“Is that a new cant phrase? I don’t know it,” Jasper said.
“Perhaps she is presenting you with a challenge,” Neil said. “You’re not used to that. She wants to be chased.”
Rafe shook his head. “I know that game, and this is not it.”
“Then have you considered she really does have something to hide?”
“Why do you say that?” Rafe asked Jasper.
Jasper shrugged. “That’s the opinion of the Foreign Office. Maybe she fears you’ll pull the plug and all her secrets will spill out.”
Rafe rested his hand on his chin, tapping his fingers on his lip. “She does seem skittish. I called on her last week, and I could have sworn she intentionally tipped over the tea tray.”
“You were too close to something she did not want to tell you?” Neil speculated.
“Or something she did not want me to see.” Rafe thought about the desk in Lady Ravensgate’s drawing room. It had been covered with an assortment of letters and papers. What if one of those had been from her French contacts? Something that might tie her to Fortier? But why would her father ask her to spy? He’d been an ally of Napoleon and now the Bourbons were back on the throne. Or what if the royalists had killed Fortier and threatened to kill her too if she did not work for them? But that made no sense. She could easily run away. Lady Ravensgate was not keeping that close a watch on her.
Rafe sipped the brandy again. “Say she does have something to hide. There were plenty of women on the Continent who had secrets to hide. I managed to persuade them.”
“Married women.” Neil pointed at him. “This one isn’t married. She might have limited experience with men.”
“Then my task should be simple.”
“Not necessarily,” Jasper said. “Your methods of seduction are not exactly subtle. You might scare her.”
“You are schooling me in methods of seduction?”
Jasper grinned. “Best day ever.”
“You need to take another approach,” Neil said. “If she fights seduction, come at her another way.”
Rafe swallowed his brandy and slammed the snifter down. “Hell’s teeth, but I don’t know another way! You called me the Seducer for a reason.”
“Try gaining her trust. Become her friend.”
Christ. The last thing Rafe wanted was to become friends with a woman. But, as he’d told Porter, up was down today and perhaps the last thing he wanted was the thing he needed.
Or…perhaps he should approach her as though the world truly was upside down.
“Look at the way his eyes lit up,” Jasper said in a mock whisper. “He has an idea.”
“Who would you say is my opposite?” Rafe asked.
“I don’t know.” Neil looked at Jasper. “You mean one of the troop? Guy was quite shy. He stammered every time he tried to talk to a woman.”
Rafe felt a twinge of pain, remembering Guy. He’d died in an ambush during one of their suicide missions. “And I talk to women easily. I talk…”
“Ewan,” Neil said at the same time Jasper said, “The Protector.”
“Of course. I should stop trying to figure out how to seduce this woman. It doesn’t work. If everything I do is wrong, everything Ewan does must be right.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Neil interrupted.
Rafe ignored him. “I should ask myself, what would Ewan do? Better yet. I’ll ask the man himself.” He rose and started for the door.
“Good luck wheedling a half dozen syllables from him,” Jasper said.
Rafe looked over his shoulder. “Good point.” But at least none of those syllables would be about hedgehogs.
If Ewan wouldn’t talk, he’d just have to make the man show him.
*
“That’s her,” Rafe said, pointing across the park to where Lady Ravensgate and Miss Fournay strolled. Miss Fournay certainly did not look like a spy in her apple-green walking dress and matching spencer and parasol. She was beautiful—much more so in the bright daylight than the yellow gloom of candlelight. The sunny day brought out the pink of her cheeks and the glints of gold in her hair. “The one on the green,” Rafe said, since Ewan hadn’t made any indication he knew who Rafe meant.
Ewan nodded. Rafe waited. And waited. In a moment he would have to rise from the bench and follow her, as she and Lady Ravensgate were moving out of sight. “Do you have anything to say?” Rafe prodded.
“You dragged me away from the studio for this?” Ewan and Draven were joint owners of a boxing studio. As it opened recently, it had nothing like the reputation of Gentleman Jackson’s, but Rafe had no doubt Ewan would win the hearts and minds of the pugilism enthusiasts in no time. For his part, Rafe could think of other pursuits far more enjoyable than taking a swing at another man in a ring. But Ewan Mostyn, otherwise known as the Protector, was big and brawny with platinum blond hair and a square jaw. If ever a man had been born to smash sculls, it was Ewan.
“I should think you would thank me for taking you out into the fresh air and sunshine. It’s a fine day, and that’s a rare thing.”
Ewan continued to glare at him.
“I will have you back to knocking men’s brain boxes loose in no time. I simply want your opinion.”
Lady Ravensgate and Miss Fournay had paused to speak with an older woman, the wife of a Cabinet member, if Rafe was not mistaken. The exchange looked innocent enough, but who knew what state secrets Miss Fournay might be stealing?
“Why?” Ewan asked.
“I thought I explained all this, old boy.”
“Explain again.”
Rafe sighed. “As I told you, the world is upside down.”
“This time make sense.”
Rafe scowled at him, which had absolutely no effect on Ewan. “I can’t make sense because the world makes no sense.”
“You are giving me a headache.”
“No, that’s from all the skull smashing. And since your brain is probably scrambled, let me be brief. Up is down, right is left, and if I can’t change the world, I’ll trick it. Which means, obviously, I must become you.”
“Obviously.”
“And so you must tell me what you would do in…well, in your place.”
“I do not have to be you?”
“No. Why would you be me?”
“Thank God.”
“Ewan, pay attention. There is the chit. What would you do right now?”
“Go back to the studio.” He started to move away, but Rafe grabbed his large arm and pulled him back. Rather, Ewan allowed Rafe to pull him back.
“What would you do about Miss Fournay?”
“Nothing. I’m married.”
“Yes, but what if you were me?”
“I’d probably kill myself.”
Rafe was about to pull his hair out when he caught the quick smile on Ewan’s lips. The man was toying with him. One could never tell with Ewan. He was so stone-faced. No doubt he was enjoying frustrating Rafe. Rafe tamped his annoyance down. “Fine. Don’t help me.”
Ewan tipped his hat and started to walk away, back toward the corner where they had exited the hackney.
“I’ll have Draven order you to attend the next soiree with me.”
Ewan stopped.
“Or perhaps my next engagement is the opera. I know how you enjoy the opera.”
Ewan walked back. “Do it and I will squeeze the air from your throat and crush it with one hand.”
“Tell me how to approach her. Nothing I have done has worked.”
Ewan stared at Miss Fournay across the green park. His pale blue eyes were so intense, Rafe wondered that the lady did not turn and look back. “I asked you to help me, not scare her away.”
“She looks lonely.”
Rafe’s brows shot up. “Does she?” He glanced at her again. She smiled often enough, but Ewan was right. The smile did not meet her eyes.
“She’s in a foreign country surrounded by strangers. She needs a friend, a confidant.”
“Yes! That’s what I have been trying to do. Become her confidant.”
“No, you have been trying to get under her skirts and wondering why she doesn’t respond. You have to give her something to receive something in return.”
“Say again.”
“It’s like fighting.”
“No, it’s not.”
Ewan ignored him. “When you and an opponent are equally matched, let him land a punch.”