Page 11 of Inconvenient Honor
“He did me no permanent harm!”
Sahin’s implacable look did not soften. “So you tried to convince me. Did you speak with your father as I advised?”
“No,” she admitted. “I couldn’t. If I tell you something, can you promise to keep it confidential?”
“Something personal? Of course,” he replied.
“There is more, things to do with politics.” She cleared the lump in her throat.
“Ah. In that case, it will depend on what you say. I have duties to my office, you know that.”
She clamped her jaw shut and stared into her ale. Volkov’s plans were vile; Lily knew rather too well that revolution always exploded on the backs of the poor. She looked at Sahin Pasha, who had been a true friend, and felt shame for keeping the information from him.
“Perhaps I may help,” Sahin prodded. “Your father, good man but neglectful I fear, is far from here.”
If my man in Thessaloniki is compromised, your father will paywith his life.Lily’s stomach clenched, remembering Volkov’s words. See what comes of letting fear rule you instead of reason? Use your head Lily.
Sahin would see to it that Volkov’s agent in Thessaloniki, imbedded in the court of the Ottoman governor of the province, met a swift death if word got back to them. What will happen to Papa then?
Sahin waited patiently, allowing silence to grow between them. “You rode recklessly to meet me, and now you will not speak. You need a protector, I think,” he said at last.
Lily took breath to deny it, but words froze in her throat. She couldn’t deny the truth of his assertion. “I thought perhaps ally,” she mumbled.
“Perhaps you should speak to your Marquess Glenaire,” Sahin said, pinning her with a knowing look. “One suspects he will have interest in what you have to say.”
“I can’t!”
“I have seen how that one looks at you,” Sahin said. He watched her closely. “I don’t believe he means you harm.”
“He cares only for himself and for England,” she retorted.
“I doubt if he knows the difference between the two,” the old man chuckled. He leaned forward and took her hand. “You need a protector, Lily. You are foolish to carry burdens alone.”
Lily wondered if he understood how a London lady might take the meaning of “protection.”He must know Glenaire’s rank prevents him from viewing a minor diplomat’s daughter as marriage material.
Before she could reply, a door slammed open behind Sahin. Its violent explosion echoed through the room.
Sahin sat straight, instantly on guard; Lily looked up into the face of catastrophe.
Rage,when it collides with evidence of misconception, shatters into pieces. Richard felt his anger crumple into shards and reassemble into alternating waves of bafflement and irritation. Nothing was as he expected.
Lilias Thornton and Sahin Pasha? The old man could be her grandfather. Could she be Volkov’s messenger? Where was the damned man himself?
The representative of the Sublime Porte, cousin and ambassador of the Sultan himself, sat looking like a dark-skinned version of an English gentleman at a rough table with Richard’s quarry.
Lilias looks terrified. The blasted woman should be for leading me a merry chase.
Two rather large men he had passed in the taproom, who were, upon closer look, not the English farmers Richard had taken them for, moved to either side of him. At sharp words in Turkish from Sahin Pasha, they melted away.
“Ah, my friend, we just spoke of you. Come and sit,” Sahin said.
Richard looked from Sahin’s amused face to Lilias’s stricken one. He sat, muddy and haggard, with as much dignity as he could muster, growing more irritated every minute.How does this blasted woman undermine my common sense? I could throttle her.
“Would one of you like to tell me what is going on here?” he demanded, with more heat than he intended. His famous sangfroid eluded him.
“My good friend, Miss Thornton, sought out my advice,” Sahin told him.
