“Well, he didn’t do it personally.”
“Of course not, Prinny doesn’t do anything personally, except make an ass of himself. I meant he always looks to the war office when he wants someone watched. We try to keep him out of the more important affairs, but….”
“Maybe he figured that out and decided to circumvent you?” she offered.
“Maybe, but I doubt it. We’ve never actually denied him anything.” He looked at her for a moment. “How long have you been in the business of espionage?”
“About as long as I’ve been in London,” she answered with a wry twist of her mouth. “A man approached me on the boat over, and I wasn’t in a position to refuse. He offered a great deal of money.”
“Good Lord, I can’t believe I didn’t figure this out,” Alex muttered.
“Maybe I’m a better spy than I realized.”
“And I can’t believe you had the audacity to become angry with me—”
“You were spying on me.”
He pretended not to hear her. “When this is over, I’m going to wring Prinny’s neck.”
“I’ll thank you to wait until after he’s paid me.”
“Your espionage days are over, Sophie.”
Alex picked up her hand again and resumed walking.
“Not quite yet, they’re not,” she retorted, struggling to keep up with his brisk pace. “I still haven’t found the proof they want. Although there is the matter of Whitefield’s missing funds, and I did come across some interesting letters in Lord Calmaton’s desk drawer.”
He shot her sideways glance. “How did you get into Calmaton’s desk drawer?”
“I picked the lock.”
“Picked the…?”
He stopped and turned abruptly.
She barely avoided running into his chest. “We are never going to get anywhere like this,” she mumbled.
“How, in God’s name, did you come by that talent?”
“We’ll be out here for days.”
“I’m waiting for an answer, Sophie. You said you’d never done this before. So where did you learn to pick a lock?”
“Mr. Wang taught me,” she said impatiently. “May we start moving now?”
“Not yet. Why the devil would he teach you such a thing?”
Sophie sighed in the manner of one much put upon. “If you must know, I can’t play the pianoforte.”
An expectant silence followed.
“And…?” Alex finally prompted.
“And Mr. Wang decided my talents might lie elsewhere. I’m not at all musically inclined and the more I practiced, the more frustrated I became. Eventually, Mr. Wang took me aside and explained that everyone has their own unique set of gifts. He gave me a few options to try and I chose the ones that sounded the most interesting.”
“And how to effectively open a door without a key was one of those options?” he asked incredulously.
“Yes, and Mr. Wang was correct. I took to it right away and felt immensely better about myself.”
“You couldn’t have just attempted the harp, or the flute?”
“I told you, I have no skill with music. Besides, we were in the Cape Verde Islands at the time and there were no harps or flutes readily available.”
Alex looked at her a moment longer, shook his head in disbelief, then started off again.
“Finally,” she muttered.
Twenty-four
By the time they came across an old hunting box in the woods, Sophie was ready to weep with exhaustion.
She was also ready to push Alex off the nearest cliff. She was hot, tired, frightened of the coming dark, and very, very annoyed.
Over the last few hours she had attempted to broach the subject of her continuing work for the Prince Regent several times. Her arguments had been all that was rational and sensible. Alex had responded with a spiteful obstinacy that made her want to scream. She was not to risk herself any further, and that, it would seem, was that.
She didn’t actually need his permission. In fact, at the moment, she didn’t much care about his opinion on the issue one way or the other. It was his high-handedness that infuriated her. No one cared to be ordered about, particularly herself. Particularly by him.
Fuming, she watched as Alex tested the door to the cabin. It swung open on squeaking hinges.
“You see,” he said in a jovial voice that made her want to slam the door shut on his fingers. “Your skills are not required.”
She glared at his back. She’d been forced to do that all day, as the path through the woods had become too narrow for them to walk side by side, and it wasn’t at all satisfying.
“The Prince Regent disagrees,” she retorted, moving past him to go inside.
“I suggest we let the matter drop.”
“You began it.” She headed straight for the meager kitchen and began searching for candles, too tired and too worried to care they were bickering like children.
“Well, now I’m finishing it.”
“Fine,” she snapped.
“Excellent.”
A few minutes passed while he watched her moving restlessly about the kitchen. “What are you looking for?”
“Candles, I can’t find them,” she answered distractedly.