One Night With a Spy Read Free

someone—perhaps someone who tired of waiting and went about his business."
    Not bloody likely
, Julia thought.
    A deep and powerful rumble disagreed with Lord Liverpool. That would be the blond giant, Lord Greenleigh, who held the seat of the Lion.
    "I have never heard of someone choosing not to serve once selected—and don't give me Etheridge as an example. He still serves as spymaster."
    "Barrowby cannot have believed he still had time," said a smoother voice thoughtfully. Julia guessed at Lord Reardon, the new Cobra. "He was over seventy years of age!"
    The fourth man, Lord Wyndham, had not said much at all. Nor would he. Julia was well aware of the Falcon's cool, watchful nature. Aldus had prepared her well.
    "You'd not have had a chance among the old roosters I served with," Aldus had told her, back when he'd been lucid nearly all of the time. "This new crop of fellows… perhaps they are of a more modern bent." Yet, he'd not truly believed it, she had known even then. Hoping was not the same as believing.
    Julia believed. She had based the last five years of her life on believing. Now the time had come to put that belief to the test.
    She straightened, patted her hair once more just in case, then knocked briskly on the parlor door. With luck, the carved oak had left no discernible impression upon her cheek.
    At the curt invitation—obviously Lord Liverpool had thought her to be a servant—she entered the parlor. The four men looked up in surprise and hastily stood.
    "Lady Barrowby!" Lord Reardon bowed. He was easily recognizable from his appearances in Sir Thorogood's political cartoons. The other three bowed as well, although their expressions were less welcoming.
    Julia decided at once that she approved of Reardon. She was not so sure about Greenleigh and Wyndham. Liverpool she knew too well to approve of. She curtsied. "My lords."
    Liverpool stepped forward. Julia noticed that he did not come close to her. Perhaps he came close to no one—or perhaps he was unwilling to draw attention to the fact that she stood inches above him. Not vanity, she knew. Liverpool's motives were ever rooted in power.
    How odd to see them all in person at last.
    Liverpool cleared his throat. "Lady Barrowby, if you'll excuse my thoughtlessness in your time of grief—" He didn't sound any too penitent to Julia. "I wonder if you could tell us of any particular companion your husband might have had in his last years. A younger man, perhaps—a member of the aristocracy?"
    Julia could answer that question with complete honesty. "No, my lord, I could not. Aldus has—
had
not seen anyone outside of our household in years."
    Still, there was no point in keeping them in distress.
Breathe in, breathe out
. "Gentlemen, the fellow you seek does not exist. There is no younger man. There is only me."
    She paused. Swallowed. Met their confused gazes with a serenity that did not truly exist.
    "I am the Fox."
    The uproar was immediate and unpleasant. Julia maintained her composure until the four men had sputtered and exclaimed and denied enough.
    She cleared her throat. They fell more or less silent, although if Liverpool did not cease swearing beneath his breath, someone might think him better off in Bedlam.
    "My lords, I am not requesting that you allow me to be the Fox. I am informing you that I
am
the Fox, and have been for the past three years. I know everything that my husband knew, and considerably more than any of you, excepting the Prime Minister, of course."
    Liverpool sputtered. "Rampant falsehoods, all of it! I have been dealing with Barrowby for years! We came into the Four within a few years of each other. When I stepped down to become Prime Minister last year, it was after extensive correspondence with Aldus. I would have known had I not been dealing with him!"
    She folded her arms. "You have been corresponding with me, Robert. I could prove it, but I do not think you would wish me to. I know more about you than merely the gossip one