The King's Code by Samantha Saxon

Author:Samantha Saxon
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Tartan Publishing
Published: 2016-04-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

~

“I’m afraid that I am no longer able to work with Lady Juliet and am therefore forced to resign my commission at the Foreign Office.”

“Resign?” Falcon stared at Seamus McCurren, who had sought him out at his home.

“Yes, I’m afraid so.” He nodded. “Now that the Foreign Office has commissioned a cryptographer as capable as Juliet Pervill, I feel comfortable in returning to my prior research.”

Falcon was by now familiar enough with Seamus to know that something else was bothering the man. “Has the lady—”

“It really has nothing to do with Lady Juliet, I assure you.” McCurren looked at him with regret. “Rather the fact that I prefer . . . That is to say, I am far more effective when working in solitude.”

“Ah, so you have not found the lady’s insight . . . useful?” Falcon watched the boy carefully for insight of his own.

“Quite the contrary, the lady is eminently qualified to decrypt French code. I just find it difficult to concentrate when . . .”

Falcon watched the scholar search for the proper word.

“Challenged?” he suggested helpfully.

The poor lad jerked his head back to look at him then blinked several times before he could manage, “No! No, not at all. I merely find it difficult to concentrate when a variety of methods are being applied to the information gathered by this office.”

The boy had a point, he supposed.

“Mmm,” Falcon mused. “You know, I often have this difficulty with the gentlemen in my employ.”

“What difficulty is that?” McCurren appeared truly perplexed.

“When I hire a new man, my agents inevitably feel . . . threatened, feel that I find the work they are doing somehow lacking.”

McCurren’s dark brows pulled over his golden eyes, and Falcon could see that he was mulling over the never before-considered possibility of his feeling threatened.

“No,” Seamus concluded. “I do not believe that to be the difficulty in this particular situation.”

“Which implies that you do know what the difficulty might be?” McCurren held his eyes and in the complex depths Falcon found the answer. “Perhaps the difficulty is that you are unaccustomed to working with women?”

“Yes.” The man’s tense shoulders were eased by relief. “As I’ve said, I concentrate much more effectively when working . . . in solitude.”

“You seem to concentrate quite well with the assistance of Mister Habernathy.”

“Quite true.” Seamus glanced down, clearly embarrassed, and Falcon felt a twinge of guilt. “And I am quite sure that Lady Juliet Pervill will work with Mister Habernathy equally well.”

“Thank you for informing me of your intention to resign in person.” Falcon took pity on the lad. “I shall speak with Lady Juliet first thing tomorrow morning and inform her of the new arrangement.”

“Thank you, my lord. It has been an honor working with you,” Seamus said, leaving Falcon to wonder what would become of the brilliant Juliet Pervill when he dismissed her from his employ.

≈

Juliet arrived at the Foreign Office at ten o’clock and, as she walked toward her office, told herself repeatedly to pretend as though nothing happened last night between her and Seamus.

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