Free Regency Spymasters 01 - Spy Fall by Diana Quincy

conscious of the solid contours of his rugged body. Desire contracted low in her belly. It really had been too long since she’d gone to bed with a man.
    “Three sheets to the wind,” he mused. “That’s an awfully English expression for a French mademoiselle to use.”
    She cursed to herself for the slipup. “My mother used the term quite often when my father would stumble in after an evening overindulging,” she said, lying.
    Clearly he wasn’t drunk enough. Not nearly.
    That evening, Mari waited until long after the clattering in the kitchen died away and the soft tread of feet on the staircase to the servants’ attic quarters ceased. Pulling her chamber door open, she slipped into the hallway without making a noise. She moved with purpose, confident everyone was asleep, even Cosmo, who normally kept late hours.
    Hopefully, his inebriated state would keep him out of her way while she did a comprehensive search of Aldridge’s study. It occurred to her she hadn’t seen Cosmo truly drunk like this since the morning she’d first come to Langtry.
    Arriving at the library door, she pushed it open and slipped inside. She started with the desk again, this time going through all the drawers and checking every part of it for a hidden compartment. Nothing. She moved to the chess table, examining it from all angles, before moving to the bookshelves. Pulling open the Gothic-arched glass doors, she ran her hands along the books, scanning for any volumes that seemed unusual or out of place. She moved quickly, with complete concentration.
    Nothing. She released a frustrated breath. She’d search the rest of the house over the next few evenings. If those endeavors turned up nothing, the only place left to search would be Aldridge’s own bedchamber, which would require a great deal of finesse, particularly since the older man rarely left the property. But she would find a way; she had no choice.
    Giving a quick look around the room to ensure that everything was as she had found it, Mari pulled open the door. She paused and listened until she was certain the house remained quiet. No sound or movement breached the silence. Good. She stepped out and closed the door behind her. With careful haste, she went back to her chamber, her mind working, plotting how to get into Aldridge’s private quarters without being detected.
    As soon as Mari closed the door to the study, Cosmo stepped out from the small chamber hidden behind the bookshelves, which led to a system of tunnels the original owners of the house had built to protect their smuggling efforts more than a century ago. He hadn’t been in the tunnels since he and Elinor were children. The dust he brushed off his dressing gown suggested that no one else had either.
    But his mind was busy elsewhere, racing with the truth of what he’d just witnessed. Mari had searched his father’s study with the quick efficiency of an expert who’d performed the same task many times before. And she’d moved like a shadow, without making a sound, as though she’d been trained to it.
    He couldn’t discount the most obvious conclusion—Mari Lamarre wasn’t just an aeronaut in search of a benefactor. She was, in all likelihood, a French spy. If that were true, what did she hope to find? Perhaps she was after crown secrets. Aldridge had held some of the highest positions in government. As a member of the Lords, he remained privy to the nation’s greatest secrets. And, although England and France were officially at peace thanks to the treaty that Aldridge himself had helped negotiate a few months ago, tensions between the two countries remained high.
    He wondered if Mari possessed specific intelligence that Aldridge kept something of importance here at Langtry, something the French coveted. Langtry’s coastal location made the situation more dire. Once she found what she sought, Mari could immediately set sail for France with it, not only putting England at risk, but also destroying his