“He has my father,” he stated plainly, almost angrily. “I could not recover him without proof of you. I would’ve revealed you to him—perhaps across a room. I would show portraits of your parents, show documents proving your lineage and dowry. But I would offer these things—I wouldshow you—without him getting near you. Never would he do more than observe you, and then only for a matter of moments. He didn’t even want you, he only wanted your land.”
“Well, that makes two of you, I suppose,” she scoffed. “And what was to become of me? After you recovered your friend and gave himmyland?”
And now his expression went from wretched to evasive. He looked away. He appeared—was he embarrassed?
“Just to be clear, I would never give him your land. Part of the—” He paused and dropped his head. Speaking to the ground, he said, “The plan was to marry you so that the land could never go to him.”
“Oh my God,” she said, her voice thin, “I’m like a plaything held between two boys, each who would have her for himself. And not even because you value me, simply for... land?”
“I care bollocks about the land,” he told her, looking up. “I was always going to give the land to you.”
“Perhaps I’m the real winner after all,” she said miserably. “First Eastwell Park, and nowmy own bloody lands.”
“Princess—”
“No. Say the rest. What would you do with me after you’d used me and my land to recover your friend?”
“Restore you to France?” he ventured weakly. “Honestly, I was going to simply ask you what you wanted—Paris, Bordeaux, wherever—and to deliver you there. The marriage would be annulled and you’d be home. You could live as you pleased. The dowered lands would be yours to enjoy or sell, as I’ve said. Please believe this. Never would you be taken anywhere you didn’t wish to go. Never would you be...” he exhaled “...bound to me forever more.”
“God forbid,” she said. She barely heard herself over the sound of her heart cracking. “And what of you, Captain? Have you no desire to marry? In earnest? To marry someone who’s not the key player in a revenge plot? Someone not furnished by the prince because youwon herfor being so very heroic?”
“No,” he said. “I’d never intended to be anyone’s husband. Not until I discovered that marrying you would so thoroughly defeat Surcouf.”
Why, she wondered, did this feel like a twist of the knife? From the beginning, he’d spoken in terms of their negotiation. She repeated his words, trying to comprehend. “You never intended to marry.”
“Please remember,” he said lowly, “I’d not yet met you. I did not know you. And if I had known you, I would have never, ever, believed you to be an attainable bride. For me. Even if I wasn’t a bastard smuggler who’d never met a truly happily married couple in his life. You are clever, and idealistic, and pure of heart; you are so beautiful and young. No man should aspire to you, honestly, least of all me. Not to mention, I’ve always made my living at sea. Sea captains make terrible husbands.”
“And you mean to return to the sea, do you? After you’ve dangled me, as it were, before this Frenchman?”
“I cannot think beyond recovering my friend,” he said.
It wasn’t aNo, she thought. And what a fool she was. He’d called her clever and idealistic and pretty, but he did not prioritize her. She was not clever or idealistic enough for him to bend his single-minded view and “think beyond.”
She forced her mind away from the What-Might-Bes. There were too many unanswered questions about the What-Weres. She wanted to know every shred of detail about this plan of his. For too long, she’d been an unwitting accomplice to a recovery mission that sounded very unlikely, indeed.
“And what if I didn’t wish to be dangled?” she asked, speaking through tears. “What if I had no wish to leave England at all? Which, by the way,I do not.”
“Of course you don’t. This was my error—one of many, my largest miscalculation. I did not know you, as I’ve said. I’d studied other French exileslike you. The prevailing attitude among them was to return home and to recover what they could of their lost status and fortune. I’d convinced myself that when I found you in Kent, you would be hiding in sustained misery, pining forLa Belle France. I told myself I would restore you to your preferred situation.”
“And what of the Prince Regent, speaking on my behalf?” She made a bitter laugh. “He simply went along with this?”
Bannock blinked. He cocked his head. “He did.”
“Oh my God,” she said, “no one has considered me to be a cogent person with independent thought. With agency and preferences.”
Bannock ran a hand through his hair and turned away. He stared up the path. He turned back. “I don’t deny that everything done to you has been inexcusable. If I could undo the havoc I’ve wreaked, I would do it. My methods were terrible. I know it counts for nothing, Danielle, but my motives were pure. My plan to recover Linus Welty thought of everything but you. This admission comes far too late, I know. And it makes up for nothing. I also know—”
He exhaled and turned away again. When he turned back, he spoke to her in tones of entreaty. His hands were outstretched like a man begging. “I could find almost no information on you. In that way, you seemed like a made-up person. The Dinwiddies all but absconded with you after the adoption. They left no trace. You’ve deduced that you were, in a way, forgotten to exile. Well, that is very close to the mark. When I spoke to Killian Crewes this afternoon, he told me your sister has been searching for you for nearlytwentyyears. With no information on you in particular, I researched other French exiles—and as I said, they are a malcontented, homeward-looking lot. After that, I researched royal princesses in general. What I learned there is that they are raised to serve their family and country as a sort of... pawn.”
“A pawn?” Dani could but repeat the word.
“Yes, apawn,” he admitted. “It sounds ridiculous and mercenary, saying it now, but even Fernsby agrees, the role of a princess is, largely, to be married for the benefit of King and Country. Considering this, I thought you’d understand that the Prince Regent had arranged a marriage for you. I thought you would consent because he’s harbored your family all of these years. Then I thought—admittedly, a grave error—that I would simply... take you. Home. To France. That is what I thought. I know it’s foolhardy, and shortsighted, and—honestly—highly outrageous, but my mind has been consumed with recovering my surrogate father.
“If nothing else,” he said, beseeching, “can you understandthat? To what lengths would you go to recover your surrogate parents, if they were rotting in a French dungeon?Hehas been my priority. I thought only to determine some way—any way—to bring Linus home alive. I put so much thought into how I might extract him, I neglected to think about how I mightrespectfullyengage you. Or compensate you. And see you situated in the end.”
“And you felt you could not share this with me? That you couldn’t tell me about your father or your need to rescue him?”
Bannock nodded, agreeing, but he turned away. “I... I meant— Damn it, there is no excuse except cowardice. From the alleged war hero. Oh the irony.”
