Page 94 of The Bachelor Spy
“Your dear wife wouldn’t lie to you, Freddie,” Blake teased, returning to the sitting area. “She may not, however, have the full understanding of the situation.”
“Unbelievable.” Frederick breathed the word. “All this time, you’ve been a spy?”
“Well, not when we were nicking biscuits from the kitchen and blaming it on the stable boy. Though the art of misdirection did serve me well.” He sent a wink to Grace. “But for years.”
Frederick’s jaw loosened, and he shook his head. “Unbelievable,” he repeated.
Blake seemed to take that as his cue to begin. “Now I believe proper introductions are in order. Lord and Lady Astley, I’d like to formally introduce you to Evie Montgomery, whom you’ve known as Miss Helen Gale.”
“Miss Montgomery.” Frederick, after breathing out a long sigh, dipped his head in her general direction.
“It is a pleasure to formally meet you, Miss Montgomery.” Grace smiled. “And I greatly admire your ability not only to engage in such excellent disguises but also to engage in combat so beautifully. It was remarkable to watch.”
“You saw her in combat, Grace?” Frederick jerked his head toward Grace before releasing a long sigh. “I do believe I may need to sit down for this conversation,” he murmured, feeling his way back to the nearest chair.
Miss Montgomery hesitated only a moment before responding with her own smile, much subtler than Grace’s. “I am most appreciative of your ready understanding of my subterfuge, my lady.”
“Oh, and you don’t sound anything like you did as Miss Gale. How very clever to even change your accent!” Grace shrugged and looked over at Blake, whose grin only continued to grow. “I have so many things to learn in order to be a cleverer detective. Lord Astley and I have both engaged in quite a few of our own adventures, but never to such a physical degree.”
“Not of combat, thank heaven,” Frederick added. “But the physicality has been impressive nonetheless—especially pulling you from that sand trap.” He shuddered. “Or watching you swing from that fiery room in Scotland on a breaking rope. I can assure you, darling, I was physically impacted thinking I was watching you die right before my eyes.”
Grace immediately went to him and took his hand. “And I would think your sword fight with Mr. Kane was rather similar to watching Blake and Miss Montgomery fight.” Grace looked to Evie for understanding. “I didn’t get to witness it since I was trapped in a burning secret room, but Frederick’s detailed description sounded fascinating. They used three-hundred-year-old broadswords.”
A burst of air escaped Evie, and her stare intensified considerably. “What precisely do the two of youdo?”
“Whatdon’tthey do?” Blake interjected with evident enjoyment. “Run a convalescent hospital, discover hidden treasures, unmask antiquity thieves, shoot pistols—”
“Which Blake taught me, though Mr. Leeds, our gardener, trained me in knife throwing,” Grace added, a renewed thrill moving through her at the memory of practicing both.
Evie blinked.
Frederick released a slight groan. Poor man, his head was likely still aching, and all this commotion probably didn’t help.
“And of course there are the arts of rope swinging,” Blake continued, each addition causing his grin to stretch wider, “camel riding, tomb raiding, ghost hunting.”
“Ghosthunting?” Evie echoed, narrowing her eyes slightly.
“I never did perfect camel riding, though,” Grace amended. “And I didn’t search fortrueghosts, of course,” she whispered, attempting to temper the woman’s expectations. “But I’m sure you recognized that already with all your vast experience in adventures.”
A pair of raised brows was Miss Montgomery’s only response.
“Well, we refer to them as operatives or missions, but … similar.” Blake’s smile faded. “Maybe a bit darker, though.”
“Themission.” Frederick’s jaw tightened. “Precisely why we’re all here, I believe. Perhaps someone would like to explain exactly what mission requires my cousin to fake an injury, a strange woman to infiltrate my household staff, and my wife to lock my cousin and said staff in a closet.”
“Right.” Blake leaned forward in his chair, elbows on his knees, his expression sobering. “Where to begin?”
“The beginning usually works well,” Frederick suggested dryly, one of his dark brows jutting just above the bandages.
Oh good. Her dear husband’s humor was returning. A very good sign.
“The beginning? Well, that is rather too far back for our purposes here.” Blake exhaled slowly. “But I’ll go back far enough to give some explanation. Evie and I are agents for British Intelligence. We’ve worked together on various operations over the past year and a half, though we both have been in the … business, so to speak, for much longer. Our last assignment was tracking a German informant who was believed to be passing British military secrets to the fatherland.”
Grace felt Frederick’s hand tense in hers.
“This past April, we traced the informant to theLusitania,” Blake continued. “I was under private orders to intercept him before the ship reached England because he was suspected of carrying crucial information about someone leaking military intelligence in ways we’d been unable to head off.”
Frederick went absolutely still. “TheLusitania.“
