“Drinking during working hours will have you arrested and court-martialled, Weber,” Georg ground out.
Weber paled. “I wasn’t drinking, sir. The glass is Lady Evangeline’s.”
Evie lifted her glass at him. “So dramatic. Would you like some wine, too? It’s a rather fine Hungarian red which was meant to be a present for you, anyhow.” She glanced ruefully down at the half-eaten cake. “As well as the cake. A bribe to make amends, so to speak.”
He gave his head a short jerk towards the door, and bothWeber and the maid instantly left the room. Then he scowled down at her. “Why are you here, Evie? How did you even get in here? Does Julius know you are here?”
Evie folded her hands on the table. “One question at a time, if you please. Why am I here? As I said, to deliver cake and wine. How did I get in here? Through the main door. Does Julius know I am here? No, he does not. I am not a child who needs to report to him about every move I make about town.” She paused for a moment as if to think. “And it is none of his business, anyhow. He is neither my father, nor the man I am about to marry. Now, would you like some wine and cake? Even if not, pray stop hovering over me. It does make me feel rather timid and alarmed.”
He sat down heavily in the chair that Weber had just vacated across from her. “You just walked in here through the main door?”
“Well, I certainly didn’t fly in through the window. Not unless I’ve grown wings overnight, which you can plainly see I have not. Although, now that I think about it, I might try that approach next time.”
“Evie!” His voice was louder and sharper than intended.
“Pray don’t raise your voice at me.”
He had indeed been raising his voice at her. He never raised his voice at anyone, not even in the midst of the most frenzied battle. He was renowned for his coolness and his nerves of steel.
He pulled a hand through his hair, unnerved. Aside from his mother, no other person alive had managed to rattle him so thoroughly as she.
Evie remained entirely calm. She poured some wine into an empty glass and held it out towards him. “Here,drink this. You seem rather on edge. The cake is rather good, too. I had Julius’s cook make it especially for you.”
“This is not a joking matter. This is neither a ballroom nor a tea house to walk in and out of at will. This is the Imperial War Council. Any lesser man who walked in here unannounced would have been shot for espionage. And you have already proven yourself capable of exactly that. Since the moment I met you, you have prevaricated to the point that I truly do not know who you really are. Who is Lady Evangeline Stafford-Hill, really? Certainly not the lady I first believed her to be when we met at that inn. You could have easily put me right, yet you insisted on keeping up the charade for an entire fortnight. For what purpose, mind you? For a while, I allowed myself to be persuaded that I had misunderstood you. Only to find you, not a full day after our betrothal, breaking into my study and my personal strongbox, no doubt on Metternich’s orders. If it had not been for Aldingbourne who kept insisting on the integrity of your character, I would have dissolved the engagement myself.”
Evie grew pale with fury. “Now that you have expressed such a succinct summary of my character, I know where I stand in your esteem. I am truly glad that we have the opportunity to settle this matter once and for all. So let’s return to the very beginning. While it may be true that I allowed myself to get caught up in the moment back then, I believed it to be for the best not to reveal my true name at the inn. Back then, I did not even know who you were, and as you surely know by now, my sole intent was to help my companion, Miss Honeywell. But we must backtrack a bit, here. Do you know what the real reason for my trip was? No? It was to find you. Because I thought that after twenty years of being engaged to someone, it wasabout time I knew what my betrothed looked like before we publicly announced our relationship. I thought it would be the thing to do, you know, to get to know one’s betrothed.” She wiped away angry tears from her cheeks, and Georg thought she had never looked as beautiful as she did now. “I was taken entirely by surprise when the man I was looking for all this time was there at the inn. I decided to stay under cover because I did not entirely trust you. I wanted to observe you and see who you truly were, to see whether we could get along, whether we could l-like each other. Without you knowing who I was. Because had you known who I was, you would have, no doubt, behaved very differently towards me from the very first. I wanted to know what you were truly like. Is that so wrong? Is that such a crime?”
A taut silence stretched in the room.
Just when she got up, no doubt thinking he would never reply, he said, “I suppose not.” There was a note of ruefulness in his voice. It hardened once more as he continued. “Nonetheless, this doesn’t change anything about the fact that you are not supposed to be here.”
He strode to the door, ordering Weber back in. “Take her ladyship home and make sure she doesn’t getloston the way.” He emphasised the wordlost.
Weber looked at her. “My lady?”
Evie crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “I am not finished talking to His Excellency.”
“Oh no, we’re most definitely done here.”
“We are not.”
“There is nothing more to talk about.”
“You have no idea.” There was a definite mulish streak about her mouth.
“Evangeline!” Now heactually roared.
“If you want to get rid of me, you will have to carry me out yourself.”
Heaven help him, he was going to do just that. She was driving him to madness.
Weber jumped back. “I believe it is best to give you more privacy?—”
“Evie, I really do not have time?—”
At that moment, his aide-de-camp Schneider burst into the room. “I heard shouting, Your Excellency. All the way to the end of the corridor. Is everything all ri—Lady Evangeline!” He came to a full stop. “Why on earth are you here?”
He placed a weary hand over his eyes. “That, my dear Schneider, seems to be the question.”
