Read Online The Mayfair Affair by Tracy Grant - Free Book Online

ruthless."
    "I was plenty ruthless on my own." Suzanne folded the letter and tucked it into her bodice. "It's not as though we don't know how to take precautions with sensitive documents."
    Malcolm drew a rough breath and turned to Raoul. "Trenchard was dead when you went into the study?"
    "Quite dead." Raoul crossed one booted foot over the other. "Of course, you only have my word for it, and I own this letter gives me a capital motive for murder. In fact, if I had known of the letter's existence before Trenchard was killed—"
    "Yes?" Malcolm asked.
    "I'm not sure." Raoul took a sip of whisky. "I'd have been sorely tempted. But murder is a messy business and tends to create more complications than it resolves."
    "Laura may have seen the letter," Malcolm said.
    "Laura and the murderer," Raoul agreed. "Assuming Miss Dudley isn't the killer, which I'm inclined to agree with you she most likely isn't."
    Suzanne pushed her fingers into her hair. "Does Lord Carfax know his son-in-law was an Elsinore League member?"
    "I don't know." O'Roarke turned his whisky glass in his hand. "Carfax doesn't have a source like Davenport inside the League, but he's certainly shown himself interested in them."
    Malcolm looked from Raoul to Suzanne. "You think Carfax married his daughter off to get information about the Elsinore League?"
    Suzanne returned her husband's gaze. "Do you think he wouldn't do it?"
    Malcolm's mouth tightened. "There's very little I'm confident Carfax wouldn't do. But he's always drawn a line round his family. On the other hand, he's shown himself willing to cross over almost every line imaginable."
    "You know him well," Raoul said.
    "I've worked for him. Neither of you can say that. Despite my best efforts, Carfax would probably claim I still work for him."
    "Does Carfax know you're involved in the investigation?" Raoul asked.
    "You mean there's something you don't know about tonight's events? I'm relieved to hear it." Malcolm took a sip of whisky. "Actually, Carfax asked me to look into Trenchard's death. Insisted on it."
    Raoul's brows rose. "Interesting."
    "Of course," Malcolm continued, "as David pointed out, Carfax would have known I'd investigate anyway, with Laura involved. This could have been a way of keeping an eye on me." He drew a breath. Suzanne reached for his hand.
    "Trenchard threatened to write to him," Raoul said. "He'd have had no reason to if Carfax already knew about Suzanne."
    "Trenchard might not have known." Malcolm's arm tightened round her shoulders.
    Raoul met his gaze. "With Carfax one can never be sure of anything."
    Malcolm inclined his head, then turned his gaze to Suzanne. "When did you last go through my dispatch box?"
    Bitterness welled up on her tongue, but she kept her gaze on his. There was a time when she could have picked the lock on Malcolm's dispatch box in her sleep. "Not since just after Waterloo."
    He inclined his head, the way he would to a diplomat from a hostile country. "You'll find some new documents there. Travel papers for all of us—you, me, Colin, Jessica, Addison, and Blanca. And Laura, as it happens. Aliases we can use, if necessary. Contact information for a smuggler who can get us to the Continent. A draft on a bank in Switzerland to which I transferred money last month."
    Suzanne stared at her husband. "When did you do all this?"
    "Very shortly after I learned my wife was a former Bonapartist spy. It seemed prudent to have an escape plan."
    Numbness shot through her. "You didn't tell me."
    "I planned to eventually. At the time you were too wracked with guilt. I didn't want to make it worse."
    Her spine stiffened. "I told you, I'm not in the least—"
    "You were dangerously close to wallowing, mo chridh ." He touched his fingers to her cheek. "And I was only preparing for an eventuality. Which now seems somewhat more probable. I'd hope we could leave the country together if it comes to it, but should the situation unravel precipitously, take the children and go to