Page 62 of A Rogue at Stonecliffe

“Yes, me.” He looked at her, his eyes filled with emotion—was that regret? Sorrow? She wished she knew, wished she could look into his mind and know what he thought, what he felt. “Surely you know I would do anything for you.”

Except stay with me. But Annabeth kept the thought to herself. “Then take me with you to see the man you work for.”

Sloane sighed. “Very well. But be careful what you say to him.”

“You speak as if he were the enemy.”

“He’s not that. But neither is he your friend.”

THE MAN WHOSE office they entered later that morning did not look like the formidable person Sloane had warned Annabeth about. He was neither tall nor short, portly nor thin, and his clothing was perfectly correct and just as perfectly dull. He looked, not dangerous, but very ordinary, the sort of man whom one would not recognize a day after one met him. It was, she supposed, a useful appearance for a spy.

His head snapped up when Sloane opened his door, and his lips tightened. “I told you not to come here.”

“I’m not interested in spy games,” Sloane said, shutting the door behind him. “I told you that. However, if you’d prefer not to hear what we’ve learned...” He turned toward the door.

“Stop posturing, Rutherford, and sit down.” The man turned his sharp gaze on Annabeth. “And you are Miss Winfield, I presume.”

“I am.” She took a seat. Sloane leaned against a wall, arms crossed.

Asquith looked over at him, raising his brows. “And Miss Winfield is aware of...”

“She knows about your search for her father’s letter. Though she has no idea of its contents, and, indeed, no knowledge of its existence until Miss Cole and I brought it up. Lady Lockwood, I must tell you, was less than pleased to find that you had planted a spy in her household.”

“I do beg your pardon, Miss Winfield,” Asquith said. “Miss Cole was not there to spy on you. We were trying to find it without bringing you into the matter. I hope that your grandmother was not greatly inconvenienced.”

“Only if you consider having her house broken into an inconvenience,” Annabeth replied calmly.

“Broken into?” Asquith turned to Sloane in surprise. “You said nothing of a break-in.”

“It hadn’t happened when I spoke to you.”

“My goodness. That is distressing.” He frowned. “I was under the impression, Miss Winfield, that you had departed London for refuge in the country,” Asquith said to her.

“We did depart London, though not for that purpose. We went to look for this letter you think Papa wrote,” Annabeth said crisply. “It would help a good deal if I knew what this letter is supposed to say. How am I to know it when I see it?”

“Sloane will know. Better, I think, to let him handle the matter. Where is Miss Cole in all this?”

“She’s staying in the country to throw our enemy off the scent.” Sloane abandoned his relaxed pose and moved closer to the other man. “Not that it did much good, as Miss Winfield was shot at and nearly killed.”

“Indeed?” Asquith’s eyebrows rose slightly. Annabeth wondered if his appearance was ever anything but unruffled. “I think perhaps you should join Miss Cole in the country, Miss Winfield, and let Rutherford continue the search.”

“I am the one who can find it,” Annabeth told him.

Sloane updated the other man on their search, then said, “What is going on here, Asquith? What aren’t you telling us?”

“My dear boy...why would I conceal anything from you?”

“Because that is your nature,” Sloane retorted. “This whole thing has been suspect from the start. Why did you hire an outsider to investigate this? Why did you turn to someone who knows nothing about any of it, to whom you can’t even reveal all the facts? I know you, and you don’t act illogically. Why didn’t you go to Verity immediately? Or to me, for that matter?”

“As I said before, both of you told me you were through with the business. I assumed you wouldn’t want to take on this job.”

Sloane snorted. “That’s never stopped you before. You know we were the logical choices. You know we are the best. The most familiar with it.”

Asquith said carefully, “Sometimes it is better to have someone not so familiar. An outsider can take a fresher look on an internal matter.”

Sloane straightened. “What are you saying? Are you suggesting that you suspect someone within the organization? That there is a traitor within?”

Asquith shrugged. “There are some things that indicate someone inside may have betrayed us. I have to look at every possibility. You remember that time in Lyon, when you were caught and put in jail? Or that ‘cargo’ you were supposed to unload but they opened fire on your ship and you barely got away. And there were others, weren’t there, where it seemed that the French knew where you were going to be and what your plans were?”