The Secrets of a Scoundrel Read Free Page B

been a way to make some money so he could then retire to a beautiful island somewhere. West Indies, maybe. No more killing, no more treachery. No more playing dark chess games in foreign courts and living the sort of life where he was constantly looking over his shoulder.
    All he had really wanted was to be left alone.
    But nothing was ever simple.
    Instead, like a dupe, a fool, a mark, he had unwittingly been pulled into an underhanded scheme to frame the Order for the assassination of the Prime Minister.
    Of course, it had come to naught. Lord Liverpool was alive and well at home even now, probably eating a beef pie and dreaming up new ways to oppress the ordinary Englishman, Nick mused with his usual cynicism.
    Beauchamp had thankfully pieced the conspirators’ plot together even before Nick had any idea of how he was being used. His trusty mate had managed to pull him out of the mess he had unknowingly got himself into. To the relief of them all, the sinister plot had fizzled.
    But at the last moment, when the conspirators knew their plan was null, one of them had whipped out a pistol in range of the Regent. Nick had seen the gun and acted automatically. Thus the bullet in the belly and the national acclaim.
    The glory for his “noble deed” only shamed him the more, for the public had no inkling of the rest of the story.
    That bullet had actually saved him from the full fury of his superiors, however. Otherwise, the graybeards might well have put him in front of an Order firing squad.
    Agents were held to the highest of standards, and the Order punished its own perhaps even more severely than it punished its enemies.
    Obviously, Nick would not have murdered the jackass Prime Minister for anyone—if he had known beforehand who his target was to have been. The type of clients who hired assassins to kill people for them, after all, were not terribly forthcoming, as a rule. Information was doled out bit by bit. He had been sent to London to await further instructions.
    Thanks to Beau’s hunting him down and warning him how he was being set up, the dark venture had never come to fruition. Nevertheless, at the very least, Nick knew he was guilty of dereliction of duty.
    And poor judgment.
    And probably laziness, too, among a bevy of other sins, faults, and failings.
    Indeed, the worst part about being locked in this cage was that there was no way to escape himself—a man for whom he had lost all respect.
    Lady Burke was still explaining. “My request for your assistance in this matter was simply the last straw from the graybeards’ standpoint.”
    Nick frowned, wondering how she even knew the agents’ irreverent nickname for the Elders of the Order.
    “Obviously, they see that this is for a good cause, rescuing these unfortunate girls,” she continued. “So they’ve agreed to hand you over to my custody. You are being given a chance to redeem yourself, my lord. I suggest you use it well.”
    He lowered his gaze, a little overwhelmed by this unexpected chance at redemption. Then he shook his head. “I still don’t understand. Why would they listen to you?” He looked at her again sharply. “How do you know about contacts I developed in the field? Who are you?” he demanded in a low tone.
    She gazed at him for a moment with an odd mix of pity and mistrust and, once again, left him in the dark. “If you agree to take this mission, Lord Forrester—and I can’t imagine that you’d refuse, given your options—then you must understand first and foremost that you will be taking your orders from a woman. Namely, me. I trust that won’t be a problem?”
    He shook his head warily. Wouldn’t be the first time, he thought in chagrin. The queen of the mercenary army he had got mixed up in was a woman, after all.
    Of course, that hadn’t worked out very well.
    “So what is your decision?” she demanded in a taut voice. “Mind you,” she interrupted before he could answer, “I won’t put up with any nonsense. I