The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2(113)

"His brothers Simon and Georges were also involved, though we didn't know them very well. They were a fair bit older. As is Alex, about three years older than me. Their operations were all kept very quiet. They were very successful at their intelligence gathering, though it was a dangerous game.



"He married for the sake of his work, not love, to a woman who was glad of his protection because she was involved with an unsuitable man, a Bonapartist sympathizer in Spain. He was one of the men at the Court who had been stupid enough to have invited the invaders to march through their country to invade Portugal, and then wondered at the French army becoming one of aggression and occupation.



"Jason was successful for some time as the runner of a spy network, until his wife betrayed him, inadvertently or on purpose, we'll never know. She let something slip, and paid the price. He was forced to watch while his family was tortured and killed, but he never gave them the information they were demanding." He sighed heavily.



"How dreadful," Pamela said with a shudder.



Jonathan nodded. "It was. But he knew if he said anything, hundreds, if not thousands would die. He made a terrible choice. He gave up his whole family for the sake of his colleagues, and for his principles. It's no wonder he didn't want to remember what he'd done."



"No, indeed," Sarah said, stroking the thick fall of dark hair back from his brow lovingly. "The poor man. He saved so many, but at such a cost. Most people would never have been able to make such a sacrifice."



"Then they began to torture him, if his scars are anything to go by. I don't know how he escaped, all I know is that we never gave up hope that he was alive after he vanished. We began looking for him in earnest after Ferncliffe had arrived laying claim to the earldom. He had been ordinary Edward Murphy in the Army. They were cousins, so it would be normal enough for Ferncliffe to have some claim, except that there were three Davenport brothers. Alexander is the third son. His brothere Simon and Georges had been helping him, but shortly before I lost track of Jason, they were both reported dead under mysterious circumstances. Hence the bizarre part of his will, and why they needed him alive for at least a little while longer."



"Why, to squeeze more information out of him?" Pamela asked.



"Perhaps. Knowledge is power, after all, and the end of the war was unexpected, and by no means certain. But no, my love, this was primarily due to the far more prosaic motive of greed.



"Jason stipulated that only his dead body identified by three doctors would secure the claim to the estate. Otherwise it would all go to various charities. I'm not sure of all of the identifying marks, but the tattoos were a good start. Except that he hated the needles."



Sarah smiled. "That would explain why he had only his initials, not the full name like all of you Rakehells."



Jonathan nodded.



"Anyway, I'm guessing that the Duke of Ellesmere's men making inquiries after Ferncliffe pitched up claiming to be the Earl caused them to search through all of the remaining soldiers still left in Spain and Portugal who were too sick to move.



"The last I had heard, Thomas told me that there had been a man matching Alex's description, who had headed back to the Horse Guards to report. By the time we found this out, he had been and gone. We hoped to find him eventually, tried to track him down. We never dreamed he would come here, and be staying with you at the vicarage. Or calling himself Jonathan Deveril. We were looking all over for him to help save him, and Providence led him right to our door. And into your heart." He shook his head in wonderment.



Sarah briefly told her brother how the error had arisen, and Alexander's journeys to the south and Oxford, before finally arriving in Somerset.



"But why didn't Malcolm know him?" she asked at the end of her portion of the tale.



"He is one of the younger Rakehells, and Alex is older than me. There's about six or seven years difference between them, so I doubt he ever met him. Henry Stone might have met him once or twice when he visited Clifford in Oxford."



"Drat. We never did get to see Henry to ask him if he knew Alexander," Sarah sighed. "He might have been able to tell us everything if we hadn't missed him that day we stopped in."



Jonathan shrugged. "I'm not so sure it would have helped. It might have only made things worse. Alexander might have blundered into his old home and been killed before I ever even found out he was still alive and well. Henry is a good man, but he might not have been much help against a clever set of enemies like Ferncliffe and Breedon."



She sighed. "I can't think how poor Alexander must have suffered."