A Heartless Design (27 page)

He drew her to sit by him on the high-backed settee near the fireplace. Then he put his arm around her, hoping to calm her. “Tell me. Whenever you’re ready, love.”

“I don’t know where to begin.”

“How about the beginning?”

She took a breath. “My father was an engineer, and since he had no sons, he taught me about his work. I loved it. It was like the best puzzle game in the world. By the time I was twelve, I could read any engineering schematic as well as a book.”

“Which is more than I can,” he admitted.

“That’s not unusual. You never needed to learn,” she said. She leaned against him. “But you can guess why I didn’t tell people about my skill. I’ve kept my secret for years. It’s the reason I’ve never wanted to marry. Husbands have too many rights, and wives too few. A husband would have access to all my things, all my father’s work, all my work. He might have stopped me from pursuing my own interests, or worse, used it for his own purposes. That’s exactly what Hayden was planning to do. I’m not a total fool. I knew that the ideas both my father and I came up with could be used to harm others. I couldn’t take that chance.”

“But what does all that have to do with Lear?”

Cordelia kept her head up, despite the turmoil she felt. “After Papa died, I needed an income to support Aunt Leona and my household. I had a talent, but who would trust a woman to answer questions about engineering? So I invented a man, because it would have been impossible to work under my own name. Lear was a useful fiction. The men and companies who hired Lear didn’t know anything about him except that the work was satisfactory. Which was how I wanted it.”

“And of course you lied to me about Lear as well,” he said, but not with anger.

“Yes. Until now,” she admitted.

“Who else knows the truth?”

“Stiles and the other servants know about it, of course. It’s a necessity, since they receive and send the letters. And Mr Jay is integral to the subterfuge. He has told others that he’s met Lear, so there is no question of whether he is real…not that anyone has doubted it.”

“Does your aunt know as well?”

“Oh, no. She wouldn’t approve. And I don’t want her to think that I couldn’t support her!”

“Why did you choose the name Lear?”

“Shakespeare,” she explained. “Cordelia is King Lear’s daughter…and the one who should have inherited…oh never mind. It was a foolish joke.”

“But Lear wasn’t a joke. It was your main income.”

“Yes. I was doing quite well. Lear was one life. And I had my own quiet life at Quince Street. I didn’t think the two should ever have to mix. Not too long ago, Hayden appeared, eager to court me, though I didn’t realize why. And then you came along, asking all the wrong sorts of questions. And now it’s all tangled up.”

“I wish you had told me sooner.”

“I was afraid. But I couldn’t ignore you. You would have found out about Lear eventually, making it impossible for me to keep using the character. I hope you’ll understand why I lied. It wasn’t out of spite, believe me. I…think too much of you for that.”

Thorne readjusted all the facts in his head to accommodate her confession. “That means you created the
Andraste
on your own,” he said slowly. “Not your father, and not Lear. You know how to build this ship?” He looked again at Cordelia and tried to reconcile the beautiful woman in front of him with the idea of a gifted engineer. Seeing the intelligence in her eyes, he suddenly had no difficulty imagining it.

“Yes, I’m the only one who designed the ship,” she said, watching him, seeing how he took the news. “Papa helped me with early versions, and I hid behind his name—and Lear’s too. But it’s mine.”

“This changes things,” he said, then laughed at the absurdity of the statement. Cordelia was nothing but surprises. “This means you are just as valuable as the plans. Far more so, in fact.” He kissed her gently to make his point, hoping that she knew he wasn’t just referring to her knowledge.

Her heart eased a bit when he kissed her. “That’s not all. You need to know about how my father died.” Cordelia spoke softly. The pain of this secret would be harder to deal with.

His expression tightened with concern. “What do you mean? How did he die?”

“I think he was murdered.”

“Murdered?” Sebastien hadn’t been prepared
for that.

She was looking away from him now, her profile pondering and fragile in the light. “Yes. I can’t prove it, but in my heart I’m sure of it.”

“Tell me,” he urged.

“Do you know that my father died abroad?”

“Yes.” He remembered reading as much as he could about Bering when he was learning about the household.

Cordelia frowned, picking out her words. “At the time of my father’s death, he was very frightened. He had gone to Paris some weeks prior to meet with some colleagues, or at least that’s what he told me in his correspondence. He was very keen to share some of his new work with them. I gathered that if they thought it had merit, he would receive funding from a nobleman to bring his designs to reality.”

He nodded. It made sense. “So what happened?”

“He died there. In the letters I received, the doctors said it was his heart, but I knew him. There was nothing wrong with his heart.” Cordelia seemed to grow stronger as she spoke, finally letting her deepest secret out to another soul.

“In a letter he sent me before he died, my father wrote that he was troubled by some of the things his colleagues had said, and that after learning more, he did not trust the nobleman who was supposedly so keen on science. He was worried that they wanted his work,
our
work, for some sinister purpose. Fortunately, he never mentioned that he’d trained me, or that I had an interest in these things. But he
had
mentioned an ironclad ship.”

“And they wanted it,” he guessed.

“He was going to cut his trip short and return to England as soon as possible, according to the letter. It must have been the last thing he wrote. I think he died the very day that he announced he was leaving.”

“But it could have been a coincidence,” he argued.

Cordelia looked into his eyes. “Do you truly think anything surrounding the
Andraste
is coincidence?”

He looked back steadily. “No.” 

She gave a little sigh and continued. “In the last letter, he warned me to keep the papers safe until his return. I was not to let anyone look at them, no matter who they claimed to be.

“Of course, he was gone, so I could never ask him for more details. I did as he asked, though. I hid the most important papers and told several colleagues from the Athenaeum that I was planning to get rid of his work.”

“Did any of them say you should give it to the society?”

She nodded. “Yes, of course. But I don’t think any of those men were part of…I hate to say
conspiracy
.”

He felt her pain pierce through her measured tone. “Did someone ask after the papers following the funeral?” he asked, after a moment.

“A few written requests. I didn’t respond to those. I was worried, but there was so much to think about after Papa died. First the mourning, and how to take care of Aunt Leona. I suddenly had to deal with solicitors and bankers and the like. Life went on. I tried to find out more about my father’s death, but it was so difficult to discover anything about what happened during his final journey to France. I didn’t know who to trust.”

She frowned, thinking of that time. “When nothing more seemed to come of it, I thought the danger might be over. Yes, I kept the
Andraste
papers hidden, and I vowed to stay alert…but it seemed to be a memory. Nevertheless, I spoke to no one about it.”

“Except for Mr Jay.” He hoped there was no hint of jealousy in his voice.

“Who I have known for years,” Cordelia noted. “And I had to trust him with some things. After several months, money was running low. I needed to devise some sort of income to keep the household together. And I never wanted to burden Aunt Leona.”

“So you invented Lear.”

“Yes. You know now the other reason I didn’t want to use the name of Bering for my own work. Lear was a necessary shield. And it worked. It worked for quite a long time.”

“Until I swept in with my questions.”

“Yes. You wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“I had to keep at you. You were the only one who knew anything,” Sebastien confessed. “Engineering wasn’t part of my education.”

“I thought spies were supposed to have very broad educations.” 

She gasped when his grip tightened suddenly. “What did you say?” he asked in a low, dangerous voice.

“I called you a spy.” Cordelia didn’t take her eyes from his, dark and predatory as they now were. “Do you deny it?”

“Cordelia…”

“You don’t think I’m stupid, do you? You have mysterious business on the continent. Adele once mentioned that you speak French like you were born there. And despite the rumors that you’re broke, you always have the finest clothes and you spend money like it’s water. Clearly, you have some means of support, although I don’t know who is paying you.” Her eyes challenged him. “And you stop at nothing to get the information you want, as you’ve just proven to me. Do you still want to pretend you’re not a spy?”

Sebastien had never thought she was stupid, but he was troubled by just how much she had gleaned from their time together. Cordelia was well matched to him, he thought, in more ways than one. “Cor, you can never tell anyone about this, do you understand?”

“Surely you know by now I can keep a secret!”

“Yes, but you have to be even more careful. His Majesty’s government doesn’t survive by being lenient. If anyone else knew you’d learned this, you’d be in grave danger. I wouldn’t be able to stop it, darling, no matter how much I try.”

“His Majesty’s government? You work for the crown?”

“Who else?”

“I don’t know! I thought perhaps another group like Hayden’s…”

He was angry at that suggestion. “Of course the crown!”

“Well, how was I to know? I didn’t know a thing about you.”

“You know I did everything I could to keep you safe.”

“Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish ulterior motives from common decency.” She laughed then. “Not that anything you’ve done has been common.”

“That applies to you as well, Cor.” He kissed her, pleased that she kissed him back with no hesitation. Forgetting about secrets, they melted into each other, taking and giving the kiss as it lengthened. She placed her hands on his chest, feeling his heartbeat quicken.

“Sweetheart…” he said, need in his voice.

She smiled, reassuring him. “Are you asking for me?”

“Yes.”

“Then the answer is yes.”

As if fearing she would change her mind, he went slowly, seducing her inch by inch. She never changed her mind, and after, they lay together on his bed, naked and unashamed, as if they’d been lovers for years.

The conversation eventually returned to graver matters. “You were wrong about one thing, Cor,” he said lazily, wondering how he could stop time so Cordelia wouldn’t have to leave his room.

“What’s that?”

“I draw a salary from the government, but it’s not my primary source of income.”

“But I thought…the
ton
says…” Cordelia fumbled at the idea of repeating gossip to its subject.

Sebastien laughed, pulling a blanket over her body against any possible chill. “The rumors are partly true. I did squander my personal fortune when I was young and reckless. Gambling, mostly. I was dissolute and the creditors were breathing down my neck. I had lands, but they barely kept me fed.

“That’s when I chose the army over facing my creditors and the looks of the
ton
. It was in those years that…that my superior first found me and decided I had the makings of an agent. So I left the regular army and became what I am now.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I trust you, sweetheart.” He paused, remembering the past. “It was the time when I grew up, finally. Now I am wealthier than I was when I lost my first fortune. And when my brother George died, the title passed to me.”

“But they say your father was quite impoverished as well.”

“Also true…for a time. He invested very poorly. George managed to turn the family finances around a bit during his too short tenure as Earl of Thornbury. Unfortunately, he also spent a large amount of money to restore the family estate in Cheshire. Much of the land had been neglected for a generation. I have been working very hard to reinvest and build the family’s finances back to what they should be.”

“But how did people not realize your fortune was restored?”

“I chose not to enlighten them. My mother, who is no fool, understood the need for distraction. She worries that fortune hunters will be after Adele when she’s presented next Season. But the silence serves me, too. The
ton
loves gossip, and a poor nobleman makes for a good story. If society thought I was penniless, it helped to keep their damnable daughters away.”

“Except for those who wanted you for your title,” Cordelia guessed shrewdly. She remembered the conversations of the young ladies at earlier parties, who made it clear a title alone was worth it.

“Indeed. Truth to tell, my time abroad is as much to escape England as it is for England.”

“So you had your secrets too.”

“Yes. But if you’d told me yours earlier, you would not have had to hide so much.” He kissed her lovingly to take the edge off his criticism.

She warmed at his attention, but said, “And what should I have told you? That a mere woman not only understands engineering, but actually drafts plans on her own? That I designed a ship that could forever change how war is fought on the water? Would you have believed that?”

“No,” he admitted. “But you should have told me all the same.”

“Just as you should have told me you were working for the crown.” She paused. “Do we know everything about each other now?” she asked quietly.

Sebastien laughed. “Well, do you have any other secrets besides being the sole owner of some priceless weapon designs, a penchant for hiring felons as servants, and oh, yes…actually working as an engineer and creating an entirely fictional man as a shield?”