As Luck Would Have It (30 page)

An eternity later, at least in Sophie’s mind, the landscape began to change. The fields gave way to trees and rocky out-croppings.

“We’d better take our chances now.” Alex held the tarp back for her. “The next time the wagon slows to take a turn, I want you to jump. Aim for the embankment. When you get to your feet, run to the trees. If anything happens just keep running. Head east.”

“Why east?”

“Because it’s not the direction the wagon is going.”

“Oh.”

“I’ll be right behind you.”

She nodded. She couldn’t think of anything else to say. She felt the carriage begin to slow and her heartbeat speed up. She slipped her legs over the back of the wagon.

Alex gave her a quick but heartfelt kiss. “Bend your knees, keep your arms tucked about your head, and try to let yourself roll.”

Sophie glanced down at the road flying past her feet. “Is not rolling even an option?”

“Just don’t fight it. I’ll be right behind you. Now go.”

Sophie jumped. She tried to follow Alex’s instruction, but after the initial jarring impact she lost all control of her body to inertia. She did manage a great deal of rolling though, and when she finally managed to clamber to her feet—ignoring the myriad of aches and pains that promised spectacular bruising—she contented herself with that knowledge.

Before her head could finish spinning, Alex was at her side, grabbing her hand and pulling her into the woods at a dead run. She was immensely grateful for his company at that moment. Not just for his calming presence, but also for his ability to move in a straight line, a skill she currently lacked.

“Did they see us?” she whispered between gasping breathes. It took an enormous amount of effort to keep up with him, and she suspected he was capable of moving much faster. She hated that she might be slowing him down, but she knew he would never leave her behind. Her only hope was that their escape had gone unnoticed.

“No. You don’t have to whisper,” Alex answered in a normal tone of voice and, she couldn’t help but notice, a barely winded one. “The wagon picked up speed after it rounded the corner. They didn’t suspect a thing.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I waited to jump.”

“You waited until it was going faster?”

“Not much, just enough to be sure they hadn’t noticed you’d gone missing.”

Sophie glanced around fretfully for any sign of pursuit. Then she stumbled over a tree root. Alex pulled her arm to right her without slowing. “But could they have noticed after you jumped?” she asked, whispering again.

“They didn’t,” he replied, and she could almost hear the confident smile he was wearing. It grated on raw nerves.

“Well, if they didn’t see
me
and they didn’t see
you
,” she began caustically, “then why the devil are we running?” She considering digging her heels in for effect, but at the speed they were going, and with the death grip Alex had on her hand, she figured she’d probably end up with an injured shoulder for her efforts.

Besides, Alex was already slowing down to a brisk walk.

“Are you tired? Do you need to rest?” he asked. Concern laced his voice, and she immediately felt foolish for her outburst. And more than a little ashamed. After all, she was the reason he was in this mess.

“I’m fine,” she answered in a small voice. It wasn’t strictly true, she hurt to the roots of her hair, but she would live, and all because of Alex. She would run until she dropped if that’s what he wanted. “Really, I’m fine, we don’t need to slow down.”

Alex shook his head. “We don’t need to run anymore, either. We’re far enough into the woods.”

“Oh.” She glanced at his profile. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

He looked well enough, but one could never be sure.

“Perfectly fit,” he assured her, and with such confidence she took him at his word and walked along beside him for awhile in silence.

“Alex,” she asked, once she’d more or less regained her breath and good sense. “How did you get out of those ropes so quickly?”

Alex flinched. He had gotten out by using tricks he’d been
taught by his father and William. Tricks Sophie clearly did not have. Dear God, she’d been trying to chew through her bindings. He was simultaneously horrified at the danger he’d put her in, and unspeakably proud of how well she was handling it. Untying knots with one’s mouth wasn’t the most efficient means of escape, but it was a damn clever solution for someone who, by all rights, should have been rendered senseless with fear.

“I’m proud of you,” he said, giving her hand a little squeeze.

She blinked at him. “Um…thank you, I think, but I haven’t done anything.”

Alex stopped and looked at her. “You’ve been uncommonly brave, Sophie, and in circumstances you can’t possibly understand—”

“Well—”

“Let me finish, please, I think this may be easier for me if I do it quickly.”

She nodded. There didn’t seem to be anything else for it, since she hadn’t the slightest idea what he was talking about. He sounded as if he were about to pull out a tooth, or sever a limb.

Alex reached down and took her other hand in his. “I believe those men were either Napoleon sympathizers or hired by one. In fact I’m almost sure of it. I’m….” Alex put a fist to his mouth and cleared his throat. He retook her other hand, increased his grip as if afraid she might try to bolt—and he was—and said, “I know because I’m an agent for the war office and I’ve been investigating your cousin’s affairs. I am sorry, Sophie. I wanted to keep you safe. I never suspected they knew. I….”

Alex didn’t know what else to say, how to make things right, or even better.

At least she wasn’t trying to run, although she did appear sufficiently shocked.

“You’re a spy?”

Alex pulled a face. He’d never particularly cared for that word—spying was not considered by most to be an honorable means of warfare. He much preferred the term “agent.” But probably now wasn’t a good time to quibble over semantics.

“Yes, I’m a spy—”

“I thought you’d been a soldier.”

“I was. I am what ever the war office asks of me. It’s something of a family tradition. The Rockefortes have always been in the active ser vice of the Crown.”

“Oh,” she said rather stupidly. But really what else
could
she say?
I’m a spy too. Goodness, what are the odds?
seemed hopelessly wrong.

“You’re not angry.” She was still gawking at him a bit, looking stunned, but not mad. It was immensely relieving…and a little odd.

“No, I’m not angry.” How could she be? What a hypocrite that would make her. It was strange though, that they’d been working around each other all this time. It seemed awfully disorganized.

“What exactly were you suppose to do?” she asked.

“Initially, I was to ordered to keep an eye on you and Lord Loudor.”

A uncomfortable prickly sensation started at the back of her neck. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “What does that mean, ‘keep an eye on you’?”

“Just what it implies, I suppose. I was to develop an association with you and through you Lord Loudor—”

“What?”

He shifted his feet a little nervously. “You’re angry now, aren’t you?”

She ignored that. “You were spying on me?”

“Only for a few days, a fortnight at most—”

“A fortnight….” Memories of those first two weeks in London came flooding back. Alex laughing with her, Alex taking her to the opera, Alex kissing her…all lies?

“Yes, only a fortnight, ten days to be specific, not so very long if you think about it. After that, my mission was just a convenient excuse to court you—”

“You needed an excuse to court me.”

Her voice was very, very calm. Disturbingly calm.

“Yes. No! I mean, not under normal circumstances, but—” Alex stopped and glanced down at his feet. He couldn’t help it. Surely to God there was some visible evidence of the hole he was digging himself into. “You must understand, I had a duty—”

“A duty,” she repeated ominously.

How deep was it now? Three feet, maybe four?

“An assignment. I couldn’t very well—”

“Now I’m an assignment?”

“No. I did
not
say that.”

Six feet. Definitely six.

“Sophie.”

Surely that, at least, wouldn’t get him into any more trouble.

She glared daggers.

Apparently, it wasn’t enough to get him out of any either.

He tried again anyway.

“Sophie.”

“How much of it was a lie?” she asked quietly.

Alex blinked in confusion. “I beg your pardon?”

“Those first ten days, and all the days after that…” She swallowed audibly. “How much of what you…what we did was a lie? All of it? Did you even want to be with me?”

“What? No, Sophie, don’t.” He reached out for her arm to stop her from turning away. “Look at me, sweetheart.” He put his fingers under her chin and titled her head up. “Look at me,” he repeated softly. “I have wanted to be with you since the moment I saw you. You took my breath away. The first moment we spoke, you stole my heart.”

“Alex—”

“Nothing we have shared has been a lie,” he insisted.
“Nothing. The reason for seeking you out was a pretense, yes, but I could never counterfeit the pleasure it brings me just to be near you.”

His fingers left her chin to wipe a tear off her cheek. “Please, believe me, Sophie,” he pleaded. “I will always want to be with you.”

Even as he said the words, Alex knew they were true. He simply couldn’t imagine a future without her. Couldn’t imagine waking up each morning alone, or worse, next to a woman who wasn’t Sophie. Couldn’t imagine not hearing her laugh, seeing her smile, tasting her lips….

“I believe you.”

Sophie’s voice shook him out of his reverie and he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Thank God.”

He took her hand and resumed walking. “If it makes you feel any better, I knew immediately
you
weren’t a spy.”

Sophie made a strange noise that was part laugh, part groan, and part choke. He stopped again and looked at her questioningly.

“As to that…” The words came out a nervous squeak.

He dropped her hand. His stomach did a slow roll before plummeting to his feet.

It couldn’t be.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I’m not a French spy.”

“What sort of spy are you, then?”

“Besides an inept one,” she grumbled, “an English sort of spy. The Prince Regent hired me to look into the affairs of my cousin and several of his associates.”

“Prinny hired you?” he asked, unsure if he were more relieved, confused, or angry. “Prinny doesn’t hire agents.”

“Well, he didn’t do it personally.”

“Of course not, Prinny doesn’t do anything personally, except make an ass of himself. I meant he always looks to the war office when he wants someone watched. We try to keep him out of the more important affairs, but….”

“Maybe he figured that out and decided to circumvent you?” she offered.

“Maybe, but I doubt it. We’ve never actually denied him anything.” He looked at her for a moment. “How long have you been in the business of espionage?”

“About as long as I’ve been in London,” she answered with a wry twist of her mouth. “A man approached me on the boat over, and I wasn’t in a position to refuse. He offered a great deal of money.”

“Good Lord, I can’t believe I didn’t figure this out,” Alex muttered.

“Maybe I’m a better spy than I realized.”

“And I can’t believe you had the audacity to become angry with me—”

“You were spying on
me
.”

He pretended not to hear her. “When this is over, I’m going to wring Prinny’s neck.”

“I’ll thank you to wait until after he’s paid me.”

“Your espionage days are over, Sophie.”

Alex picked up her hand again and resumed walking.

“Not quite yet, they’re not,” she retorted, struggling to keep up with his brisk pace. “I still haven’t found the proof they want. Although there is the matter of Whitefield’s missing funds, and I did come across some interesting letters in Lord Calmaton’s desk drawer.”

He shot her sideways glance. “How did you get into Calmaton’s desk drawer?”

“I picked the lock.”

“Picked the…?”

He stopped and turned abruptly.

She barely avoided running into his chest. “We are never going to get anywhere like this,” she mumbled.

“How, in God’s name, did you come by that talent?”

“We’ll be out here for days.”

“I’m waiting for an answer, Sophie. You said you’d never done this before. So where did you learn to pick a lock?”

“Mr. Wang taught me,” she said impatiently. “May we start moving now?”

“Not yet. Why the devil would he teach you such a thing?”

Sophie sighed in the manner of one much put upon. “If you must know, I can’t play the pianoforte.”

An expectant silence followed.

“And…?” Alex finally prompted.

“
And
Mr. Wang decided my talents might lie elsewhere. I’m not at all musically inclined and the more I practiced, the more frustrated I became. Eventually, Mr. Wang took me aside and explained that everyone has their own unique set of gifts. He gave me a few options to try and I chose the ones that sounded the most interesting.”

“And how to effectively open a door without a key was one of those options?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes, and Mr. Wang was correct. I took to it right away and felt immensely better about myself.”

“You couldn’t have just attempted the harp, or the flute?”

“I told you, I have no skill with music. Besides, we were in the Cape Verde Islands at the time and there were no harps or flutes readily available.”

Alex looked at her a moment longer, shook his head in disbelief, then started off again.

“Finally,” she muttered.

Twenty-four

B
y the time they came across an old hunting box in the woods, Sophie was ready to weep with exhaustion.

She was also ready to push Alex off the nearest cliff. She was hot, tired, frightened of the coming dark, and very, very annoyed.