Free As You Wish by Jennifer Malin Page B

across the room again, studying Leah for a moment.  “Yes, you may be right.  I pray you are.  A victim of ravishment would likely be more devastated than Miss Cantrell appears, would she not?”
    David let his gaze drift in the same direction.  Leah now spoke with Mrs. Harlowe, leaning forward to examine a locket the woman wore.  She said something, and both of them smiled broadly.  He had to be right.  But what on earth did the true story involve?
    While he pondered the mystery, Lieutenant and Mrs. Harlowe rose and announced their intent to leave.  As Phoebe pressed the lady to stay the night, the husband walked over to where David
    stood, apart from the others.
    “Might I have a word with you?” he asked.  “In private.”
    “Of course.”  Curious, David led him into the hall.  “Is this private enough, or shall we go into the library?”
    “This will do.”  The lieutenant glanced back into the drawing room, where the rest of the party remained talking.  He turned back to David but focused his eyes on the floor.  “I am not quite sure how to broach this subject.”
    “You had best broach it quickly,” David said, made uneasy by his friend’s manner.  “The others are not far behind.”
    Harlowe nodded, gaze still averted.  “Pray forgive me, but I must ask how well the marchioness knows Miss Cantrell.  The young lady mentioned this is her first visit to England, so I gather their past acquaintance was limited to correspondence.  Can you tell me any more about the friendship?”
    He frowned, reluctant to share what little he knew about Leah.  She undoubtedly needed protection from something, and until he knew from what or whom, he could not allow speculation about her to spread.  “Why do you inquire?”
    Harlowe rubbed one of his pork-chop sideburns, again peering toward the rest of the party, who had not yet moved.  “I realize I appear to be prying, and I apologize, but I would not do so unless I felt I had cause.”  Finally, he looked David in the eye.  “Do you recall Miss Cantrell’s remarks over dinner about Bonaparte’s trail through France?”
    “I do.”
    Face muscles taut, the lieutenant lowered his voice to a whisper.  “And what she said about Boney being defeated before he can take Holland?”
    “Yes.”  David had no conception where the man was leading.
    “Well, I should not tell you this, Traymore, but I am confident you, above all people, can be trusted.”  He wet his lips.  “There are top-secret intelligence reports that indicate Bonaparte’s military plans do indeed lie in that direction.  No one, but no one, knows this . . . except Miss Cantrell, apparently.”
    In spite of--or perhaps due to--his friend’s gravity, David laughed.  “Oh, Ben, my stepmother’s hysteria must have rubbed off on you tonight.  Miss Cantrell’s insight is surely no more than a lucky guess.”
    Harlowe shook his head.  “Normally, I would agree, but I swear I saw a glint of amusement in her eyes when she made the comment--this while everyone else in the room fairly ached with sympathy for Lady Solebury.  I thought her behavior very odd, Traymore.”
    This observation made him think.  He, too, had seen the wry smile accompanying Leah’s prediction.  At the time, he had shrugged off her little grin, but the timing of it definitely had been strange.
    “Do you accuse her of being a French spy?” he asked.
    “No.  That is, I don’t know.  Odds are that she is a perfectly ordinary, amiable young lady, and the last thing I want to do is insult Lady Solebury with wild conjectures about her friend.  But I cannot help noting that the girl is American; she has no reason to feel loyalty to the Crown.  If she and the marchioness are not well acquainted--and I believe this is the case--I think you may do well to keep an eye on her.”
    David had to admit, ridiculous as the lieutenant’s notion seemed, that this latest theory had about as much validity as any other