Chapter Nineteen
Hawk looked up at a slight knock on the library door. “Come.”
His secretary, Mr. Mannerly, entered the room, a shaft of files under his arms. As always, his cravat was appropriately starched, his jacket, waistcoat, and pantaloons well brushed. His blond wavy hair had been swept back into a queue at his neck, with no curl brave enough to fall onto his forehead. “Good afternoon, my lord. I have numerous matters for you to take care of.”
“I believe that is always true.” He smiled at the man who had been with him since he first inherited the title. Mannerly traveled among all of Hawk’s properties, following his employer. Once Hawk had determined it was necessary for him to bring Lizzie to Hawkins Manor, he’d dispatched a note to London for Mannerly to meet him here. His secretary was nothing if not expeditious.
Aside from handling all the matters that had come up while he’d been at Wycliff’s estate, there was a delicate matter he wanted Mannerly to attend to that could only be delegated in person. Nothing in writing could come back to him.
“Before we get started on that, I want you to undertake a special assignment.”
Mannerly perked up. “Yes, my lord.”
“What I am about to tell you is of the utmost importance and must be held in the strictest confidence.”
“My lord, I would never breach your trust.” Mannerly sniffed.
“Yes, I trust you completely, but I wish to impress upon you that this is a very sensitive matter.” Hawk hoped that helped to soothe Mannerly’s ruffled feathers, but with the danger to Lizzie, he had to be diligent in his protection of her.
“Lady Elizabeth Munro is staying with us for a time. You most likely know of her father, Lord Loverly.”
Mannerly’s eyes grew wide. “The traitor?”
“Yes. The very same. I found Lady Elizabeth at my cousin’s estate, working as a governess.”
“My lord!”
“While I was there I received a missive from the Home Office that had been forwarded from my London townhouse, advising me that Lord Loverly’s daughter was at Wycliff estate, and I was to fetch her and bring her to London for questioning. Of course, I immediately confronted her.”
“What had she to say for herself?” he demanded.
“She was quite distraught at being found out. However, on another note, so far there have been two attempts on the woman’s life.”
Mannerly sucked in a deep breath. “Oh, my.”
Hawk leaned back in his chair and tapped his lips with a pencil. “I have reason to believe that someone in the Home Office is behind the attacks on Lady Elizabeth.”
“You say?”
“Yes.” Hawk stood and circled the desk, leaning against it. “We were both out riding one morning—before I discovered her true identity—when Lady Elizabeth was thrown from her horse because the girth on her saddle had been cut. Since that happened before I’d even received the note from the Home Office, that tells me someone in the Home Office learned her whereabouts and sent a man to kill her.”
“Oh, no.” Mannerly’s face paled.
“The only people who would have been privy to that information are at the Home Office. I immediately set off to bring her here where I can protect her.
“Then, on our way, she was attacked in her room at an inn. I managed to subdue the man and questioned him afterward. He would only confirm he’d been hired, and he was the one who had tampered with her saddle.” Hawk rested his hip on the desk and swung one leg. “That is the only theory that makes sense to me. I can’t imagine why anyone would be interested in killing a governess.”
“Do you have any idea why someone in the Home Office would want to cause Lady Elizabeth harm? Could it be a vengeance sort of thing because of what her father had done?”
“No. I believe whoever is trying to kill her is the other person who had been working with Lord Loverly.”
Mannerly frowned. “I thought the theory was a woman was Loverly’s assistant?”
“Yes, that is the current thought, which is why I am under orders to bring Lady Elizabeth to London to be questioned.”
“They think her ladyship is that woman?”
“She has been questioned before, which was what had precipitated her absconding to the country. It is certain they want to ask her for information. I have questioned her thoroughly myself and am of the opinion she knows nothing that would put someone in danger of being discovered.”
Mannerly straightened his shoulders. “I shall do whatever it is you want me to do, my lord. The poor girl must be terrified.”
“Thank you. What I want you to do is find out as much as you can about Lord Loverly’s townhouse in London. Lady Elizabeth tells me that was where her father spent the last years of his life before he left for America, which is the time when he was engaging in his treasonous acts. Once he was declared a traitor, the Crown took possession of the townhouse. I don’t know if they searched the premises, or not. I’m assuming if they had, they didn’t find anything, or they would not still have their focus on Lady Elizabeth.”
“Shall I travel to London to do this, my lord?”
“Yes. That would be best. What I want to know is how well the townhouse is guarded. If it is watched, when is the best time to enter the premises unseen? Without raising suspicion, see if you can check records and uncover the layout of the place.”
“My lord?”
“Since Lady Elizabeth remembers nothing telling, it’s my theory that there are papers somewhere among Loverly’s belongings that tie his partner to the selling of Crown secrets during the Napoleonic Wars. If we can obtain those papers, it would clear Lady Elizabeth and put the true culprit behind bars.”
“Then I assume it is your intention to break into the townhouse?”
Hawk hesitated for only a moment. “It is. Lady Elizabeth and I will perform the deed.”
…
“Break into Father’s townhouse? Are you addlebrained?” Lizzie regarded him with shock when he told her of his plan for them both to travel to London and search Loverly Townhouse to retrieve she knew not what.
Hawk reached out and took her hand in his. “Listen to me. Someone wants you dead. I think after the saddle incident, and the attack at the inn, we can agree on that. Since you cannot remember anything that incriminates anyone else, there must be papers, notes, even a journal, perhaps, that belonged to your father that this person thinks you either have in your possession or have access to. We have to find it, and Loverly Townhouse is the only place it would be, since Bedford told the authorities he had done a search of his residence in America and there were no incriminating papers there.”
She chewed on her lip and watched him the entire time he spoke. This had to be the worst idea, ever. Trying to prove her innocence by breaking the law was not the best way to go about it. Supposed they were caught? She would be in even deeper trouble.
“Did you not tell me that the last years of your father’s life, before he left for America, he resided in London? That he did not spend any time at his estate?”
She nodded.
“Then London is where the incriminating evidence is.”
“What if there isn’t any? What if this person just believes I know him?”
Hawk ran his hand down his face. “There is that possibility. However, the easiest step is to search the townhouse and see if we can come up with a name.”
It was after dinner, and they sat side by side on a settee in the library. Lady Hawkins and Lady Honora had a dinner engagement elsewhere, so she and Hawk were alone. Since Lizzie had taken a nap after the light luncheon they’d had, she’d missed speaking with Hawk’s mother and sister, as they had left for the party before she’d come down for dinner.
Lizzie stood, wrapped her arms around her middle, and walked to the window. “Frankly, I am afraid to go to London.” She turned back and looked at Hawk. “The Home Office is looking for me. Why would I go right to their front steps?”
Hawk joined her and placed his hands on her shoulders, then bent his head so he could look her in the eyes. “I swore to you I would protect you and keep you safe. That includes not handing you over to the Home Office while I believe someone in there wants you dead.”
“You said we were coming here to Hawkins Manor to protect me. Now you want me to travel to London.” She moved away from him and turned her back. “No. I don’t want to do that. I feel safe here.”
“Lizzie, that puts us at a stalemate. I cannot turn you over, and I cannot continue to disobey orders. We must find out who your father’s cohort was, and we needs do it fast. Time is running out.”
“I need some time to think about it.”
Hawk walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle, resting his chin on her shoulder. “I can give you perhaps a day or two. But then we must leave. When the person we are searching for doesn’t hear from the man he sent after you, he will send someone else.”
“But I am no longer at Wycliff. He won’t know I’m here.”
He placed his lips on the back of her head and gave her a light kiss. “There aren’t a lot of places you would be. Since the Home Office—and everyone connected to it—knows I’m the one assigned to bring you in, they would assume you are either here or in my London Townhouse.”
“You see.” She looked at him over her shoulder. “We can’t go to London to your townhouse anyway.”
“We aren’t going to my townhouse. Lord Campbell is a close friend, and he will be more than happy to put us up.”
Lizzie whirled around. “The marquess? Please tell me you won’t bring me to a house with two bachelors? Not only will I be ruined, but I will be chased out of Town by the keepers of the virtue gates.”
He took her hand and walked her back to the settee. “This is the perfect time to once again bring up what you did not want to discuss in the carriage.”
Marriage.
“Hawk, I do not want to be someone’s ‘duty.’ And how could you possibly want me for a wife with all of this hanging over my head?”
He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles. “That should prove to you that I have absolute faith in your innocence.”
“Or, your gentlemanly upbringing is causing guilt and you want to assuage it by marrying me.”
He drew back and something painful in his eyes flickered, but too fast for her to determine what it had been. “Believe me, sweetheart, I know all about guilt. This is not guilt.” He moved away, clearly agitated.
She certainly did not want to be someone’s penance, but there was no question about the attraction they had for each other. He was handsome, titled, wealthy, and charming. He had a strong sense of honor, and when she was with him she felt protected.
Before the problem with her father, she would have happily accepted an offer from Lord Hawkins. However, when she had relied on her own resourcefulness, she’d made a nice life for herself with Lord and Lady Wycliff. She was reluctant to place her trust and very life into the care of another man—look at what her father had done! If Hawk had not been Wycliff’s cousin, she might have remained there for many years, happy and content.
But Hawk was Wycliff’s cousin, he had been summoned by the Home Office to turn her in, and he was her only source of protection now.
Was the mistake not trusting Hawk or trusting him too much?