Rescuing the Marquise (Regency Romance): Winter Stories (Regency Tales Book 11) by Regina Darcy

Author:Regina Darcy [Darcy, Regina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clean and Wholesome Romance
Published: 2016-11-11T22:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

Lord Markingston walked until he reached the garbage-strewn alleyway several houses away from Annabelle’s dwelling. She did not even realise that he had left the house. This was the location where he was supposed to check in with Williams and Stuart.

He brought a lantern with him to light his way in the dark night. Then he waited. The two English agents were nowhere in sight.

After what felt like hours, the pair staggered into the spot several minutes late. The Earl was alarmed — both men looked quite haggard.

“What happened?” he asked, trying to keep fear out of his voice.

“The mission is compromised,” Williams said.

“It’s shot to heck, that’s what it is,” Stuart snapped, sounding hoarse. “We were just nearly ambushed by French police. We had to flee on foot. Lord Markingston, we need to get out of here now.”

“But how? How could they have known?”

“This whole conspiracy was set up by an agent provocateur,” Stuart said, bitterly. “We fell for it, alright. Hook, line, and sinker. Bonaparte’s treacherous government wants there to be a plot against him. It’ll inflame the people and finally allow him to crack down on dissent. Even better if they can get some Brits tangled up in the infernal thing. That’ll spark a nationalistic fever.”

“Oh God,” the Earl replied. He had been worried something like this might happen, but he did not expect it to unravel so quickly.

“What of the plotters? Can we get them out?”

Williams shook his head, sadly. “No. They’re all on the run now. No one knows where they are. Only God can help them now, I’m afraid.”

The Earl fought the urge to curse and punch the grimy brick wall he was standing against. “This is bad.”

“Yes, we know,” Stuart said. “That’s why we’re leaving. Two nights from now. That’s the fastest we can get ourselves a decent rowboat — one that won’t sink and drown us all. Meet us at the Calais beach — you know the one? In your briefing papers, you should have gotten some sort of map pointing it out.”

“I know the one. What are we going to do? Row across the Channel? That’s mad!”

“It is,” Stuart admitted. “But it’s our only shot, now. This is widespread, Lord Markingston. They’re looking for Williams and me and pretty soon, once they start capturing some of the conspirators, they’ll be searching for you too. They’re also locking down all the ports and roads out of France. They’re checking every foreigner. We can’t leave by any conventional means, sir.”

“Fair enough. In that case, I will meet you on the beach at the designated time.” His heart beat painfully in his chest.

“I will be bringing the Marquise.”

“The Marquise?” Williams cried.

“Absolutely not!” Stuart huffed. “Are you out of your mind, sir? We can’t carry along some fancy woman just because you’ve decided you fancy her. I’m sorry. It’s totally against protocol.”

The Earl stifled a smile at the man’s over-the-top outburst. “Mr. Stuart, the Marquise is an English subject.” Stuart scowled but did not contradict this.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.