Free To Kiss A Spy by Jane Feather Page B

active part in their diplomatic intrigues. He was nowhere near as accomplished a spy as the chevalier, but he was no fool.
    It was clear from the last few minutes that de Noailles had not exaggerated when he’d said that Pen and her stepbrother had a special closeness. And Lord Robin would know of Owen d’Arcy’s own affiliations.
    Owen could see that he would have to forestall any tale-telling.
    “How dare he kiss you!” Robin exploded as the wherry pulled away.
    Pippa saved Pen the trouble of answering. “Everyone kisses everyone, Robin. You know that. Particularly if they’re really close friends, and if someone saves your life how could he be anything else?”
    The reasonable side of Robin knew that he couldn’t argue with this. Such salutations were indeed quite unremarkable between friends. But Owen d’Arcy could not possibly be a friend of Pen’s. He could only mean her harm. But Robin couldn’t tell her this.
    The Duke of Northumberland had been adamant that they leave the relationship to develop. Something useful might come of having Robin’s sister involved with a French spy. He had made this declaration in his coldly decisive manner and Robin had held his tongue. A man did not argue with John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, unless he was prepared to forfeit everything. And it seemed to Robin that he’d be more useful to Pen with his head still attached to his body.
    His frustration took its own path, however. “How could you have done something so foolhardy, Pen? To set off on your own like that?” he demanded as they climbed up the steps to the castle. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that the wherry bearing d’Arcy away had reached midstream.
    “Robin, if you insist upon scolding me you must wait until I’ve soaked myself in a hot bath and a physician has looked at the cut on my neck,” Pen declared, weariness making her acerbic. She stepped up the path with a strength she didn’t have. “Pippa, I hope you haven’t said anything to Mama and Lord Hugh.”
    “Oh, but . . .” Pippa looked stricken. “I beg your pardon, Pen, but when I arrived here this morning and you weren’t here I sent a message to Holborn to see if you’d gone there. So, I’m afraid . . .” She bit her lip ruefully.
    Pen sighed. “I am quite old enough to make my own decisions and my own mistakes. But of course no one will accept that.”
    “You’re not old enough to make them when they nearly kill you,” Robin snapped.
    “Oh, don’t be so sanctimonious, Robin!” Pen marched through the gate in the wall into the quiet garden beyond. “You’d be more helpfully employed by riding to Holborn and telling Mama and your father that I’m back safe and sound. I’m going to have a bath and summon a physician. Pippa, will you tell Princess Mary that I’m back and will attend upon her as soon as may be?”
    “I’ll tell her, but I think you need to sleep before you do any attending,” Pippa said frankly, examining her sister with concern. “You really do look dreadful.”
    “Well, thank you!” Pen said. “That’s all I needed to know. That really improves matters.” She pulled her hood up over her head again, stalking away from them towards the palace.
    “Oh, dear,” Pippa said. “Something’s happened. I don’t mean just the beggars, but something else. I wonder what.”
    “If anyone can find out, you can,” Robin said, not sounding exactly as if he was conferring a compliment.
    Pippa, however, took it as her due. “Yes,” she agreed. “But if you’re going to be disagreeable I won’t tell you what I discover.”
    She went off in her sister’s wake, leaving her stepbrother to his anxiety and frustration as he rode to Holborn with the news of Pen’s safe return.

Five
    “You’re covered in scratches and bruises, Pen!” Pippa exclaimed as she entered Pen’s bedchamber after delivering her message to Princess Mary.
    Two maids were filling the copper tub before the fire. Pen was naked,