Raven (Gentlemen of the Order #2) - Adele Clee Page 0,1
shot fired from the depths of the forest. A lead ball hit Charles in the shoulder. They were captured by a band of mercenaries, held prisoner at a farm near Leuven until they made their escape nine months later.
“Given the option, Lady Adair would have preferred the life of a spinster,” Daventry added as if he enjoyed poking a sleeping snake in a basket.
Lies! All lies!
Sophia was strong-minded. She would never marry a man without feeling some depth of affection.
Finlay had heard enough. “Send Sloane or D’Angelo.” His colleagues were just as competent when it came to solving problems. He would have suggested sending Ashwood had his friend not recently married. “I cannot deal with her dilemma objectively.”
There. How could Daventry argue with his own rubric? A man put lives at risk when he lost focus. And Daventry’s biggest fear was losing another agent.
“It has to be you. The problem relates to a delicate matter that cannot be made public.”
Daventry was determined to tease the serpent until it bared its fangs, lunged and spat venom.
“A delicate matter?” Finlay flexed his jaw. “Must you persist in being vague?”
“It has to do with Jessica Draper.”
“Sophia’s sister?” Finlay wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but it was not that. The sweet seventeen-year-old girl he remembered must be five-and-twenty now. “Jessica married Mr Archer while I was in Belgium and now lives in Calcutta. I hear he prospered from the silver trade.”
A heavy silence preceded Daventry saying, “No, she did not marry Mr Archer, nor did she board the ship bound for India, though countless people could testify to seeing her aboard the vessel. There are those in India who believe Mrs Archer is Lady Adair’s sister.”
Disbelief mingled with confusion. “If Archer didn’t marry Jessica Draper, who in blazes did he marry?”
“The maid.”
“Maud?”
Finlay had often joked that the pair looked so alike they could swap places. Once, Jessica had donned Maud’s coarse twill dress, white cap and apron, and rubbed her hands raw doing the laundry.
“Indeed. I shall leave it to Lady Adair to explain why Mr Archer married Maud, despite being betrothed to Miss Draper.”
Why would the son of a gentleman marry a maid?
But it wasn’t curiosity causing the fire in Finlay’s chest. The revelation roused a burning sense of betrayal. Why had Sophia maintained the charade? Once, she had trusted him with every family secret, every intimate desire. Regardless of what had happened between them, could she not trust him with this?
“Where is Jessica Draper?” he said, though that was not the question rebounding in his mind.
“At Blackborne. A house in Windlesham owned by Lady Adair.”
“The house she purchased not long after she married?”
Daventry arched a brow. “I’m told no one knows she owns the property.”
What was he to say? That on one particular day when his craving had overwhelmed him, and before he married Hannah, he had followed Sophia to her solicitor’s office? Should he say he accosted the clerk in the local tavern and bribed him with a meat pie and a tankard of stout beer?
“I knew she’d made the purchase, but my source refused to reveal the location.”
Daventry sighed. “That is a relief. You see, Lady Adair fears someone is corrupting her sister’s mind. She believes someone tried to abduct Miss Draper, though there are but a handful of trusted people who know the woman resides at Blackborne.”
A handful of trusted people—and Finlay wasn’t one of them.
“So, Lady Adair wishes to hire an agent to investigate the matter,” Finlay stated.
“Not just any agent. She insists on hiring you, Cole.”
The comment rocked him to his core.
Thoughts of Hannah filled his head. Three years had passed since the Lord claimed her and denied Finlay the right to make amends. They had married for convenience, but he had done everything in his power to help her overcome her insecurities. Now, he would rather wallow in misery than betray her memory.
Finlay swallowed a mouthful of brandy while ghostly echoes of the past whispered in his ear. “I cannot help Sophia Adair.”
“But she married Lord Adair to save her sister,” Daventry pressed. “Had you been here, I imagine life would have been vastly different for both of you.”
“Fate had other plans.” Devious plans.
Daventry sat forward, his grey eyes hard, unyielding. “It is not a request, Cole. You will reside at Blackborne for a week and help Lady Adair with her dilemma, or you will leave the Order.”
Leave the Order?
Hellfire!
Surely Daventry wasn’t serious.
Finlay’s kinship with his colleagues was the only thing keeping him sane. Were it