" Yes, perhaps you should have."
"Who found your son’s real birth certificate?"
"The French, obviously, and then Flanders stumbled upon it. Of course, he was ecstatic when he found it. He figured he had something on me should his ring ever be found. And then the ring was found. I made sure you, Angelford, were out of the way and flashed the ring to Stephen at his debrief, hoping he would discover Flanders, and that one would kill the other. Flanders was greedy, but not an idiot. He had Curdle, here, plant Edmund’s real birth certificate on Ternberry in order to show me he was serious with his threats. Ternberry, the poor fool, came to me the minute he found it, a huge mistake on his part."
"Why kill Ternberry at Pettigrew’s?"
"I didn’t attend the party; no one could connect me to the event. There were plenty of people present on whom to cast blame. Flanders, Pettigrew, the two of you, even Roth, if I had desired to try that tack."
"Why did Ternberry return to the party?"
"I informed him that I wished to confront the villains, and he agreed to accompany me. Poor fool. Always did have an inflated opinion of himself. "
"So, all this time you and Flanders have been trying to frame each other. How trite."
"No, Flanders was trying to frame me. I was trying to kill him." Holt shrugged. "Looks like I won."
Calliope broke in. "I thought you and my father were friends."
"We were, my dear. We were the very best of friends. Unfortunately, the French found Edmund’s damn birth certificate. Used it against me. When your father started investigating the intercepted messages between our camp and the French, I had to make a choice."
"A choice?" Calliope’s voice came out strangled. "A choice as to whether to murder your friend?"
"Edmund would have been ruined, all our lands dispersed to some country bumpkin of a cousin. Edmund couldn’t be made to suffer for Salisbury ’s persistence." Holt gripped the gun tightly.
"His persistence to identify the traitors? You’re crazy."
"No, I am merely living within the limits of the nobility. I would think you, with all of your guises, always living on the fringe of society, would understand."
Calliope stood motionless.
Holt smirked at her in amusement. "You, Angelford, and Chalmers have been blessed by great fortune. I thought Curdle here would have done you all in long ago. Chalmers somehow survived the beating by Flanders ’s men and drowning in the Thames and Angelford survived being shot by my highwaymen. And you, my dear, have survived not one but two fires. A pity you didn’t die long ago with your lovely mother."
"You bastard. My mother did nothing to you."
" Flanders always liked fires a bit too much. Seemed to think they hid all his mistakes. She had evidence that was damning-his ring. But it seemed to have survived the fire. How was that?"
She said nothing.
"It doesn’t make a difference in the end." He sneered and rose. "Now, then, what should we do, my dear? You have been a thorn in my side and caused me no end of trouble."
Calliope saw a flash and rose on her toes to block Curdle’s view of the doorway. He jabbed her hard in the spine. She winced, but spoke quickly to keep all attention on her. "You betrayed your nation, you abused your position of trust and you masterminded the deaths of friends. I think maybe you should run."
It worked; Holt swung his gun toward her.
"Really? How quaint. And why is that?"
A voice laced with contempt spoke from the doorway. "Because you’re one step behind, old man."
Holt turned his gun toward the voice. There was an explosion.
A look of shock was etched in Holt’s face as his body jerked to the carpet. His gun fell to the floor a few feet in front of him.
Calliope looked to the door. The tendrils of smoke swirled around Roth’s handsome face.
"Curdle, is it?" Roth kept a second gun trained on the foul-breathed man.
"Get out of my way. Me and the lady here are leaving."
Roth cocked an eyebrow. " Really? And how do you propose to get past me?"
"I’ll kill her if you don’t let me through."
"Then it will just be you, Chalmers, Angelford and me. Not a pleasant scenario for you, I think."
"I’ll take my chances."
Stephen inched across the bed, moving closer to Holt’s gun. James crept toward her.
Curdle must have noticed the movements, because he pushed her toward the doorway and whipped the gun from her back, firing at Roth.
Click. Misfire.
There was a moment of silence and then pandemonium. Calliope fell forward. James hurdled toward her as Stephen dove for Flanders ’s discarded gun.
James grabbed her arm and yanked her diagonally. Calliope saw Curdle drop and pull the knife from Flanders ’s back. Two shots were fired.
She landed in a heap on top of James.
"Callie? Are you hit?" Stephen rushed over and separated them.
It was hard to tell. There was blood splattered and splotched all over her clothes, but most of it had been from her hands, hadn’t it?
James started prodding her in the side.
"Ouch! Stop that."
Relief crossed his features. "If you can yell at me, you’re fine."
Curdle lay in a heap on the floor. She didn’t know who had shot him, and she didn’t care.
Stephen gave her a squeeze. Everything hurt, including reassuring squeezes.
Roth was poking through Holt’s clothes. Finn entered the room and Roth looked up and nodded. Finn gave her a concerned look. "Everyone unhurt?"
Calliope nodded.
Roth smiled. "Good. But you look awful," he said to Calliope. "I’ll summon a doctor." He ducked out of the room.
"Where did he come from?" Calliope asked.
Finn answered. “Said he followed Holt here. I met him at the front gate. He didn’t seem surprised at the hubbub."
"I shared my suspicions with him at Pettigrew’s after we found Ternberry. I didn’t get a chance to update him today. I’m just glad he appears to be a step ahead, as usual," James said, running a hand through his hair.
Curdle’s legs disappeared from the doorway as Finn dragged him out. Flanders and Holt still littered the floor.
James touched Calliope’s hand. "Let’s go downstairs."
She stepped over Holt and walked out the door.
Chapter 17
A few hours later, Calliope huddled on one side of the sofa drinking tea. James sat behind the desk and Stephen was relaxed on the other side of the sofa. Stephen was already looking remarkably better. The doctor had checked them all over and advised plenty of rest and laudanum after he had tried to bleed Calliope and nearly been torn apart by both men. James had been tight-lipped, but she had discovered his mother had been bled for days before succumbing to a lung disease.
They had filled Stephen in on everything that had happened while he was missing. Everything that he needed to know, at least. Stephen had sent for Deirdre and Robert and they were seated across from the sofa alternating between mothering and chastising her.
"I can’t believe you didn’t tell us Stephen was missing."
"We could have helped, if you had just let us know."
"Do you know how worried we’ve been?"
"What were you thinking of, taking off with Angelford-no offense to you, my lord-and not informing us of what was going on?"
"Mother is going to flay me alive, and you too, when she finds out."
"You could have told us of your relationship with Angelford. We’ve been worried sick that you had developed a tendre-no offense, my lord-and were going to end up quite hurt from it all." Calliope silently acknowledged the truth of Robert’s statement.