Page 56 of Inconvenient Honor
Messages lay on his desk, more complaints from his parents and what was sure to be an ugly message from Lisle. He went to answer the summons from the foreign secretary and returned with Castlereagh’s anger burning in his ears, irritated with himself over his failure to complete his analysis. He had accumulated notes in fits and starts by collating observations of sea captains with agents on the ground, but allowed interruptions—and Lily Thornton—to disrupt the work. It remained to pull it together for Castlereagh, the prime minister, the cabinet, and, ultimately, the prince regent into a report that could enhance his reputation. He began to write thefinal report.
While Americanefforts have subdued the worst of the Mediterranean pirates, waters of the sea between Sicily and the coast of Africa remain unsettled. Unrest in Naples exacerbates the situation so that our forces on Malta?—
Malta.The woman Stewart described embarked to Malta.
Lily of all women should know how perilous the Mediterranean has become. Did she go willingly? He doubted it. Either someone coerced her or something horrific drove her to take off on her own. Either way, Volkov is behind it. He picked up his pen.
—ourforces on Malta could feel the impact of shipping disruption.
He beganto list actions to be taken, numbers of marines to add to Royal Navy vessels, escalated improvements to the port fortifications, and beefed-up frequency for the Gibraltar packet.
The Gibraltar packet. They are the fastest ships we have. I could leave from Portsmouth on tomorrow’s tide.
If he left immediately, he could get home to pack a few items and just make it on a good mount. From Gibraltar, passage to Malta would be easy.
Nonsense. One does not just hare off without planning. Besides, she has at least a week on me—closer to two.
Richard shook the very thought from his head. He owed Castlereagh this report and his father the courtesy of a reply.
Words flowed onto paper rapidly, if not coherently. They skimmed along the surface of the topic. They never plunged to Richard’s customary depths. They flew toward a conclusion.
Richard frowned at it. The report would be presented in the highest circles. Totally inadequate for the audience. He had built acareer on exactness in all he did, on the quality of his work. I need to rewrite it.
His eyes lost focus. His words lost meaning. His mind returned again and again to the Gibraltar packet, drawn like iron to lodestone. The seas around Malta churned in his mind, and the dangers haunted him.
Something drove her away, something so strong she knowingly put herself in danger or, worse, was forced into it.
In one swift motion he completed the manuscript with a message for Castlereagh, who wouldn’t like it much.
Intelligence inadequate.I leave for Malta on the tide to see it for myself.
He hadto leave London within the hour to make it. He sealed the report in a sleeve and called for a clerk.
“Send this to the foreign secretary in three hours. Not one moment sooner.” The bewildered clerk merely nodded.
His career would be in tatters before he returned. He realized with growing elation that he didn’t care. He picked up his hat and walked out the door.
I’m going to find her on Malta and, if I have to, shake the truth out of her. If I find Volkov too, he’s a dead man, whether she went willingly or not.
The portof Algiers filled the air with odors great and small. Rotten fish and offal, the familiar rot of any port, contended with exotic spices and the cloying scent of dozens of unknown flowers. None of them sat well with Lily’s churning stomach. In a month at sea, her nausea had not abated. Pregnant women, she now knew for certain,did not travel well. That afternoon their ship bobbed at anchor, a condition infinitely worse than forward motion.
Solid ground lay feet away. She had gone above decks to stare longingly at the teeming docks, but she had been forbidden to disembark.
“Covered in veils you would still give yourself away as the English you are. Has no one mentioned to you the slave markets of North Africa?” Sahin had demanded.
Slave markets. The thought made Lily shudder. The horror of Barbary slavery was the stuff of schoolgirl nightmares. Unlike other nightmares, it was all too real. Still, dry land called to her. She had hoped he would give in and send a guard with her.
Before she could object he added, “These streets are not safe for any woman, even with a bodyguard.”
He had looked at her sadly. “Once inside the Seraglio, you will move freely only within its walls—broad, ornately decorative walls, but walls all the same. This is the life you have asked for, Lily.”
The life you asked for. Lily lay on her narrow bunk in a cabin no larger than a linen closet and contemplated her decision.
She cupped her hands protectively over the baby growing inside her and fought remorse. Everything in her upbringing told her she should have accepted the marquess. Her conscience told her so.
“That’s just it, little one,” she said into the gloom, rubbing her abdomen. “If I marry him, your father will always be ‘the marquess,’ never Richard.” Never beloved, not out loud.
Aboard this ship, she kept them both safe. Inside the walls of the Seraglio, they would be safe. She refused to regret it.
