Guardian Angel

  “I’ll explain it all later,” Caine interjected. “Let her finish with this now.”

  “On the way to London, the carriage was waylaid. I was hit on the side of my head. The blow made me sleep, and when I awakened, I found that the carriage had been torn apart. I was able to squeeze through the window after I’d widened the frame with the heel of my boot.”

  “And then?” Richards asked.

  “I walked.”

  “All the way to London?” Lyon asked.

  “No,” Jade answered. “Not all the way. I was able to . . . borrow a horse from a way station. It was unattended. The owner was probably inside having his supper.”

  Jade finished her accounting a few minutes later. She never mentioned the fact that she was Pagan, and Caine assumed he would have to be the one to tell Sir Richards and Lyon.

  Just what was her game? Lord, by the time she’d finished her recitation, she was dabbing at the corners of her eyes with Richards’ handkerchief.

  The director was obviously shaken by her explanation. He leaned back in his chair and shook his head.

  “Do you know who the other members of the Tribunal are?” Jade asked him.

  “No.”

  “But you knew Hammond, didn’t you?” she asked. “I understood that the two of you started out together.”

  “Yes, we started out together,” Richards agreed. “Yet after a number of years, my dear, we were each given a different division within the War Department. Hammond had so many young men under his direction back then. He ran his own section. I met quite a few eager young saviors, but certainly not all of them.”

  “We have several telling clues,” Lyon interjected. “It shouldn’t take us long to find out the truth.”

  “The first letter was signed by a man named William. They hadn’t been assigned their operative names yet. Hell, that’s the most common name in England,” Caine added. “How many Williams work for the War Office?”

  Jade answered his question. “Actually, there were only three in Hammond’s files.”

  Everyone turned to look at her. “Pagan read the files,” she whispered. She blushed, then added, “It was necessary. There’s William Pryors, William Terrance, and William Clayhill. All three worked for your department, Sir Richards. Two are still alive, though retired from duty, but William Terrance died four years ago.”

  “You’re certain of these facts?” Lyon asked.

  “How did Pagan get to our files?” Richards was obviously disconcerted. “By God, no one can get through our security.”

  “Pagan did,” Caine said. He took over the conversation then, explaining in more detail how the pirate had set out to protect him. He told them about Colin’s and Nathan’s near miss with the sharks, too. When he was finished, no one said a word for a long while.

  Jade was gripping her hands together. It wasn’t a pretense now, but the memory of the sharks that made her so agitated.

  “Three eager young men, bent on saving the world,” Richards whispered. “But the lust for power became more important.”

  Jade nodded agreement. “Did you notice, sir, that the first letters were signed with the wording, ‘for the good of England,’ but as time went on, and they grew more and more bold, they changed the wording?”

  “I noticed,” Sir Richards muttered. “ ‘For the good of the Tribunal’ was how they signed their notes,” he added. “And that does say it all, doesn’t it. There can be no misinterpretation here.”

  “Her father was killed by the two others when he refused to go along with their plans, and then Hammond was murdered,” Caine said.

  Richards nodded. “We must find the other two,” he muttered. “Lord, there’s so much to take in.” He let out a weary sigh, then said, “Well, thank God Pagan seems to be on our side. When I think of all the damage he could do with those files, my blood runs cold.”

  “Oh, Pagan’s very honorable,” Jade rushed out. “Most thieves are, sir. You mustn’t worry that the information will fall into the wrong hands.”

  “Did that bastard read my file?” Lyon demanded.

  Caine didn’t answer him. He didn’t think there was any reason to share the truth with his friend. It would only upset him.

  “The very fact that there were sharks in those waters,” Richards whispered, changing the topic. “Do you realize the courage it must have taken . . .”

  “Have you finished your questions?” Jade interrupted.

  The director immediately reached out and patted her hands again. “We’ve exhausted you, haven’t we, my dear? I can tell how distressing this is for you.”

  “Thank you for your consideration,” she whispered. She stood up and didn’t protest at all when Richards embraced her.

  “We’ll find the culprits, I promise you,” he said.

  Jade hid her hands in the folds of her gown, then walked over to Lyon. He immediately stood up. She leaned against him. “Thank you, Lyon, for helping us. Please give my love to Christina. I cannot wait until I can visit with her again.”

  She turned back to Richards and hugged him again. “I forgot to thank you as well,” she explained.

  She pulled away from the director, bowed, and turned to leave the room.

  “Jade?”

  “Yes, Caine?”

  “What was all that about?”

  She turned around to smile at him. “You said a man’s pride is very important, didn’t you?”

  “I did.”

  “You also said that when a man is manipulated or deceived, his pride suffers, too.”

  “I did say that.” He leaned forward. “And?”

  “Well, if others were also . . . fooled . . . friends who have earned their own legends and England’s respect, then wouldn’t the blow be less painful?”

  He finally understood. His wink was slow, his grin arrogant. “I shall go and ask Colin and Nathan to join you now,” Jade announced before she left the room. The door closed softly behind her.

  “What was she talking about?” Richards asked.

  “A personal matter,” Caine answered. He turned to Lyon then. “Well? What do you think of her now?”

  His friend refilled his goblet with more brandy before he answered. “She’s still damned beautiful,” he said. “But I’m once again thinking she’s awfully timid. Must come from being around you.”

  Caine laughed. “You’re back to thinking she’s timid?”

  “What am I missing, Caine?” Lyon asked, genuinely perplexed. “What’s the jest you find so amusing?”

  “Put aside this talk about women,” Richards ordered. “Now, son, you must promise me something.”

  “Sir?” Caine asked.

  “Have you actually met this Pagan fellow?”

  “I have.”

  “When this is finished, you must find a way for me to meet him.”

  Caine leaned back in his chair. Jade had been right. She had just given him his pride back.

  “I must meet Pagan,” Sir Richards demanded again.

  Caine nodded. “Sir Richards, you just did.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Jade, come back here.” Caine shouted that order while his two friends were trying to absorb the news he’d just given them.

  When she didn’t respond to his summons, Caine called for Sterns. The butler must have been standing right outside the door, for he immediately rushed inside the library. He bowed to his employer, a courtesy he never ever extended when they were alone, and then asked, “You wished something, mi’lord?”

  “Bring Jade back here,” Caine ordered.

  “I believe she heard your bellow, mi’lord,” Sterns announced in that highbrow voice of his, “She has declined the invitation to rejoin you, however. Was there something more you wanted?”

  Caine wanted to strangle Sterns, but he pushed the notion aside. “Bring her to me. Drag her in here if you have to, but bring her to me. That’s what I want, Sterns.”

  The butler nodded, then left on his errand. Caine turn
ed back to his friends. He lost some of his irritation when he saw Lyon’s grin. His friend seemed to be taking the news of Pagan’s identity much better than Sir Richards was. The director still looked quite stunned.

  “Hell, Caine, I should have guessed,” Lyon said. “She was so timid . . . yes, I should have known, all right. You aren’t one to be attracted to ... and Christina did say that I should look below the . . .”

  “Son,” Sir Richards interrupted Lyon’s rambling. “This isn’t the time for jests. We’ve a serious matter here.”

  Jade opened the door in the middle of Richards’ protests. “I was fetching Nathan and Colin for you, Caine. What is it you wanted?”

  “Give them back, Jade.”

  His voice had the bite of a pistol shot in it. Jade pretended innocence. “Whatever are you talking about?” she asked. She pressed her hand to her bosom in mock fear and fluttered her eyelashes at him.

  He wasn’t at all impressed. “You know damned good and well what I’m talking about,” he roared. “Give them back.”

  “Caine, it isn’t polite to raise your voice to me in front of visitors,” she instructed. Her voice had risen an octave. “It’s plain rude.”

  “They know who you are.”

  “They know?”

  She marched over to the front of his desk and glared at him. Her hands were planted on her hips now. “Exactly what do they know?”

  “That you’re Pagan.”

  She let out a gasp. “Why don’t you just post it in the dailies?” she shouted. “Then you wouldn’t have to spend so much time . . .”

  “I had to tell them,” Caine interjected.

  “You could have waited until after I’d left.”

  “Since you aren’t leaving, that wasn’t possible, now was it?”

  “My God, it’s really true?” Richards interjected in a near shout of his own.

  Jade glanced over her shoulder to frown at the director. “No,” she snapped. “It isn’t true.”

  “Yes,” Caine countered. “It is.”

  “Damn it, Caine, don’t you know how to keep a secret?” She didn’t give him time to answer that question but turned to leave.

  “I told you to give them back, Jade.”

  “Why?”

  “These men happen to be my friends,” he answered. “That’s why.”

  “Caine, if you can’t rob from your friends, who can you rob?” she asked.

  He didn’t have a ready answer to that absurd question.

  “You did say it was all right for me to continue my work,” she reminded him. “Have you already gone back on your word?”

  He couldn’t believe she had the audacity to look so outraged. Caine didn’t dare stand up, certain the urge to grab her and try to shake some sense into her would be too overwhelming to ignore.

  Jade turned to look at Lyon. “When I give my word, I never break it,” she stated.

  Caine took a deep breath, then leaned back in his chair. He stared at Jade long and hard.

  She glared back.

  With the crook of his finger, he motioned her closer. When she’d reached his side, he said, “I meant what I said. You may continue with your work.”

  She was totally perplexed. “Then why are you making such a fuss over . . .”

  “You may continue to rob,” he interrupted. “But every time you take something, I’m going to give it back.”

  Her gasp nearly knocked her over. “You won’t.”

  “I will.”

  “But that’s . . . ridiculous,” she stammered. “Isn’t it?”

  He didn’t answer her. Jade looked over at Lyon for help. His grin told her she wouldn’t be getting any assistance from him. Sir Richards was still looking too flabbergasted to intervene.

  She was on her own, she decided, just as she’d always been. “No.”

  “Yes.”

  She looked as though she wanted to weep. “Now give them their . . .”

  “I switched them,” she announced. “May I leave now?”

  Caine nodded. He waited until Jade had reached the door, then called out, “Jade, you may leave this room, but don’t you dare try to leave this house. I’ll only come after you if you do. You wouldn’t want to inconvenience me again, now would you?”

  She didn’t answer that question. Caine knew she was furious with him, though. The door almost flew off its hinges when she slammed it shut behind her.

  “She’s got a bit of a temper,” Caine announced. His grin suggested he didn’t mind that flaw much at all. “Have you recovered yet, Richards?” he asked then.

  “I have,” Richards agreed.

  “But you never once considered . . .”

  “No, no,” Richards returned.

  Caine nodded with satisfaction. “It’s good to know my own superior was taken in. I do believe my pride has been fully restored.”

  Nathan and Colin walked into the library then. Colin used his cane and Nathan’s arm for assistance.

  “Quit treating me like an infant,” Colin muttered, as Nathan helped him ease into a chair.

  “You are an infant,” Nathan drawled out. He pushed a footstool in front of the chair, then propped Colin’s foot on it.

  Nathan stood to take his measure of the two men watching him. Caine made the introductions. He shook their hands, then sat on the arm of Colin’s chair.

  “Jade wants me to ask you what time it is,” Nathan stated then.

  The director looked puzzled by that request, then shrugged. “I’d say it was going on nine, wouldn’t you, Lyon?”

  Lyon was more astute than his superior. He lifted the timepiece from his waist pocket. He laughed then, a full booming sound that filled the room. “I believe this one is yours, Richards. You have mine. She did embrace both of us.”

  Richards was duly impressed. “I certainly misjudged her,” he announced. “You saw her make the switch, didn’t you, Caine. That’s why you called her back.”

  Caine shook his head. “No, I didn’t,” he admitted. “But when she embraced each of you, I knew she was up to something. She doesn’t usually show such affection to strangers.”

  “No, she doesn’t,” Nathan agreed.

  Caine looked at Lyon. “The woman has led me in circles. She’s determined to make me a madman.”

  “I’d say she’s already accomplished that goal,” Nathan drawled out.

  “This sounds familiar to me,” Lyon said. He smiled, remembering the bizarre circumstances leading up to his marriage. “I’ve been led in a few circles by Christina, too. Tell me this, Caine. What did you do while she was leading you?”

  “Same thing you did,” Caine answered. “I fell in love with her.”

  Lyon nodded. “God help you now, friend. It isn’t going to get any easier after you’ve married her. When is the wedding, by the way?”

  “Yes, Caine, when is the wedding?” Nathan demanded.

  “There damned well will be a wedding.” Colin made that statement of fact. He was frowning intently at his brother.

  “Yes,” Caine answered. “There will be a wedding.”

  “Sounds to me as if you don’t have any choice, son,” Sir Richards interjected. “Will you say your vows with a pistol aimed at your back?”

  “If a pistol is needed, it will be aimed at Jade’s back, not mine,” Caine countered. “I still have to convince her that I mean what I say. Hell, I’ll probably even have to get down on one knee in front of her men.”

  Even Nathan smiled over that picture. Colin scoffed. “Jade won’t make you kneel before her,” he said.

  “No, but Black Harry sure as hell will,” Caine replied.

  “Who is Black Harry?” Richards asked.

  “Nathan, you start explaining,” Caine announced. “While I go after Jade.”

  “She’s gone?” Nathan asked.

  Caine stood up and started for the door. “Of course she’s gone. I never make the same mistake twice, Nathan. I’ll be back soon.”

  Since Caine was a
lready wearing his riding britches and boots, he went directly to the corral housing the horses.

  The speckled mare was missing. “How many men do you have trailing her?” he asked the stablemaster.

  “Three at the back door chased after her,” the servant answered.

  Caine bridled his stallion but didn’t bother with the saddle. He grabbed hold of the black mane and mounted the steed in one quick motion.

  He trailed her to the cabin on the edge of his property. She was standing next to the creek, watering her horse.

  Caine broke through the trees, then goaded his mount into a full gallop. Jade heard the sound of pounding hooves. She turned to run into the woods. Caine’s stallion never broke stride as he leaned down and lifted her into his arms. He slammed her bottom down in front of him, turned direction and headed back toward home.

  He didn’t say a word to her, nor she to him, and he didn’t slow his pace until they’d reached their destination.

  Sterns was waiting at the front door. Caine dragged Jade up the steps. “Lock her in her room!” he roared. “Post two guards below her windows and two more outside the door.”

  He didn’t let go of Jade until he’d dragged her inside the house and bolted the door behind him.

  He kept his expression as ugly as he could manage until he was once again inside the library. When he was back in his chair behind his desk, he let himself smile.

  “I assume you found her,” Nathan said.

  “I did,” Caine answered. “Impressed the hell out of her, too. Now catch me up on what you’ve told my friends,” he ordered.

  The talk returned to the letters and the men didn’t finish formulating their plans until well past eleven. Richards and Lyon were given chambers in the North wing. Both appeared to be reluctant to say goodnight.

  Richards insisted on taking the copies of the letters to bed with him. “There’s information still to be ferreted out,” he announced.

  No one argued with the director. Caine went directly to Jade’s room. He dismissed the guards, unlocked the door, and went inside.

  Jade was reading in bed. She wouldn’t look at him, but kept her gaze on the book she held in her hands.

  “You need more light if you’re going to read,” Caine announced. “The fire needs to be stoked, too. It’s damned cold in here.”