Page 84 of Her Tempting Traitor
“Oh, dear,” murmured Gabby, at the same time Cassian blurted, “Princess?”
The Duke of Exingham twitched a brow at his niece, which Cassian was beginning to realize was the equivalent of a shout from this man. “Ye reallydokeep yer patrons’ identities a secret, eh?”
“Bull’s Crown contact is a…princess?” Cassian was shocked, aye, but more importantly…hopebubbled in his chest.
And Gabby, of course, realized it. She squeezed his arm again and smiled softly. “Her Royal Highness, the Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, daughter to the empress of a quarter of the known world. I assumesheis of high-enough ranking?”
Holy Regal Shite.
The Princess Louise was the only one of the Queen’s daughters—the first princess in centuries, actually!—who’d been allowed to marry a British man. Nay, aScottishman, the one who was supposed to very shortly become the Duke of Argyll. More importantly, she’d always been a force for women’s rights and an advocate for equality…
And Cassian had heard theotherrumors.
Rumors that the princess was the head of a ring of informants to rival the Secret Service. Rumors about the good she did for her country both at home and abroad when her husband had been the Governor General of Canada, which justified her mother’s complete faith in her.
Rumors that could save Cassian.
“Aye…” Cassian slowly grinned as he realized how neatly Gabby had solved his impossible problem. “Aye, she’ll do.”
The Duke held up a hand. “Do ye want to refresh yerself after yer journey?”
Cassian glanced down at Gabby once more, and she shook her head in response to his unasked question. He met her uncle’s eyes once more.
“Nay, Yer Grace. I think we’d both…just like to have this over with.”If I can convince the Princess that I’m no traitor…“So we can start planning our future.”
Something softened around the Duke’s eyes, but otherwise his expression did not change as he jerked his head toward the doorway once more. “They’ve been waiting for ye. Send out my wife so she can fuss over Hunter, will ye?”
And then he moved away, walking—Cassian was intrigued to spot—with a slight limp.
“Are ye ready?” murmured Gabby.
“No’ even close,” he admitted with a slight huff of laughter. “But I meant it. I dinnae ken why Princess Louise is here, but if she can help me…”
He was the one to tug Gabby toward the doorway, which he discovered opened into an ornate sitting room.
“Gabs!” cried a man who’d been pacing in front of the hearth. “Thank f—thank God ye made it!”
As he hurried toward them, Cassian had to assume this was Bull Lindsay, her so-called uncle, who looked no older than Cassian himself. How many years had she said there were between them—four? Five? The man had coloring similar to Hunter’s and swiftly enveloped Gabby in an embrace.
“I’m so glad ye’re safe,” he murmured against her hair.
“I was never unsafe,” she told him primly. “As you would know if you had bothered to read my letters.”
“I read yer letters,” he grumbled, loosing her to turn to Cassian. “I just needed to see it for myself.”
“Bull, this is Cassian.”
“Our traitor,” Bull said with a nod and a twinkle of amusement in his eyes, as he thrust out his hand for a shake. “Who turned out no’ to be a traitor at all, thank fook.”
Cassian’s eyes narrowed as he shook the other man’s hand. “I am loyal to Britain…but I just could no’ tell my supervisors the full story.”
“Aye, well, I think we’ve solved that problem.” Bull’s fingers tapped out a rhythm against his thigh as he jerked his head toward the two women sitting on a settee near the window, watching them. “Ye ken whothatis?”
Cassian nodded stiffly. “I dinnae ken why she’s here, though.”
“The Princess Louise keeps herself busy running a network of informants. She’s in nae way—I cannae make this clear enough—nae way affiliated with Her Majesty’s Secret Service. But yer superiors in the Service often…relyon her national and international insights, shall we say?”
Fook.
