The sky was brightening with hues of mauve and magenta as Gabe rapped on the side door to an old pub in Cheapside, the sound echoing through the narrow alley in which he stood. A rat skittered back to its home in a small pile of rubble not ten feet from him and Gabe’s lips curled back in distaste.
An answering knock thudded thrice against the thick wooden door, recalling Gabe’s attention. He rapped twice more and the door swung open.
“Hydra,” he said, affecting a shallow bow to his superior.
“You are just in time, Gabriel. We’ve only just arrived ourselves.”
Gabe had been partnered for assignments before, often for espionage, sabotage, or reconnaissance work. He wondered what Hydra had in store for him today.
He winced at the painful pull at his ribs as the two of them walked down the narrow hallway. The air in the hall was close and stuffy with the scent of smoke, which seeped through the walls from the front rooms.
They reached the closed door at its end and he could hear the high notes of feminine voices. Gabe’s curiosity piqued.
“Enter, if you will,” Hydra said from behind him.
Gabe pressed the latch and pushed, a plethora of floral scents assailing his senses in one gust. The room was bright, and Gabe blinked, allowing his eyes to adjust to the sudden light.
What he saw then stopped his heart.
“Wha’ the devil?”
At his exclamation, Mary spun about, her half-clad form in high relief against the tight fabric of her shift and bosom-lifting corset, and another woman for whom Gabe hardly spared a moment’s thought, dropped a measure of fabric. Gabe turned to gaze accusingly at Hydra, but the man had already entered the room to approach Mary.
“Close your gaping mouth, Gabe, and make a choice,” Hydra glanced at his pocket watch before replacing it in its home in his waistcoat. “Come in and learn the details of the assignment or leave the position to the next available agent.”
Gabe clenched his jaw, his heart beating thunderously in his aching chest. Mary. Half nude. Oh Lord…
“Shouldnae Miss Wright put on some clothes before we begin? She is nae decent!”
For the first time since he entered, Mary spoke, “I am hardly indecent; I am not nude for pity’s sake. Mrs. McPhee was brought down from Brampton to measure me for my costumes and I didn’t wish to delay her. Surely this is nothing you haven’t seen before, Gabe.” He frowned, and Mary rolled her eyes heavenward. “Very well, if it offends your delicate sensibilities, I will put on a robe.” She turned to Mrs. McPhee. “My apologies, madam, but this must be suspended until our meeting concludes.”
The older woman nodded and quietly left the room as Mary slid her arms through the sleeves of a thin cerulean blue dressing robe. She tied the sash in a knot about her waist and sat in the rough, threadbare armchair before the fire, an invisible cloud of rose-scented air rising with the motion.
Gabe tamped down on his inappropriately—yet justifiably—lustful reaction to her scantily clad form as he sat in the highboy across from Mary. He watched her from the corner of his eye. She appeared so out of place in this tattered environment; the once-jade velvet window dressings now torn and coloured a nondescript brown from years of coal and cigar smoke. The other fabrics about the room had met the same fate, the green and blue brocade rug worn through from years of being trodden on, the chaise and chairs, formerly adorned with thick fabric, were now nearly worn through; everything was bedraggled and smelled its age. Though at the moment, their smell was overpowered by Mrs. McPhee’s saccharine perfume and Mary’s alluring rose scent.
And there Mary sat, at her ease, in a robe and very little else. She belonged in a room of overstuffed silken cushions, surrounded by fragrant flowers and trays of fruits…which he would feed to her one by one before they shared the lavishly ornamented bed…
Damn, there his lust went again. He must stop thinking of Mary on such terms. Or better still, he should take himself as far away from her as possible.
“As you both might have surmised by now, this is an infiltration assignment.” Hydra said, pulling Gabe from his thoughts. At some point in his musings, Hydra had settled himself on the chaise between Gabe and Mary, facing the fire.
An ill feeling began to fester in the pit of Gabe’s stomach. He knew from the nature of an infiltration assignment that he was to play a role, but now that he knew of Mary’s involvement, Gabe felt dread begin to seep into his bones.
A file of paper appeared at his elbow. “Your character profiles and the dossier for our suspected targets.” Hydra nodded at Mary. “Mary has already gained entrée into the house party, and though she was not invited to bring a guest, Gabe, you will attend with her, should you choose to accept.”
“A house party,” Gabe mused. If Mary had garnered an invitation during one of her evening assignments, that did not bode well. “Might this be the sort of house party in which—”
“In which your sensibilities will be put on high alert,” Mary cut across him, her gaze challenging.
Gabe’s gut clenched. Surely not.
Hydra nodded. “This is delicate and highly dangerous. You must remain in character at all times.”
Character? Oh God, no… Gabe flipped open his file, his heart freezing at what he saw on the first page. “My mistress!” he burst out. “Wha’ the devil do ye mean by this, Hydra?”
“I beg your pardon!” Mary said, a tantalizing frown on her deceptively angelic heart-shaped face.
Hydra’s blue eyes darkened, his voice lowering to an ominous level. “You speak out of turn, Gabriel.”
Gabe stood, tossing the dossiers on the chair behind him before turning to pace the tattered rug. He took a deep breath and winced, the floral scent suddenly overwhelming.
Mary’s cover was abhorrent enough without adding mistress to her list of sins. She did not belong in the world of spies. She did not belong in other men’s beds. That thought arrested him, but he quickly dismissed it. Mary belonged married to an ordinary man, and that man was most certainly not Gabe.
This assignment was all wrong and Mary’s role in it was…
Gabe drew himself up. “My apologies, sir.” Gabe affected a shallow bow.
Biting the inside of his cheek, Gabe tried to keep in what else he wished to say, but one glance at Mary’s downcast expression made him ever angrier. “Mary cannae do it! Put another female agent in her place if ye will, but nae Mary.”
“I am the one who procured the invitation,” Mary’s quiet voice sliced through him with each syllable. “It would hardly be acceptable for another woman to go in my place.”
“Very well, then,” Hydra rose to remove the dossiers from the highboy Gabe had vacated, then tapped them against his opposite hand. “I had a mind to give the assignment to Greene from the first, but something compelled me to offer it to you. I can see now that I was wrong.” He turned to Mary. “Are you amenable to completing this assignment with Colin?”
Mary nodded, pride stiffening her posture. “I am prepared to complete the assignment with any man of your choosing for my partner, sir.”
Gabe’s heart pounded harder, the beats thundering portentously in his ears. No! This was not how this was supposed to happen! Mary was not to go on this assignment at all, but with Colin sodding Greene? What if their faux relationship of man and mistress turned into something more while they shared a bedchamber? God!
An odd, panicked fluttering began in his stomach, the likes of which he had never felt before. He didn’t think he could even put a name to the horrid, foreign feeling. He could not let Colin take the assignment. Not his oldest friend and his best friend together. Alone. Sharing the same bedchamber…
A throat clearing drew him from his distressing musings. “You are dismissed, Gabe. I shall contact you when I have an alternate assignment,” Hydra said.
“Nae! I cannae allow Colin te replace me. I will go on the assignment with Mary.”
* * *
Mary’s stomach continued to churn as she watched the exchange between Hydra and Gabriel. How could he be so unfeeling? He implied, not just within her hearing but very obviously in front of her, that she was unfit and not skilled enough to carry out this assignment. Insulting did not begin to describe how his words had affected her. Painful and hurtful were both good words, as well.
She was just as experienced in the field as he; her knowledge and skill might differ from his, but she was certainly as capable.
“You just refused the assignment, Gabe. I do not respond well to minds being changed on a whim,” Hydra rumbled.
“This is nae a whim, I assure ye, sir. I was just trying te look out fer Mary’s best interest.”
“Best interest?” Mary burst out, standing, her dressing robe swishing as she did. “I daresay you would rather work with Eliza, Amelia, or one of the other women, but I assure you I am fully capable of doing what is necessary to complete this assignment successfully. I—”
“Aye, I believe tha’,” Gabe snarled.
Mary reared back as if struck. Goodness, it even felt as though she had, but not on her cheek, no. This blow was arrowed directly at her heart. “You believe me a whore?”
“Enough!” Hydra roared as Gabe flinched, though Mary did not know if it was from her words or Hydra’s harsh voice.
“Gabriel, you overstep,” Hydra’s voice lowered. “Mary is the lifeblood of this assignment and is fully capable of carrying it out with or without you by her side.”
“I would prefer without,” Mary interjected, garnering the attention of both men. “Clearly Gabriel does not believe I am capable of being a part of this assignment, and I would not wish my partner to have so little faith in me. I will, however, gladly go with Colin.”
Gabe scowled at her. “I think nae.” He turned his gaze on Hydra, “My apologies, sir, fer my impertinence. It was wrong of me. I intend te make right my mistake by completing the assignment with Mary. I promise te nae allow my personal feelings or opinions to jeopardize the attaining of our goal.”
Mary waited for him to apologize to her, but when it was not forthcoming she felt another stab of hurt.
Hydra nodded. “Very well.”
“Just a moment!” Mary exclaimed. “You cannot honestly consider sending him with me after what he has said.”
Hydra made an odd placating gesture. “He is an excellent candidate for the position, and he has been on this sort of assignment before. Colin specializes in sabotage; he does not have the same experience.” Hydra turned his attention to Gabe. “Are you certain you will be able to fulfill your duties? You do not believe your injuries will impede you?”
“Certainly nae, sir,” Gabe bowed his head. “They pain me only slightly; I will return to normal before the date of the house party.”
The expression on Gabe’s face told Mary differently. Evidently, he was willing to push past his pain in order to take this assignment. He likely only wished to keep her away from “sin” and save his pride. She shook her head. How demeaning that he should believe that he would act as her governess.
Mary straightened her shoulders. If Hydra deemed it necessary for Gabe to accompany her on this assignment, then she would prove to Gabe that she did not require his protection and that she was as capable an agent for the Crown as he.
“Very well,” she said, her eyes shooting daggers at Gabriel and determination stiffening her spine.
Hydra clapped his hands together with one loud crack, seemingly at his ease with her displeasure. “Brilliant. Shall we begin?”
With the dossiers still in Mary’s hand, she resumed her seat, adjusting her dressing robe over her knees. She watched as Gabe accepted his own set of dossiers from Hydra and both men sat.
“Let us start from the beginning.” Hydra leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands joined between them. “Recently, some rather important intelligence documents have been purloined from our operatives, several of whom protected the documents with their lives.”
Mary looked through her own paperwork as Hydra spoke.
“The documents contain code keys,” he continued, “battle maps, and war strategies. We know why and when they were taken, but we do not yet know who took them, where they have hidden them, or to whom they will pass the information along. There are three suspects attending the house party at Kerr House. Viscount Kerr,” he listed them off on his fingers, “the Earl of Reddington, and the Marquess of Hale. I have Stevens already stationed as a footman in Hale’s household, but keep an eye on Hale as well, if you will.” He frowned. “Though I suppose I should call him Sir Stevens as he’s been knighted, but for our purposes, he’s still simply Stevens.”
Thoughts and plans began to turn themselves over in Mary’s mind. She had already begun a rapport with Reddington. It would, therefore, be simple enough to extract information from him. It would require more work, however, to glean information from the others, as she would need to gain their trust…or at the very least remove herself as a potential threat in their mind.
“Mary, you will keep your stage pseudonym of Miss Mary White. Gabriel, you will attend as Mr. Anthony Spencer, English wastrel, rogue, inveterate gambler, and youngest son of Sir Peter Spencer. Mary is your mistress. You will use any and every opportunity to search safe boxes for hidden documents, glean any information you can from servants or the attendees themselves, and uncover any additional supporters or cohorts of Bonaparte.”
“Aye,” Gabe grunted.
Mary nodded. “Of course, sir.”
“Mrs. McPhee is creating costumes for Mary to wear and will do tailoring for Gabe’s wardrobe. When she re-enters, have her measure you both. I have already given her direction on what the costumes shall be.” He clapped his hands on his knees. “Any other information is available to you in your dossiers. Do you have any questions?”
“No, sir,” they said in unison.
Mary slid a sideways glance toward Gabe. The man made her furious, but she could not help admiring him. He was everything practical; not a stitch of lace on his cuff, his brown, curling hair cut appropriately short. And his clothes… My, but his clothes fit him like a second skin, fitted perfectly to his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and, she was ashamed to have noticed, his perfectly sculpted bottom. All over, he was trim yet muscular.
She had seen plenty of men beneath their clothes, but she would wager that none of them compared to him.
Stop it, you ninny! She shook herself. How could she think such indecent thoughts about a man as hard-hearted as he? Why, only minutes ago he insulted her terribly. Indeed, she should hate him. She did hate him.
Her spine stiffened, along with her resolve. By the end of the house party, Gabe would be forced to recognize his folly and apologize for his continuous discourtesy toward her. Mary was going to take charge of this assignment and show Gabe how capable she truly was.