Circle of Spies (The Culper Ring #3)

Not an issue now. She would never again make the same mistake with a man she had with Dev, and as for marrying again…no. She would count herself blessed beyond measure if she escaped from Dev and wouldn’t tempt fate again.

Elsie rose to her toes to look out the window and then turned back to them with familiar curiosity in her eyes. How Marietta loved watching the little one look upon her world these past three weeks, now that she could ask for the names of things. She made the most familiar of her signs, the first two fingers of her right hand tapping against the first two of her left. Name.

Marietta joined her at the window and crouched to peer out with her. “What do you see, precious?”

Elsie pointed at the two men descending from the carriage parked across the street and striding for her front door.

Marietta swallowed. Dev was home, and his gait looked none too happy.

Elsie made the sign for name again and pointed at him.

They had already introduced her to Slade on Friday when he had shown up for a lesson, claiming Barbara had invited him. Barbara admitted she had, but Marietta suspected it had been pure disbelief that had led him here, not a desire to learn. He had looked utterly bemused when they created a sign for his name for Elsie’s use, and he hadn’t lingered after the lesson to talk.

He hadn’t lingered around her house much at all. That hour was the only time she’d done more than catch a glimpse of him since the theater on Wednesday. Wise. But painful.

Now she cleared her throat and watched Dev storm into her house. Was it cowardly to be glad she was out here, where he would never think to look for her? He would find his mother instead, and seeing her so well would perhaps mollify him.

She drummed up a smile for Elsie. “That’s Mr. Dev.” She spelled it out, though more to establish habit than anything because the child was too young to understand spelling.

Walker crouched down on the other side of his daughter, formed his hands into a D and made the sign for bad. “Mr. Dev.” He made the sign again.

“Walker.” Marietta pressed a cold hand to her forehead. “She knows what that means.”

Amusement and challenge winked from his blue-gray eyes. “Can you think of a better way to describe him?”

She sealed her lips as Elsie practiced the sign. Perhaps associating him with the word wasn’t such a terrible idea. It would impress on the girl the need to stay away from him. And even if he saw it, he wouldn’t know what it meant.

No doubt Walker recognized her sigh as capitulation.

Cora joined them with a muted smile and touched her little girl on the arm to get her attention, and then she pressed her palms together at the side of her face. “Nap time, baby.”

Elsie hooked her doll under her arm, popped her thumb into her mouth, and stretched toward her mother. Cora gathered her close and met Marietta’s gaze as she stood. “Thank you, Miss Mari.”

“Rest well.” She kept the smile in place until Cora turned, but then her gaze strayed back out the window, to Slade striding toward the carriage house. Her breath tangled in her chest, and she barely eked out an “Excuse me” before she darted for the door.

Hurrying down the rickety stairs, she touched a hand to the pocket hidden in the folds of her gray satin skirt. The silver chain was where it had been the past five days, still secure inside the muslin pocket she put on each morning under her dress. As if she would really give it to him today any more than she had any other day.

It wasn’t done. A woman didn’t just make expensive gifts to a man, even if it had cost her nothing. Even if her sister-in-law had taken the matching watch and insisted that, yes, the fob should be put to use by one who needed it.

Marietta couldn’t convince herself to put the chain away once she’d realized how closely Stephen’s old one matched the one she had seen Slade pull out time and again. But neither could she bring herself to give it to him. She knew well he would refuse it even if she worked up the courage to offer it.

Still. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Stephen would have wanted him to have it. Which made absolutely no sense. So it would likely remain in her pocket indefinitely.

She pivoted at the base of the stairs and found Slade a few steps away, frowning.

“Where’s your wrap?”

“Hmm? Oh.” She clasped her hands to her elbows where the shawl had been earlier, finding only the black cording at the edge of her gray sleeve, the lighter fabric of her undersleeves beneath it. “I must have left it on my chair.” She folded her arms around herself, having no idea what else she meant to say to him.

And society had once called her a silver-tongued flirt.

Slade’s face slid into one of its usual looks, challenge mixed with cynicism. “In that much of a hurry to see Hughes?”

“No, not him.” The words felt at home on her lips, yet the tone came out wrong, uncertain. What was the matter with her? She cleared her throat. “He looked upset.”

“Yeah, I…your granddad came to see me yesterday.”