Michael took Dara’s hand. “Come.” He started to lead her through the gate.
Of course, she balked. “We are leaving? We can’t leave. Not unless I tell Tweedie and Gwendolyn. When they hear about this, they will be worried.”
Michael looked to Painswick again. “Please tell Miss Lanscarr I have her sister with me. Now come, Dara. We don’t have time to lose.” He needed to check on Thomas Ferrell.
He also needed to watch his own back. And Dara’s.
Nor was he going to wade through a ballroom of people asking questions. Not when time might be of the essence.
“Are we in danger?” she wondered.
He didn’t answer, but as he went through the gate, she followed, and he was damned grateful she did.
Michael led her to the end of the passageway. On the street, they found a hack for hire and off they went. Dara settled on the seat across from him. “What is happening? And don’t tell me I don’t need to know.”
He was irritated to have the dark direction of his thoughts interrupted. However, she was right. This night was going to change both of their lives. “Mr. Ferrell and I had business that could have seen Sir Duncan charged with treason.”
She didn’t bother to hide her surprise. “What did he do?”
“Requisitions were written for military funds that didn’t go for that purpose. Instead, they were misdirected by the clerk who preceded Ferrell and, quite possibly, by his immediate superior to others. Ferrell, a true sleuth if ever there was one, discovered a reference to Sir Duncan. One reference. His name in paperwork.”
“Why was he murdered if he was part of the plan?”
Michael shook his head. “Considering theamounts stolen over the years, Sir Duncan should have been the wealthiest man in England. He wasn’t. There had to be others, and they don’t want the trail to lead to them. They know I’m on to them.”
And then he was struck by a connection. Unbidden, and unwelcome.
He frowned.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Just a thought,” he murmured, not ready to look too closely at it. Or to involve her. “What is important is that we warn an honest and good man that he could be in danger. Without Ferrell, Sir Duncan and his friends could have continued to rob our country. He is the only one who pieced together all the links, and he did it at risk to himself. If he’d been found out, he would have been fired.”
“But you believe someone knows his identity?”
He looked to her. She wasn’t flustered by any of this. Instead, she sat coolly poised, asking questions that made him think.
What he wouldn’t tell her, what he hadn’t toldanyone, was that tomorrow, he and Ferrell were scheduled to present what they knew to one of Michael’s contacts in the War Office. Gammon and Michael had known each other for years. Michael trusted him.
No one should have known about the meeting, and yet the timing of Sir Duncan’s attack was suspicious.
Could this all be much deeper than he had feared? What if Gammon couldn’t be trusted?
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
He wasn’t going to share. There was no sense in alarming her more than the events of the night already had. But his response surprised him. “I’m glad you are with me.” And he was. Her calmness steadied him.
Not only that, but once again, in a garden, he’d held all of her. She had been soft curves, moonlight, greenery—and quiet trust.
He had an urge to hold her again.
She shifted, folding her gloved hands in her lap as if uncomfortable, and he realized he stared. He’d been drinking her in, thinking of how he valued her in this moment. “I need to discuss an important matter,” she said. “It is why I followed you into the garden. I was hoping for a moment of privacy.”
“What is it?” he asked, thankful of something else to consider than the fate of his investigation.
She raised her chin a notch as if bracing herself. “I’m sorry. I won’t be able to accept your offer of marriage—and before you think I have accepted it, let me remind you, I didn’t. I didn’t say anything.Youdid all the talking. So I’m not really crying off. I mean, I never said yes—and don’t Ihaveto say yes to agree to anything?”
He watched with amusement. “You are wrapping yourself into a knot over this.”
