
“This is your home now.”Friedrich moved forward and she flinched, but he only stepped past her and out the door.“I’ve worked up an appetite.My housekeeper should have set theKaffeetafel.You can either join me in the dining room for coffee andButterkuchenor go to your room.”
When it was clear she wasn’t going to join him, he decided to make ithischoice to dismiss her from his presence.
