Page 50

She eased out of bed, though it hurt terribly. She went to the chair by the window and looked out onto the unfamiliar village below. In the distance, she could see the big port city of Cadiz. They were so close. Tomas stirred, and she looked over her shoulder at him and gave him a smile.

“You are meant to be resting, Elena.”

“I know, but look at the view. Cadiz is bigger than I thought.”

He came to stand beside her. “It is like any port town, busy, dirty, and full of thieves.”

“The perfect place for a spy?”

“Yes, in many ways it is. People talk like no one is listening. Hoping they are all too busy to be bothered by strangers or different languages, and in most cases they are right.”

“Is that where you heard about Dushard?”

“You hear a lot of whispers. The key is to weed out the ones that are unimportant or not what you were sent there to find. I had a two-fold mission. The official one was to check on the French, the other was a more personal one. Unfortunately, the trail went cold on that one but then I saw Dushard conversing with an Austrian and my curiosity was spiked. A lot of spying is about intuition, hunches, and details. If they all come together, then you can be very successful. If you are wrong, well you end up losing a finger.”

“If we marry, you will not be able to be a spy anymore. What will you do?”

“I have land and tenants that have been looked after by someone else. Perhaps it is time I learned how to be a gentleman farmer. You could help me. I will build you a greenhouse so you can grow your herbs, and I have these.” He pulled out his orange seeds. “Maybe we can grow Spanish oranges and be the envy of all our neighbors.”

“You would build a house of glass for me?”

“Of course.” He kissed her on the lips, and she dragged him down onto his knees so she could kiss him back. “I just want you to be happy.”

“Captain Tomas Markham. I believe I will marry you. I do not care in which church as long as it is in a house of God.”

“You will?” He kissed her again. “You are my heart, Elena Diaz.”

“Soon I will be Elena Markham.”

“Yes, you will. You will finally be my wife.”

“Is a gentle lady like a princess?”

“Not quite but I shall buy you a tiara if that will help.”

“You have the money for such things?”

“I have enough.”

“I never would have thought it possible to marry an English man.”

“It is, once I put a ring on your finger and the papers are signed.”

“And you don’t mind getting married in a Catholic church?”

“It could be a hut in Africa, and I would marry you in it,” he joked.

“No need to go that far.”

“However, we will have to get married in a Church of England service for it to be legal in England. I’ll organize a special license once we are back on English soil.”

“We really will have to marry twice.”

“I’ll go and see the local priest here and see what needs to be done and will marry before we leave for Cadiz.”

She looked at him, at those eyes as blue as a Spanish sky. “You know this is crazy.”

“This whole situation is crazy. Now back to bed with you. I need you to get better and if you think you were hard on me, just you wait and see how I can be.”