Daniel took one of my hands and kissed it. “They are beautiful to me. It will be an outdoor event, so you will have your gloves on at all times, in any case. A large hat with a veil will help.”
“Until I open my mouth.” I snatched my hand from his grasp. “I have taught myself to smooth out my speech, but any member of the upper classes will know as soon as I converse with them that I am a fraud. There are nuances I will never be able to mimic.”
“It is only a matter of practice.” Daniel must have had all the nuances correct if he pretended to be the son of a man from a well-known public school like Eton or Harrow. But he’d been practicing a lifetime, and I’d have a few days. “I can claim that you are Dutch or Flemish, which will explain away any slips you make. I won’t have you be French, because too many people know that language, but I’ve never met an Englishman who confessed to speaking Dutch. However, plenty of Dutch are fluent in English.”
“For heaven’s sake, Daniel . . .”
“Hear me, please. It is for a few hours only, though I know it will rob you of your beloved Thursday. I will make certain you are finished in time to spend some of your day out with Grace.” Daniel let out a growl of exasperation. “I tried to put them off the idea, but the duchess then promised to introduce me to several eligible young ladies if I arrived on my own. That would indeed be a disaster.”
I quailed. “You are mad. Mad, mad, mad . . .”
“Believe me, I thought long and hard before I came to you with this, Kat. You would help me immeasurably, and I will be forever in your debt.”
His remorse was true, but I saw something in his dark blue eyes behind the pinprick of reflected candlelight. Fear?
Tamping down on my panic as I pictured myself walking into the garden party and being instantly exposed—which would either expose Daniel as well, or at least subject him to censorious ridicule—I tried to decide what he was not saying.
“If you fail at this task you’ve been set, your guv’nor, as you call him, will be unhappy,” I stated.
Daniel nodded, quiet. “He will be.”
I remembered the ice-cold man with the spectacles I’d seen outside a prison when the prison’s wall had been breached—Monaghan was the name I’d pried from Daniel a few days ago. He had a hold on Daniel I did not understand, and I knew Daniel had little say in what jobs he did for this man.
I turned abruptly and paced the room, uttering a few words that were definitely unladylike.
“If I ever meet Mr. Monaghan,” I said as I returned to Daniel, “I will have things to say to him.”
“Then I will do my best to keep you from him. He is a dangerous man.”
“One on our side of the law?”
“For now.” Daniel set his mouth in a flat line.
“I see.” I paced a few more times, turning over in my head all the possibilities of what could go wrong with Daniel’s scheme. So many things could.
I knew, however, that Daniel would never have come to me if he’d had any other choice. He wanted to bring a lady to the garden party so that his hostess wouldn’t foist an innocent on him. Daniel’s disguise would never stand up to close scrutiny by a young lady determined to catch herself a wealthy and socially acceptable husband.
I could be an outsider, met on his travels, respectable enough to be presented to a duchess, but one who could disappear once Daniel was finished with this case and not be missed.
If Daniel displeased his hostess, and she turned him out, he’d have to go to his guv’nor and tell him he’d not been able to collect more evidence for or against the duke. If Mr. Monaghan grew angry, what would he do? Send Daniel away to some awful and perilous place? Banish him, even jail him?
All because I was too timid to help.
I heaved a sigh that came from the depths of my soul. “I will need a frock,” I said. “The ones I have will hardly do.”
Daniel relaxed. “Thank you, Kat.” He took my hands once again. “Miss Townsend has agreed to provide you clothes and guidance and make certain you know the role you are to play.”
Very practical of him. “We will have to be careful. Most visitors to a house never see the cook, but if one of my former employers appears at the garden party, they will know that your young lady from Amsterdam is a fraud.”
“I have already scrutinized the guest list, and no one you have worked for in any capacity will be there.”
I gave Daniel a level stare. “You know who all my former employers are, do you?”
He flushed. “Yes.”
I was too worried about my upcoming ruse to be unnerved. “Well, I still believe you mad, and I am not one for playacting. But nor do I want you to suffer at the hands of your guv’nor. If he sends you to the ends of the earth, James and I might never see you again.”
Daniel’s brows rose. “If he tried to do that, I’d tell him to go to the devil.”
“And what would be the consequences of that? Much the same result, if I read the situation aright.”
Daniel grimaced. “Possibly. You, of course, will know nothing about the duke and this Dublin business. Nothing to do with you.”
“I do understand. I will be polite but uninterested in anything not on the surface.”
The corner of Daniel’s mouth quirked. “I knew I chose right to ask you. You will be perfect, Kat.”
“Let us hope so,” I said darkly. “And let us hope the duchess’s cook is up to scratch. Or I might be tempted to remark strongly upon it.”
* * *
* * *
James saw me home after I took my leave of Daniel. He slumped along, hands in his pockets, a glower on his young face.
“You do not like it,” I said as we walked. “I do not either, but I see that Daniel doesn’t have much choice.”
“He shouldn’t be putting you into danger,” James growled. “Bad enough he does it for himself.”
“I agree, but I understand his predicament.” I admitted to myself that not only did I wish to save Daniel the embarrassment of his hostess thrusting young ladies at him, I did not want those young ladies hanging on him and becoming enchanted by him. Or he becoming enchanted with them.
“Be careful.” James’s warning broke through my silent tirade. “This bloke dad works for is a hard one. I don’t know much about him, and Dad keeps him well away from me—if he even realizes Dad has a son—but I know he’s bad, even if he does things for the police.”
“Yes, I’ve seen him. Not someone I want to encounter any closer.” I patted James’s arm. “I will take care, love. I will be the polite but not bright stranger and never see the lot of them again. No one looks hard at a servant, so even if I pass them in the street as myself, I doubt they’ll notice.”