Free The Berkeley Square Affair (Malcolm & Suzanne Rannoch) by Teresa Grant Page B

brother died in the Dunboyne affair. But Carfax says the mole wouldn’t have known Thomas Cyrus was part of the mission at the time he betrayed it.” His gaze fastened on Jessica, her face relaxed in sleep, one leg tucked under her, the other sliding off the edge of Suzanne’s lap. “I find it hard to believe he could live with the guilt.”
    Her fingers curled over Jessica’s sparse hair. “You don’t know how easily he did. If he is the one. Who else?”
    Malcolm reached down to pet Berowne, curled up in a basket by her feet. “Sir Horace Smytheton, who was so eager to share his thoughts on Hamlet at the rehearsal this afternoon. His role at the Tavistock doesn’t obviously make him more likely to be guilty. But at the very least it’s an odd coincidence. Lord Bessborough.”
    “Caroline Lamb’s father?” Suzanne forced her hands not to tighten instinctively round Jessica. Lady Caroline Lamb was the childhood friend of Suzanne’s friend Cordelia Davenport. Caro Lamb was also the wife of Malcolm’s friend William Lamb.
    Malcolm nodded, mouth grim. “Bessborough’s in less of a powerful official position than the others. But he’s the late Duke of Devonshire’s brother-in-law. The current duke’s uncle. Part of the inner circle of the Devonshire House set, which makes him minor Whig royalty. And for all the Whigs have been tweaked on sympathy for Bonaparte, to imagine one a traitor—”
    The word “traitor” sliced through her. She needed to make herself hear it a hundred times a day to get past this. She drew a breath, focusing on the boneless weight of Jessica in her arms and the even rise and fall of the baby’s breathing. “Who else?”
    “Archibald Davenport.”
    Jessica let out a squawk as Suzanne’s hands tightened. “I’m sorry, querida .” Suzanne shifted the baby against her. “Harry’s uncle?”
    “Who raised him after his parents died, though he appears to have done so at a distance.”
    Suzanne had only met Archibald Davenport once, at the theatre with Harry and Cordelia. A tall man with a jovial manner, shrewd eyes, and breath laced with port. “Isn’t he a crony of the prince regent?”
    “One of his inner circle. Yet another who would cause shock waves to reverberate should he prove to have been betraying his country for years.” Malcolm’s gaze fastened on Colin as their son galloped a knight on horseback up to the castle. “I don’t know whether to be in awe that Carfax has trusted me with this investigation or furious that he’s blithely throwing me to the wolves. How do you feel about having to go live in exile?”
    How odd to hear one’s husband blithely summing up one’s worst fears for the future. “Even Carfax couldn’t force you into exile.”
    “It might not be so bad. We’d be free of my family.”
    “You’d miss your family.” She knew now, having seen him with them, how much his siblings and aunt and cousins meant to him.
    “Some of them.”
    The truth of course was that Suzanne wouldn’t mind exile so much if she was with him and the children. But if her past drove her into exile, they almost certainly wouldn’t be together.
    Jessica lifted her head without opening her eyes and flopped back down in a different position. She’d left a milky smudge on the moss green velvet of Suzanne’s spencer. “Harry and Cordelia could help us with Archibald Davenport and Lord Bessborough.”
    “I know. Carfax acknowledged as much. He said it was up to me how much I told them. Well, how much I told Harry.” Malcolm’s gaze returned to Colin, who was now staging a tournament with two knights on horseback. Or a fight. She hoped it was a tournament. “Harry and his uncle are far from close. But as I learned with the revelations about Alistair, that doesn’t make it easier.” One of Colin’s knights fell to the pavement. Colin lifted the second from his horse and had him go help the fallen rider. “Carfax said he thought I’d have tried to protect