It wasn’t until many minutes later that she finally realized it. This entire time… Cade had been speaking in flawless, fluent French.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cade hoped the boy who’d been following him got an earful. It was not particularly unusual to speak French, but he had no way of knowing whether the lad did. He didn’t look like a particularly well-educated sort, but Cade had to be certain his conversation hadn’t been overheard. There was one way to find out. Unfortunately, the boy had not removed his cap and Cade had yet to get a good look at his face. He’d been an excellent tracker. But Cade was an even better evader. He’d allowed the boy to follow him.
“Do you see that boy?” he asked Moreau in French. “The one with the blue cap behind you?”
Moreau glanced furtively back at the lad.
Cade winked at his friend, who quickly caught on to his ploy. The boy was doing a fair job of pretending as if he were simply another tavern patron.
“Oui,” Moreau replied.
“He looks like a strong, healthy boy,” Cade continued in French. “What say you and I press him into service?”
The side of the boy’s cap tilted slightly, but otherwise, he remained rooted to the spot.
“Take him to the ships, you mean?” Moreau asked.
“Yes. No one here will care much if we drag him out kicking and screaming,” Cade continued. “We might just make a bit of coin tonight.” Another wink to his friend and Cade pushed back his chair with great aplomb, allowing the legs of the chair to drag dramatically across the wooden planks so the boy would hear.
By the time Cade stood and turned toward him, the boy had fled, silent as a wraith. Cade glanced around. The lad was nowhere to be seen. The front door was swinging as if it had recently been used. He ran to the door and out into the street. It was empty save for some urchins playing nearby, a mangy-looking dog, and a drunk, sleeping off his stupor on a nearby doorstep. Whoever the lad was, he was good. Better than Cade had thought. He’d had every intention of collaring him and taking him into the alley to garner some answers. No matter. Cade had discerned what he’d wanted to know. The lad, whoever he was, knew French. His tracker was no English urchin.
***
Danielle had to force herself not to run all the way back to Mayfair. Cade had been onto her. It wasn’t unusual that he spoke French, of course. She already knew he understood the language. It was thewayhe spoke it that intrigued her. Intrigued her and surprised her. He spoke with the fluid ease of a native, something most Englishmen never accomplished. It was clear Cade had spent some time in her native country. Considerable time, if she didn’t mistake her guess, andthatwas interesting indeed.
What was his story? The man wanted people to think he was the gadabout brother of a newly minted viscount, but there was more to him than that. She wanted to find out all of it. Such as what in thenom de dieuwas he doing speaking with a Frenchman about the Black Fox? Grimaldi was right to be suspicious of him.
Cade had been aware that he was being followed and even worse, he’d known it was her (or the lad she’d pretended to be) and had said those things in French to let her know. He wasn’t going to pull a boy out of a tavern and press him into the English Navy. She knew he’d been jesting, but she also couldn’t risk him discovering her identity. She would be completely without an explanation had he discovered his sister-in-law’s maid chasing him across town. Dressed as a lad!
Thank goodness her clothing was where she’d left it. She dressed quickly and with relative ease after a great deal of practice in her bedchamber last night. Now she knew for certain that Cade Cavendish had secrets she desperately wanted to discover.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Cade slid his key into the lock on the front door of Rafe’s town house. He winced. The click echoed in the hallway and the rattle of the door sounded like a bloody racket in the stillness of the night. It was long past midnight and the place was dark and quiet. No doubt he’d wake the entire household.
He hadn’t got far today. He’d been certain Moreau would have more information about what the French knew about the Black Fox. Absolutely nothing. He also hadn’t been successful in locating the man who had sucker punched him. After leaving Moreau at the tavern, he’d gone to a few of his favorite haunts, keeping an eye out for the chap. The lad who’d followed him to the Bear’s Paw today certainly wasn’t the man who’d jumped him at the theater, but no doubt the boy worked for him.
Cade wasn’t any closer to finding out who had been after him, or why. He cursed himself for the hundredth time for hitting the scoundrel so hard he’d passed out. Blast it. He should have dragged the man into an alley and tried to revive him.
Cade stole across the darkened foyer. His hand was on the balustrade when a sultry female voice drifted toward him.
“Late night, no?”
Danielle. He smiled in the darkness before turning to face her. “Waiting up for me, eh?”
She strolled out of the shadows beneath the stairs. “I was helping myself to a nightcap.”
He arched a brow. “Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. What would my brother say if he knew you were tipping back his port?”
She gave him a challenging stare. “Are you going to tell him?”
“Not if you share.”
She was wearing the same white gown he’d seen her in yesterday but her hair was loose in a chignon, a few dark tendrils brushing her creamy shoulders. “What about the Madeira you promised me?”
“Funny you should mention it. I stashed it in the library. Care to join me?”
