Page 81 of His Betrothed
“Bonchurch, my lord.”
Something wasn’t right, Roselyn argued to herself as Francis usheredthe gentleman from the manor. Why send a nobleman after a spy?
Listening to Francis’s footsteps disappear down the hall, she remained still, biting her lip, unsure of what to do.
If Spencer was a spy, he had already left to commit whatever treason he’d planned.
But if he was innocent, he was being followed by an enemy.
Sir Rodney Shaw mounted his horse and glanced once more at WakesfieldManor, muttering a curse. What should he do now? Whatever trail there’d once been of Thornton was long gone.
At first he’d thought Thornton might have died after falling overboard, considering his injuries, so he’d ordered Rodriguez to swim to land and make sure he was dead.
Rodriguez was supposed to send word back through fishermen, but there’d been no reply. So when the Spanish fleet was scatteredand fleeing up the French coast, Shaw had left the doomed expedition, found passage back across the channel, and come to Wight himself.
The incompetent Spanish would not be invading English soil, and Shaw had to make sure no one knew he’d been negotiating with both sides.
Had Rodriguez died that first night in the ocean? Then why had the body only been so recently found, considering the battlehad been well over a fortnight ago? Had Thornton also made it to shore, then killed Rodriguez?
With another curse, Shaw kicked his horse into a gallop. He had to be certain of what had happened to Thornton. He would travel on to Bonchurch and ask his questions there.
Though he would prefer to kill Thornton himself, Shaw could only afford to wait so long. If it came down to a race to London,he wanted to be the first one there, to persuade the queen that Thornton had let his Spanish blood rule him—and that Thornton deserved to die a traitor’s death.
