The Lady By His Side(2)

When Wolverstone had declined to emerge from retirement, the disgruntled political powers had offered the position to his heir. Drake had inherited most if not all of his father’s relevant abilities, including the knack of inspiring other men and building networks of informers; those sterling capabilities had been augmented by some of his mother’s traits—such as the ability to charm. Wolverstone had never charmed anyone in his life; Sebastian seriously doubted the duke had ever seen the need.

But Sebastian and Drake lived in a somewhat different world to that of their fathers’ heyday. That said, some things remained cast in stone, among them, family honor and loyalty.

Sebastian’s father, the Duke of St. Ives, the duke’s brother, and his cousins had all fought at Waterloo. The engagement in which their troop was credited with having helped to carry the day had been critical to the battle’s outcome—to England’s success.

While Sebastian, his brother Michael, and their tribe of Cynster cousins and second cousins no longer had wars in which to serve their country, they still instinctively heeded and responded to duty’s call. And Drake had uttered the magic words “queen and country.”

There was no point dissembling. Sebastian’s personal quest wasn’t urgent. More, he knew himself well enough to acknowledge a certain readiness to allow himself to be deflected by a legitimate distraction. He sighed and met Drake’s eyes. “What do you need me to do?”

Drake fleetingly grinned, but a second later, all humor drained from his face. “Yesterday afternoon, I received a letter from Lord Ennis.” Drake languidly waved one hand. “I believe you and he are acquainted.”

“Distantly.” Sebastian uttered the word as repressively as he could; his acquaintance was with Ennis’s wife, a point he felt sure Drake knew.

“Ennis wrote asking me to call on him at his estate in Kent. Judging by his composition, he was suffering from a degree of agitation. He said he had stumbled on information that he believed I needed to know, but that he was unwilling to commit said information to writing and was unable to travel to London at this time. He and his wife are hosting a house party commencing on the nineteenth—four days from now. Various guests have already arrived. Ennis stressed he needs to see me privately, face-to-face. He suggested I attend the house party as one of the guests. Reading between his lines, I believe Ennis wishes to engineer a situation in which he can speak with me without alerting those about him as to the nature of our exchange.”

Sebastian arched his brows. “You turning up at the Ennises’ house party…there’s no way that won’t be noticed and widely commented on.”

“Indeed. Which is one reason I won’t be taking up his lordship’s invitation.”

Sebastian opened his eyes wide. “Me turning up at the Ennises’ house party will be every bit as bad. People will speculate wildly.”

“But not for the same reason.” Drake smiled. “Few know you occasionally sully your noble hands by getting involved in the missions I run.”

Sebastian lifted one shoulder. “Few know that you sully your noble hands by running your own missions—society in general imagines you sit in an office in Whitehall and pull strings all day.”

Drake’s smile turned wry. “Few appreciate that, while in my father’s day, our enemies lay over the seas, the realm’s current enemies are much nearer to hand.”

“It always amazes me that no one seems to notice that, while your father worked under the aegis of the Foreign Office, you report to the Home Secretary.”

“In truth, there aren’t that many people in the wider population who know of the details of the position I hold, and I would prefer to keep it that way. Which is yet another reason I won’t be driving down to Pressingstoke Hall next Saturday.” Drake held up a hand to stay Sebastian’s protest that him taking Drake’s place wouldn’t work. “Bear with me—there are reasons I chose you to go in my place.”

“Such as?” Sebastian invested all his considerable supercilious arrogance into the words. Futilely; his arrogance bounced off Drake and made no impact at all.

“Quite aside from raising too many eyebrows, along with questions we’d all prefer to avoid, I can’t go into Kent to meet Ennis because I’ll be leaving tomorrow or the day after for Ireland. My contacts there have turned up information that, if true, is worrisome, to say the least. But at present, the intelligence is fractured. I need to go myself—to show my face—in order to get confirmation from deeper within the insurgents’ hierarchy.”