Unmasking the Spy Read Free Page A

willowy beauty and dimpled smile
became legendary the moment she first set foot in London. Sometimes, she
wondered if the resemblance exacerbated her father’s animosity toward her.
    “Willingness,” Louis repeated. He
let loose with a high-pitched cackle. “Hardly a consideration.”
    Alicia gripped the banister until
the skin over her knuckles stretched white.
    “Courtship is a mere formality,” soothed Chadwick.
“You can see the wisdom of adhering to custom, at least in society’s eyes. How
about one month? And should she decide sooner that you suit–”
    “Certainly I can persuade a slip
of a girl. Look at me!” Louis’ voice rose to a crescendo.
    Alicia peered over the banister
and bared her teeth at the tops of two familiar heads. If she were a boy, she’d
spit on them. Instead, she slowly inched down two more steps, and the curve of
the staircase brought their shadows into view.
    “Excellent.” The superior tone in her father’s voice
rankled. A formality, indeed. Courtship should be… courtship! “She will be
delighted to hear that you will be escorting her about like a proper suitor.”
    Like a suitor, but not really a
suitor. Not a true, smitten, no-coercion-necessary suitor.
    She crouched and peered between
the gilded rails. Although not unhandsome, Louis still sported the same frizzy
red hair and hadn’t lost the extra stone or two he had gained over the past
months while he’d been abed recuperating from broken legs. The latest fashions
swathed his tall frame and his squinty blue eyes focused sharply on her father.
The omnipresent odor of his cloying cologne wafted from his waving hands.
    Papa strummed his fingers
together. “Best you begin taking her to balls as soon as possible. The month
will fly by.”
    Louis’ elbows jutted akimbo as he
slapped his fists to his waist and took a step closer to her father. “What’s
this? I will not cart her to some crush every single night for a month.”
    Alicia rested her face against
the bars and tried not to feel slighted. Who would want to waste time wooing an
unwilling wife? No matter. She didn’t want him anyway.
    Chadwick shrugged one shoulder as
if he were bored. “Every other night, then.”
    Louis stared at him in disbelief.
    “Come now, Louis. We agreed on
‘soon’ – we never said ‘immediately’. A month makes little difference.”
Chadwick tilted his head at Louis. “If not a month, then a couple of weeks, so
none can say there was no semblance of courtship. I will withhold my official
permission until two Saturdays from today, after which we will still have
plenty of time for determining settlement arrangements. You can procure the
license the following Monday.”
    Alicia gaped. How did her
reprieve shrink so quickly?
    A skeletal figure emerged from
the shadowy hall. Great-aunt Beatrix hobbled past them, her crooked frame bent
over her cane. “I’ll chaperone Alicia to soirees myself,” she announced with a
quaver. “She deserves a chance for love.”
    At first, Louis didn’t change
expression. After a moment, he nodded to himself. He stroked his cravat with
one hand and left the other perched on his hip. “Every other night for two
weeks?” he asked Chadwick.
    Her father shrugged. “No more
than that.”
    Great-aunt Beatrix shivered and
clutched her shawl tighter around her thin shoulders. She nodded to Chadwick,
ignored Louis, and shuffled down the corridor and around a corner without
looking back.
    Alicia sank to one knee on the
step, gripping the banister. Why on earth was Louis going through with this? If
only he’d found a wife by now, he would not be forced to look for one in her.
She must disabuse him of the notion immediately.
    Louis cocked his head to one side
and pursed his lips. “I suppose there is a ball this very night that we
absolutely must attend?”
    “Yes, of course,” answered Alicia
automatically.
    She rose to her feet when both
heads swiveled up in her direction. Alicia wanted to kick herself