Broken Promises (3 page)

“You can’t—”

He shushed her, putting a finger to her lips. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t happen often. I think it was seeing you in here, hearing you talk about putting away your costumes and memorabilia. I wish I could convince you not to. I hate the thought that you’ve given up on ever dancing again.”

The words stung, but neither one of them could afford to keep indulging in the fantasy that their lives would continue just as they’d been. She and Jasper had agreed to put the past behind them, but it seemed memory and regret were powerful divisors and would continue to throw a shadow on their marriage.

With a shake of his head, he seemed to shut away his feelings until she no longer felt as if she were looking directly into his soul. Relieved and guilty, she took a deep breath and forced out a chuckle. “Do you think we’ve scandalized our servants enough for one day?”

“No doubt.” He glanced past her. “Would you like some help with your packing?”

She shook her head. “Actually, I think I had best leave it for another day.”

Chapter Two

For God’s sake, he’d all but crumbled to pieces back there. She needed strength and support, not maudlin sentimentality. Instead of standing strong, he’d ended up burdening her with the depth of his regret and she’d been forced to offer
him
succor.

Jasper headed for his study, thinking she would continue on into the morning room to check on the servants, but she turned back to him before he could disappear inside the dark room.

“We can’t keep putting this off. I think our time is already about up.”

His jaw tensed. “What do you mean?”

“You know very well what I mean. General Black will come. I need you to train with me, show me how to protect myself. These limbs might be strong and fast, but in a real-life combat situation—”

“There isn’t going to be any combat situation.” The very thought made him shudder. “I refuse to allow it. I don’t care what Black says, you aren’t getting involved in the War Office’s insane covert affairs. Malcolm and I have already agreed that if and when the bastard does show up, we will handle any mission he thinks to assign to you.”

“You refuse to
allow?
” She glared at him. “You and
Malcolm
have agreed on it?”

He sighed. Perhaps he shouldn’t have brought their friend into the discussion. The former military captain wouldn’t thank him if he found out. “Don’t get angry. I haven’t lied to you or kept anything from you. It’s no secret I don’t want you dragged into that life. You have to know I wouldn’t let Black conscript you into service just because he likes the idea of having a new toy to play with.”

“Because that’s all I am? A toy? Not so different from the doctor’s serviceable automaton, I suppose. I couldn’t possibly have a brain and make my own decisions. I only get wound up and set into motion by whoever turns the key and pushes me in the right direction.” The low rasp of her voice deepened, betraying her agitation, but the volume never rose above a conversational tone. “The only problem is I’m
yours.
Your toy. And you don’t want someone else to have a turn, do you?”

“Don’t talk like that.” He reached for her arm as she moved to stalk away. “You’re my wife. I’m entitled to protect you from harm.”

And I’ve done such a great job of that so far
. It was no doubt exactly what she was thinking, too, but at least she didn’t say it.

Only because she didn’t have time to.

“Excuse me, milord and milady Carlisle?”

Callie didn’t even blink, staring him down.

Jasper sighed and turned to the housekeeper, who waited with a hesitant expression clouding her face. “What is it, Mrs. Jenkins?”

“Young John says we have guests approachin’, my lord. A pair of riders coming hard on horseback.” The woman’s hands twisted in her white apron as her gaze flickered to Callie, whose posture had gone decidedly rigid. “Shall we turn them away, then?”

A shard of ice wedged itself high between his ribs as he slid a hand down Callie’s arm and squeezed her fingers tight in reassurance.

“No, that’s all right. I believe I know who has come to visit.” They received their fair share of country callers, but those who thought to simply drop in unannounced were usually disappointed. After the attack on Callie it had become a strict household rule—in large part for the benefit of their nervous servants—that visitors must make arrangements ahead of time if they wished to see anything besides the wrong end of a Tesla gun.

That meant there was really only person inconsiderate enough to show up unannounced—

“It’s him. General Black.” Callie tugged her hand free and stepped away.

To Mrs. Jenkins he said, “You can show the general to the salon and we’ll greet him there after we freshen up.”

“Yes sir.” The portly woman dipped her head and disappeared down the hall. He and Callie retreated upstairs to their rooms to quickly wash and change.

On the way back down, he took her hand. Thankfully, she took it despite her annoyance with him. “We’ll deal with this together.”

She gave him a dark look. “When it suits your purpose you want us to stand together, but when it doesn’t, you would leave me out of the decision and—”

“My
purpose
is always your safety. Why do you wish to fight me on that?”

She shook her head. “This isn’t the time to discuss it.”

“We obviously need to.”

“We do,” she agreed. “And I have been trying to talk to you for weeks, but you refused to listen. Well, now it’s too late, isn’t it?”

Damn it. She was right. They should have had this discussion before now, but he’d been putting it off in the naïve hope the problem simply wouldn’t manifest. “All right, let’s just find out what the man wants.”

Two men waited inside as they entered the salon. One, a slim, bespectacled figure who couldn’t have been older than thirty-five, yet seemed to suffer the unfortunate luck of both thinning and prematurely silver hair, sat in the divan on the far side of the room. His head was bent and he ruffled through the stack of papers in his arms until Jasper and Callie closed the door.

The general turned from the velvet-framed window, lips twisting into an arrogant grin that distorted the jagged white scar bisecting his face.

“General Black.” Jasper waited inside the door, keeping Callie close by his side.

“Good day, Lord and Lady Carlisle.” The derision in his tone could not be completely concealed. It was no secret that the general had little use for the noble class. Only for the underground war effort—underground because, although the war with France was technically over, hostilities still ran high and deep—he would make use of whatever tools were available. To his endless disgust, the men and women of the
ton
were able to gain access to places and information that a hardened soldier, who was little more than a bloodthirsty pirate, obviously could not. “What are you doing here?” Jasper didn’t much care if he was in the presence of a senior officer. This was his bloody home and the man had come without invitation, ostensibly to force his wife to undertake a dangerous mission those toadying reprobates in the War Office weren’t man enough to handle on their own. Black was lucky Jasper didn’t throw him out and kick his arse back down the lane.

The strange thin man remained silent, but Black laughed. “I suppose it was too much to expect a gracious welcome.”

“No doubt.”

“Jasper.” Callie pulled her hand from his and took a step forward. “Why don’t we all sit down and let the general get to the point of his visit.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he ground out. “You aren’t doing anything he says.”

She sighed and glided toward the sofa. So elegant and fluid. She didn’t realize the way she moved was much the same now as it had been before the attack, because she couldn’t see that her grace had nothing to do with her legs or her dancing. It came from the beauty of her very soul.

Jasper understood why she would believe she had to agree to whatever Black wanted—she thought she owed the War Office for her survival and this was her payment. It only made him want to fight harder to keep her as far out of it as he could, but the longer General Black remained in his drawing room, the quicker his control over such things slipped away like tendrils of smoke on the breeze.

“Please, General,” she prompted. “If you would continue…”

Black wasted no more time. “The two of you are to return to Manchester as soon as possible.” He glanced at Jasper, daring him to protest. “There has been an incident of somewhat disastrous proportion.”

Jasper folded his arms. “We’ll hear you out only because my lady won’t let me
throw
you out. But there isn’t anything you can say that will make me change my mind about this.”

Surprisingly, Black didn’t argue. He only looked to his companion, who glanced down at his file of paperwork and started to explain.

Before he had finished talking, Jasper admitted he’d been wrong. It turned out there
was
something the general could say to make him change his mind, and they would indeed be going to Manchester.

In fact, they probably couldn’t get there fast enough.

Chapter Three

The proper-looking agent stood and glanced at General Black. His crisply pressed officer’s jacket was fastened smartly, the buttons and braid on his shoulders denoting his status.

Apparently deciding he wasn’t getting a formal introduction from that corner, he cleared his throat and turned to Jasper and Callie, drawing attention to the pointed Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. Jasper half expected him to push the thick-rimmed glasses up his nose and pull on his vest nervously, but he didn’t. He remained very still and very serious looking. At first glance he was unassuming and easily dismissed, but Jasper had noticed him looking at Callie, even through the bickering back and forth with General Black.

He obviously knew of her enhancements, had been studying her movements as if he could see right through her clothing. And he’d watched her face as if the implant in her eye fascinated him.

Jasper did
not
walk over there and punch those spectacles off the man’s face for looking at his wife like she were a bug under his microscope. It would feel very good to do exactly that, but he consciously held on to the civility that had been drilled into him as a responsibility of his position in society.

It felt like a very long moment to wait, but he told himself he would learn more than if he fisted the man’s shirt in his hand, broke some bones…or even continued to argue with the damned general.

“The agent you must retrieve for the War Office—”

“Agent? What agent?” Jasper turned back to Black, who only shrugged. Jasper refocused on his companion. “And who the devil are you, again?”

The thin man was finally forced to abandon his examination of Callie. He turned to Jasper with a look down the bridge of his long nose. “I don’t believe I mentioned my name.”

“Well then, don’t you think you had better do that?” The soldier’s attitude bordered on insolence, even if Jasper wasn’t already holding the man’s rude examination of his wife against him—which he definitely was. “And while you’re speaking to a superior officer, Lieutenant, you will ‘sir’ your bloody heart out, do you understand me?”

He nodded and swallowed but, surprisingly enough, he didn’t back down and he didn’t look cowed. “The name is Peabody. Colonel, sir. I oversee the Hercules Project, under General Black’s directive.” He paused. “In fact, I answer
only
to General Black. Sir.”

Black chuckled, but Jasper ignored him. “Christ,” he muttered. “The
Hercules Project.
You couldn’t come up with a better name?”

“Just what does it mean?” Callie interrupted.

Peabody turned to Callie again. “It means that I’m the one who assessed your case and approved the surgery which provided you with your enhancements.”

Callie stilled, both hands clenched at her sides.

Peabody didn’t seem to notice, as he continued blithely, “And I shall be the one who revokes them if it is ultimately determined that such enhancements are not being utilized for the best interests of the War Office.”

Revoke?

“The hell you say.” Jasper was halfway across the room with every intention of throttling the little pissant. To hell with holding back. To hell with listening and learning. The bastard just threatened to—

“Jasper.” Callie had his arm in a tight grip. He stopped and took a deep breath, placing his hand over hers before gently prying her loose.

“Mr. Peabody—”

He pointed one finger upward and pursed his lips. “Actually, it’s Lieutenant Peabody, my lady.”

Her face took on a softer, beguiling expression as she waved her hand and returned to her seat. She sat back down, regal as a queen even in her breeches, boots, white lawn shirt and vest.

The tension in his shoulders wasn’t going anywhere, but he found himself suddenly biting back a grin. For the first time in many months he wasn’t just seeing Callie, his lovely wife. He was seeing Calliandra, the world-famous ballerina. The woman whose skill, beauty and fame had sent better men than this one to their knees, begging at her feet for a scrap of attention.

“Yes, yes, Lieutenant Peabody, forgive me. But please, tell us once and for all what all of this is about.” Her voice was lyrical and inviting. Was it just him, or did it sound as if her throat was healing?

Peabody sat back down in the seat across from her, looking entranced. “My deepest and most sincere apologies, Lady Carlisle. Of course.”

Jasper glanced over the heads of Callie and the Lieutenant to General Black. He raised an eyebrow, as if to say Callie didn’t faze him one bit. Jasper wanted to laugh. She hadn’t even started trying yet.

“As I was saying, my lady.” Peabody cleared his throat once more. “We require your assistance in Manchester to locate and contain one of our former agents.”

“Who is it? What has this agent done?”

“Captain Jamie Dunsmoor attacked his commanding officer and abandoned his mission. He was caught and contained for evaluation—at which time he attempted to kill Dr. Helmholtz. When General Black intercepted him, he disappeared and hasn’t been seen since. We relocated the doctor’s laboratory to a safe and secret location, but it’s our belief that Dunsmoor will try to get to him again. He’s a deserter and must be brought in.”