Educating Elizabeth

Chapter 33

Gervase dressed in the soft light of the rising sun as it broke over the slate roofs of the square. He stowed his favorite pistol in the deep pocket of his black coat and struggled to pull on his boots without the aid of his valet. He slipped silently down the staircase and out through the side door that led to the stables. No one was about when he saddled a horse and set off for his rendezvous in the park with Jack Llewelyn.

Gervase kept his horse to a walk as he picked a careful path between the incoming crowds of spectators. People were beginning to gather at the best vantage spots along the route although the parade was not due to start until the afternoon. A slight breeze fluttered the limp bunting that lined the roadside. Gervase ducked his head to avoid a trailing Prussian flag.

There was no sign of Jack Llewelyn at the appointed meeting place. After circling the fountain a few times, Gervase dismounted and walked his horse along the newly cut grass verge. After a while, he extracted his watch from his waistcoat pocket and noted the time. He closed the watchcase with a decisive snap, and stared unseeingly toward the western gate of the park.

If Jack Llewelyn would not come out of hiding, Gervase would flush him out like the vermin he was. Without further thought, he remounted his horse and headed for the Foresters.

After he discovered an empty, unused stable at the rear of the house, he tied his horse to the rusted railings at the front of the house and went up the worn steps. To his surprise, the front door was ajar. A feeling of unease assailed him and he took out his pistol and pushed the door open with the toe of his boot. The dingy hallway was empty. Gervase hesitated, his back to the door, and attempted to get his bearings.

A rustle of petticoats drew his attention to the top of the stairs, where Mrs. Forester stood silhouetted against the faded floral wallpaper. Gervase dropped his arm to hide his pistol in the folds of his coat and took off his hat.

"I do apologize for the intrusion, Mrs. Forester, but no one answered the door. I need to speak to Mr. Llewelyn on a matter of urgency."

Mrs. Forester descended the stairs until she stood level with the duke. "There is no need to apologize, Your Grace." She dabbed at her nose with a lace handkerchief. "Unfortunately Mr. Forester has already left to watch the parade with my daughter, Mary, and cannot be here to welcome you to our humble home." She glanced around vaguely. "It seems as if all the servants have left as well, but Mr. Llewelyn is here." She put the handkerchief away and pointed down a dimly lit corridor, which seemed to lead to the back of the house. "He works in the old housekeeper's rooms beside the kitchen."

Gervase left his hat on the hall table and headed off down the corridor before she could question him further. When he reached his destination, he didn't bother to knock, being reluctant to lose the element of surprise. Jack Llewelyn and a man, he reckoned from his looks to be Elizabeth's brother, Michael, were seated side by side behind the desk.

"What the devil is going on, Llewelyn?" Gervase demanded.

Llewelyn shot to his feet. "Your Grace, watch out!"

Before Gervase could react, his right wrist was grabbed and locked behind his back. His fingers were smashed repeatedly against the wall until his pistol fell from his now-useless grasp and a huge unwashed hand covered his mouth. He fought against the suffocating embrace of the bear of a man behind him, but he couldn't get free.

He was manhandled around to face the center of the room in time to see his secretary, Sir John Harrington, cuff Llewelyn across the face.

"I told you to be quiet," Sir John snarled, his perspiring face a fiery red.

Llewelyn spat at him. "You are a lot braver now that your thugs have tied me up, aren't you?"

Sir John struck out at Llewelyn again and blood dripped from the corner of Jack's mouth. Sir John laughed. "You are a known coward, Llewelyn. How many times will I have to hit you before you give in and cry mercy?" He drew back his fist. "Once, twice?"

Jack Llewelyn muttered an obscenity and Gervase shook off the hand that covered his mouth. "What in damnation is going on? Tell this fool to let me go."

"Oh no, Your Grace. I've waited too long to be denied the opportunity to pay you back for the endless hours of devotion I've wasted on you." Gervase stilled as Sir John glared at him. "Have you any idea," Sir John continued, "how insulting it is to work for a man as dissolute and disgusting as you are? A man who wastes all his God-given opportunities and enjoys consorting with whores and gamblers?"

Gervase smiled. "You think you could do better, Sir John? You couldn't even break a single line of code. You had to get Elizabeth Waterstone to do it for you."

Sir John went still. "You insult me, but no matter. Yes, it was lucky that Mr. Forester was able to dupe you into accepting Elizabeth into his household. We had high hopes that she would be able to translate the code we needed."

Michael Waterstone shouted. "Elizabeth is no traitor. If she translated the code she was forced to do so."

Gervase gave a soft laugh. "If you know your sister at all, Lieutenant Waterstone, you should also know that she chose to meddle with the code without any compulsion from anyone."

His next breath was cut off as Sir John backhanded him across the face. "I hate to interrupt this inspiring conversation, Your Grace, but of course we didn't tell Miss Waterstone what was going on. At first, I intended to ask her to help me with the code. But being a woman, and a damned inquisitive one at that, she managed to translate it all by herself."

"That is because Elizabeth is far more intelligent than you will ever be," Gervase said. "You are just a paper-shuffling, money-grubbing, messenger boy for the French. What I don't understand is why this whole charade was necessary."

"I'm far more than a messenger boy! I had to develop a whole new plan after our original code breaker was killed." Sir John stuttered. "I couldn't allow Le Fleur's plans to be interrupted. I arranged for your men to discover the code and recruited Elizabeth to translate it under your very nose! It was all my idea."

Gervase curled his lip. "If you expect me to congratulate you for betraying your country, you must be insane."

Sir John gestured to the ruffian beside him. Gervase braced himself as the man stepped forward and drove his meaty fists into Gervase's unprotected body. If he hadn't been held up, Gervase feared that he would have fallen to his knees. He fought to retain his balance as pain ripped through his battered ribcage and belly.

Sir John nodded. "Take him away. I've no further use for him." Gervase opened his mouth to speak and Sir John spoke over him. "There is no point in appealing to their better natures, Your Grace, for they have none, and I've already paid them handsomely."

He gestured to the unseen man behind Gervase. "Bind the duke's hands, Albert, and make sure you search him before you leave him to his fate."

As he was dragged toward the door, Gervase started to fight in earnest. Unwilling to submit, he dug in his heels and was rewarded by a savage jab to his kidneys. He shouted over his shoulder as the other thug closed in on him. "Am I to assume that you didn't tell the Foreign Office the assassin's correct position?"

Sir John snorted. "Do you still take me for a fool? I substituted my own directions before I took the message in." He gave a breathless laugh. "I'm the only person who knows where the assassination will take place--apart from the assassin himself, of course."

He flung open the door and watched as Gervase was half-carried through it. "Good riddance, Your Grace," he said piously. "I will enjoy managing your affairs when you are found dead. I will even continue to defend you when you are posthumously implicated and ultimately convicted for your part in the Prince Regent's assassination."

Gervase was pushed out of the back door and into the bright sunlight with such force that he went sprawling on the ground. He gritted his teeth as he was hauled up by his bound hands and bundled into a black carriage. By the look of the two men who accompanied him, Gervase reckoned he could count his remaining life in hours, if not minutes.

He had no opportunity to escape during the short journey and only had time to gulp in the salty, malodorous smell of the river before he was marched into a dank, cavernous room where his hands were untied. He rubbed at his wrists as his captors advanced toward him. Their intent to do him harm was etched on their merciless faces.

Gervase brought his fists up as one of the Brothers Grimm smashed him in the jaw. Eventually he went down, and after several agonizing kicks to his ribs and the rough removal of his coat and waistcoat, Gervase subsided, almost thankfully, into unconsciousness.

It was only nine o'clock in the morning, but Elizabeth suspected she had severely ruffled Lord Vincent's composure with her incessant demands for action. She started on him again as he sat sipping tea in the private parlor.

"I've got to see the duke, my lord. I've got to tell him about the coded message."

Her companion sighed. "We have been over this a thousand times, Elizabeth. Gervase will receive the information from Jack Llewelyn just as you planned."

"But what if something goes wrong?"

"That is not your problem, my dear. I promised Gervase that I would not let you within a hundred miles of the victory parade."

Elizabeth stopped pacing and stared at him. "You promised the duke?"

Lord Vincent dabbed at his mouth with his napkin. "Devil take it," he said testily. "You are an extremely irritating woman. You must forget I said that."

Elizabeth bobbed Vincent a curtsey and ran to the door. "I should have known you were in league with your cousin. Unlike you, I never do what Gervase says."

Before Vincent could stop her, Elizabeth picked up her skirts and was away down the stairs and into the crowded streets below. She drew in a determined breath, plunged into the thickest part of the crowd, and headed toward the distant green shimmer of the park.

When she reached Grosvenor Square, it seemed unusually quiet, its central park deserted. No nannies played safely with their charges under the boughs of the gracious elm trees or strolled along the gravel paths. Elizabeth guessed many had gone to watch the parade and had taken their staff with them.

She ran up the steps of Delamere House and knocked. It took an age for someone to answer her summons.

When Standish finally opened the door, Elizabeth gave him a relieved smile he failed to return. "Good morning, Standish, is the duke at home?"

Standish compressed his lips. "I'm under strict instructions to deny you admittance, Miss Waterstone."

"This is a matter of great urgency. If you tell him I'm here, he will wish to speak to me."

"I'm sorry, Miss Waterstone but you must leave. I would hate to have to call the Runners." With that, Standish shut the door in Elizabeth's face, leaving her gaping like a stranded fish.

She uttered a most unladylike curse and kicked the brass doorplate before turning to march down the steps. As she stood there, wondering what to do next, the door opened again.

"Miss Waterstone!" Nicholas leapt down the stone steps, almost falling in his haste to reach her. He grasped her hands and pulled her away from the house.

"The duke has disappeared. According to Jacques, he went out the morning without telling anyone where he was going, and has not yet returned."

"The duke often goes out without telling anyone his destination. He is not a child."

"No, but there is something peculiar going on. Sir John disappeared yesterday. I haven't been able to find him and now the duke has gone too. It has to have something to do with Le Fleur's plot to assassinate the Prince Regent. We need to find the duke!"

Elizabeth patted Nicholas's sleeve as her mind worked furiously. She wasn't surprised by Sir John's defection, but the duke's disappearance was another matter entirely. "You need to check with Angelique that the duke is not with her and then let the Foreign Office know what has happened. Tell them to send more men to the Strand."

Nicholas agreed, seemingly glad that someone was giving him directions. "And what will you do, Miss Waterstone?"

Elizabeth smiled grimly. "I will go to see if my stepfather is at home, and determine whether the duke honored him with a visit."

The door to the Foresters' house stood open and Elizabeth noticed the duke's familiar gray hat resting on the hall table. With great trepidation, she made her way up the stairs to her mother's drawing room. Her mother sat in her usual chair, wearing a deep green gown and a frothy lace cap threaded with matching ribbon. She looked up as Elizabeth appeared, her expression unwelcoming.

"Why have you come here, Elizabeth?"

"I came to see Michael, mother. I was hoping to accompany him and Mr. Llewelyn to watch the parade."

Mrs. Forester poured herself a cup of tea. "I'm afraid you have missed them. They set off at dawn to make sure of a good spot, as did your stepfather and sister."

Elizabeth backed toward the door. If Jack Llewelyn and Michael had left at dawn, would they have had a chance to relay her message to the duke?

Pinning on a self-assured smile, Elizabeth curtsied. "I didn't mean to bother you, mother. I'll just pop down and make sure they haven't left me a note, and then I'll be off."

She opened the door and gasped as Sir John Harrington appeared and barred her exit.

"Oh no, Miss Waterstone. You are not going anywhere. I've a bone to pick with you. Your constant meddling has made the duke question my judgment and my loyalty."

She stiffened. "I don't know what you are talking about, Sir John."

"Oh, I think you do." Sir John took hold of Elizabeth's elbow. "You tried to undermine me with the duke and he was so enamored of you that he almost chose to believe you over me."

"You are a fine one to talk, Sir John. You left Angelique's stolen bracelet in my reticule," she countered. "You made sure that the duke cast me out on the street. I've no influence with him at all. Why do you think I came back here?"

But Sir John refused to release her. In desperation, Elizabeth looked at her mother, who sat sipping calmly at her tea. "Mother, Sir John is not what he seems. He is in league with Mr. Forester. You must find the duke and..."

"Did you know that Sir John is a distant cousin of mine, Elizabeth?" Mrs. Forester asked. "We were both left penniless by our families."

Mrs. Forester rose from her chair and glided toward Elizabeth. "Did you think I knew nothing about what was going on in my own house?" She smiled up at Sir John. "Your stepfather is an amiable man and he has proved useful as a messenger between Sir John and myself, but that is all he has done."

"You knew about the assassination attempt?" Elizabeth whispered.

"Of course I did, Elizabeth. Sir John and I have been working to achieve the Prince Regent's demise for over a year now. I knew when our original code breaker died that we would need to find a replacement and who better than my own flesh and blood? I would have sent Michael, if he had been able, but you proved very satisfactory my dear." She laughed. "You even persuaded the duke into your bed, which distracted him from his duties. I couldn't have done better myself."

"Why did you do it, mother? Why did you betray your country?"

Mrs. Forester arched one perfect eyebrow. "Why? For money, of course. Sir John has to work for a living, despite his title and noble name. Mr. Forester and I have a position in society to maintain and Mary deserves her choice of suitors."

Elizabeth shook her head, unable to speak in the face of such implacable avarice. Her disgust must have shown because her mother stiffened.

"Sir John, seeing as Elizabeth is so anxious to see the duke, why don't you take her to him?"

Elizabeth opened her mouth to protest, but the unseen blow to her head sent her helplessly spiraling toward oblivion.