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Camden pressed his lips together in a scowl.

“What the devil,” said Doncaster, angry once more. “Why have you been sneaking around my house like a thief, trifling with my daughter? Answer me, sir!”

“Now, that, only he can answer,” said Camden. “But he does have an honorable reason to be about London, particularly when not himself. And you, Doncaster, should be grateful to him.”

“I would like to hear why,” Doncaster bit out.

Camden waved one hand at Harry. “Go on, then.”

Harry hesitated a moment, waiting, but still Stafford didn’t speak, so he turned back to Lord and Lady Doncaster. “The attempt on your life, sir, was not unexpected.”

It took a while to outline the facts. Harry didn’t hide anything about his mission, although he was conscious of Stafford the entire time, and so skirted a few parts rather delicately. Every now and then Camden would interject a word or two, proving that his presence here tonight was no coincidence.

Doncaster listened with a mixture of outrage and anger, and when Harry finished, it was to Camden he turned. “I was suspected? Of treason?” Fury laced his words.

Harry grimaced; he had tried to treat that as lightly as possible, but Doncaster was no fool and had seen between his words.

“You yourself were not suspected,” said Stafford smoothly, falsely, finally stepping forward. “We suspected someone in your household could have been stealing and selling information.”

Doncaster didn’t look as if he believed one word of this. He turned on his footman and snapped his fingers. “You. Jameson.” Alec Brandon stepped forward. “You work with these men, don’t you?”

Brandon nodded.

A shadow seemed to pass over the earl’s face, and he braced his hands on his desk. His voice shook. “All my life has been given in service to the Crown. I have dragged my wife and child across Europe for the sole purpose of doing His Majesty’s bidding and preserving England’s dignity and security. To know that my own government turned on me, suspected me and spied on me⁠—”

“But I presume, since you are revealing this, you’ve caught the traitor,” said Lady Doncaster when he broke off. She placed her hand on her husband’s back.

Stafford bowed his head. “Yes, my lady. Mr. Sinclair realized the true threat. His actions alone prevented the attempt on his lordship’s life from succeeding. We are greatly indebted to him.”

That was a rather ringing commendation, and not something Harry had expected.

Lady Doncaster turned toward him, her lips parted in surprise. “And what does this have to do with Mariah?”

Harry looked at Mariah. “I saw her at your ball and was entranced,” he replied. “Every moment I have known her since then has only deepened my feeling, until I have fallen utterly in love with her.”

Doncaster winced and Camden’s mouth twitched.

“And I with him,” Mariah said, beaming back.

“Mariah,” said her father. “Please⁠—”

“It’s true I cannot offer her a life to equal her current one,” Harry went on. “It is true my family is nothing to hers, and I am no one of consequence⁠—”

“I don’t care,” she exclaimed. “To me you are everyone.”

“Stop,” said Doncaster wearily. His shoulders slumped and he looked old all of a sudden. “No more of this, Mariah...”

“You might as well let him have her,” said Camden. “His mother thumbed her nose at me the same way and ignored every word I said.” He shook his finger at Harry. “You’re just like your father.”

Harry bowed his head. “Thank you, sir.”

Camden snorted and turned to the earl. “Well, Doncaster? Are you going to let your daughter marry my grandson or not?”

Chapter Thirty

“Your grandson!” Mariah’s mouth fell open. Doncaster raised his head. Everyone looked at Harry.

“I don’t claim any relation,” he said.