“My lord,” he replied with a formal nod. “May I offer you my thanks for escorting my sisters and cousins from Venice.”
“It was an honor to do so,” Lord Beverly replied with a banal smile. The man was so good at playing his part that Thomas was tempted to grin and elbow him in the arm, like they were two old school chums playing a joke on the others.
“I trust your journey went well,” Thomas continued the illusion.
“As well as could be expected,” Lord Beverly said. “I trust you’ve been enjoying your time in Rome thus far?” The way he spoke reminded Thomas of the seemingly casual conversation he’d had with Violetta on their way to her flat the other day. He wasn’t sure he would be able to keep up.
“I’m having a lovely time,” he said. “I’ve met the most amazing woman, and I’ve developed a taste for the theater in the process.”
“Oh? The theater?” His sister Evangeline broke away from a group of the younger cousins, rushing to join their group. “I do love the theater, and we were barely able to see any shows while in Venice.”
Unlike Lord Beverly, Evangeline didn’t seem to be in the inner circle of subterfuge. And unlike Roselyn, she wasn’t quite as terrified for Asher’s wellbeing as perhaps she should have been. Then again, Evangeline had always been an optimist with a penchant for having fun and lightening the mood, even in the most desperate of times.
“Yes,” Thomas said. “There’s a droll little commedia dell’arte troupe that performs at a plaza nearby every afternoon. It’s mostly for the tourists, but you would probably enjoy it.”
“I’ll say I would.” Evangeline smiled, sliding closer to Roselyn and looping her arm through hers. “What do you say, Roz? Commedia dell’arte seems like just the thing to take our minds off of…other concerns.”
Roselyn sent Evangeline a wary look. After a moment she sighed, her shoulders sagging. “I suppose that would be nice.”
“Why don’t you ladies organize the others into their rooms,” Lord Beverly said. “I have a few business matters I’d like to discuss with Lord Landry.”
Roselyn and Evangeline didn’t need to be told twice. After a quick round of hugs for Thomas, they scurried off to join the rest of the noisy, milling McGovern clan and the harried hotel staff that were trying to hand out keys and show everyone up to their rooms.
“I’m not sure if it was a terrible idea to house the lot of us in this single, small hotel or if the chaos will be just the distraction we need to take care of our other business,” Thomas said, shifting closer to Lord Beverly.
“The latter,” Lord Beverly said, gesturing for Thomas to follow him to the door. “The buzz and chaos is exactly why I chose this hotel. Your family will create so much of a stir that even the most astute observer will have a hard time realizing what a few of us are truly here for.”
Thomas huffed a laugh as he and Lord Beverly exited the hotel and began what would seem like a casual, sightseeing stroll to passersby.
“I take it our English Columbine has been helpful so far?” Lord Beverly asked as they made their way down the street at a brisk pace.
“She’s truly the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met,” Thomas said with a smile.
Lord Beverly eyed him sideways. His mouth twitched, but Thomas wasn’t convinced the expression was a smile. “I should have known the two of you would enjoy each other’s company.”
Thomas’s smile dropped. Was Lord Beverly such a good spy that he could tell at a glance everything that had happened between him and Violetta?
He answered his own question in a flash. Of course, he could. Anyone who knew the slightest bit about who he was and his reputation could figure that much out. In fact, walking with Lord Beverly reminded Thomas a little too much of all the times his father had dragged him into his office to upbraid him for being a wastrel and a bounder.
Except that Lord Beverly’s frown wasn’t one of disapproval. “Have you been able to learn anything further since you were given the message that time is running out the other day?” he asked. Thomas had sent him a telegram as soon as he could after the incident to let Lord Beverly know what was going on.
“Not much,” he admitted with a sigh. “Violetta and I have only been able to wait for The Jackal and his accomplices to make another move. In the meantime, I’ve been doing my best to learn the city as quickly as possible. I don’t believe I’ve walked this much since—”
He was cut off as Violetta herself dashed around the corner of an intersection of two large streets ahead of them. One look at her, and Thomas’s pulse pounded in his throat as the urge to protect her flared. Violetta wore a look of such gravity that it squeezed at his gut.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, jumping forward to meet her.
Violetta seemed relieved to see him, but even more relieved at the sight of Lord Beverly. Before their paths could meet, she ducked into a side street, gesturing for Thomas and Lord Beverly to follow her.
“I received word from an informant not more than half an hour ago,” she said without introduction, huddling close with the two men. “The Jackal knows you’ve arrived in Rome, my lord.” She glanced warily up at Lord Beverly. “He sent word that you must bring Lord Addlebury’s ransom to the address you were given in Venice before sundown tonight or Lord Addlebury will be executed.”
It was as though someone had punched Thomas in the gut. “They wouldn’t dare,” he hissed—not because he believed it, but because that seemed like the only proper reply for an English gentleman to make to that sort of threat.
“We must go there at once,” Lord Beverly said, taking command of the situation with an almost supernatural power.
He started out of the alley with purposeful strides. Thomas and Violetta fell into step behind him.
“Do you have the ransom money with you?” Thomas asked as they dodged between pedestrians, tourists, and carriages that clogged the busy streets.
“I have enough to convince them I can give them what they want,” Lord Beverly said over his shoulder in a way that chilled Thomas. “They’re not truly after the money, though.”
“The money is just a ruse to lure us into a meeting of a different sort?” Violetta asked, picking up her pace so that she walked by Lord Beverly’s side instead of in back of him. Thomas jogged a few steps to do the same, striding by the man’s other side.
Lord Beverly nodded once. “I would be surprised if money is what The Jackal is truly after,” he said. “At least, I would be surprised if such a small sum of money would satisfy the man when he has a much grander prize within his sights.”
Thomas would have shaken his head and let out a long whistle at the suggestion that five hundred thousand pounds was a small sum. The world he’d found himself in from the moment Asher had gone missing was one that was filled with surprises of the sort that made him reconsider everything he knew.
“What can you add that Lord Landry hasn’t already told me?” Lord Beverly asked Violetta.
Violetta glanced across to Thomas as the three of them walked on, turning a corner and heading toward what he knew to be a less touristy part of the city. For a brief moment, she smiled, as though even the dire intensity of the situation they found themselves in couldn't dampen her tender feelings for him. That alone was enough to renew Thomas’s confidence and make him feel as though he might have a part on the proceedings after all.