“I should like to be on the stage one day,” Lady Maude said with a dreamy sigh, gazing at the stage as though it were the entrance to heaven.
“You’d make a lovely actress, dear,” Lady Evangeline said. “Perhaps Thomas’s new friend here could teach you a thing or two about treading the boards.”
“I’d be happy to share what I know about the acting profession,” Violetta said with pretend enthusiasm.
As far as most of the McGoverns knew, she was nothing more than a friend that Lord Landry had picked up since arriving in Rome. She was under no illusion about what kind of friend the McGovern ladies likely thought she was. Actresses had always had a reputation for being loose women as far back as history traced them. Violetta didn’t care what Thomas’s family thought, though. They weren’t wrong, for one, even if there hadn’t been time for her and Thomas to slip away for a repeat performance of their evening of passion. More importantly, if they considered her nothing more than a bit of skirt Thomas had taken a fancy to, perhaps they wouldn’t pry too deeply into who and what she really was.
“I see you and Miss Roan are becoming better acquainted,” Thomas himself said, striding up to join the group. He stopped by Violetta’s side, standing indecently close to her and grinning at her with a smile that left no question how they felt about each other.
“Yes, Miss Roan is quite a delight,” Lady Evangeline said with a wry smile for her brother. “Papa would be furious, of course.”
Thomas’s smile evaporated, replaced by a frown that was both sullen and sad. “Papa never thought much about me in life, so I doubt he’ll care what I do now that he’s gone to meet his great reward.”
Evangeline hummed as though Thomas had made a good point. Their sister, Lady Roselyn Briarwood, who had stood silently to one side, pale and far more anxious than the stories Thomas had told her in the last few days would have led Violetta to believe she was, burst into tears.
Thomas immediately stepped away from Violetta to slide an arm around his sister’s shoulders. “What’s wrong, Roz? This isn’t like you at all.”
“Papa is dead,” Lady Briarwood sniffed into the handkerchief she pulled out of her sleeve. “Poor Nathan is dead as well. I can’t bear to think that Asher might be…might be….” She buried her face in her handkerchief, unable to go on.
Thomas exchanged a look with Violetta. Even Evangeline and Maude looked sympathetic. They might have been ignorant of most of what was going on, but they clearly knew their brother’s life was in danger.
“Ash will be fine, Roz,” Thomas murmured to his sister. “Lord Beverly has assured me of as much.”
“If you will excuse me.” Violetta smiled softly at Lady Briarwood, glanced knowingly to Thomas, then turned to make her way around the edge of the stage to the dressing room tent. She had a show to perform, after all, but more than that, she knew if she stayed she wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face and conceal her role in the debacle of the day before.
It had been torture keeping everything a secret from Thomas leading up to the attempt to rescue Lord Addlebury. Of course, she’d known what Lord Beverly had planned for the rescue attempt before the man arrived in Rome. He’d been sending her messages for days, and she’d passed those messages along and organized the men who would be on hand for the attempted extraction. They’d had the address Akila had given to the McGoverns in Venice surrounded almost from the instant Akila had revealed it, but just as she’d suspected, Asher had only arrived at the house minutes before them.
The failed rescue attempt and resulting melee had been the single most frustrating moment of Violetta’s career as a spy. At the same time, she recognized that it couldn’t have been helped. The Jackal and his men were clever, and there was always a risk when dealing with clever people. In fact, the risk was so great that she questioned the wisdom of Lord Beverly’s order that she continue on as usual, performing that afternoon as though nothing were out of the ordinary and as if her identity hadn’t been discovered. As far as she was concerned, she was a prime target for The Jackal now, and getting up on stage that afternoon was potentially disastrous. But Lord Beverly was her superior, and he’d ordered her to soldier on.
“Violetta, Violetta, whatever are we to do?” Maria rushed toward her the moment Violetta ducked into the backstage tent.
For a moment, Violetta was worried that Maria had seen her thoughts and knew her life was in danger. She put on her cheeriest actress expression and grasped Maria’s hands in comfort when she came close.
“What are we to do about what?” she asked.
Maria was sweet and kind, but she wasn’t built for anything more complicated than the drama in a script. “Antonio isn’t here,” she said as though it were the end of the world. “The show is supposed to start any moment now, and we’re missing our Arlecchino.”
Violetta frowned. Of all the times for the boob to go missing, probably in a fit of pique because she’d chosen Thomas over him. “Has someone gone to his home to fetch him?” she asked, marching deeper into the tent to the station where Antonio usually applied his make-up.
“He wasn’t there,” one of the troupe’s younger actors told her.
Violetta sighed in exasperation. “What could the man be thinking?” She shook her head. “We’ll have to cancel today’s performance.”
The others weren’t happy about it, but sometimes the show couldn’t go on.
Violetta gave Maria’s hands a reassuring squeeze before leaving the tent to find Thomas and let him know he’d have to keep his sisters and cousins entertained in some other way that afternoon. She wasn’t at all surprised to find Thomas speaking to Lord Beverly by the side of the tent.
“Today’s performance has been canceled,” she told both of them, joining their conversation.
“Good,” Thomas said, letting out a heavy breath of relief.
Lord Beverly wasn’t half as delighted. “You have to perform today,” he said with a dark frown. “It’s imperative.”
Dread filled Violetta’s stomach. There was more going on than she knew about. “We’re missing one of our star performers,” she explained, a knot forming in her gut.
“Which one? Can’t someone else in the troupe play the role?” Lord Beverly asked.
Violetta shook her head. “We’re missing Antonio, the man who plays Arlecchino opposite my Columbina. No one else in the troupe is trained in the role, and even if they were, I don’t think they would want to step into it without rehearsal.” She paused before admitting, “Everyone is tense today. They know something is wrong.”
Lord Beverly rested his weight on one hip and stroked his chin in thought for a moment. “This performance absolutely has to go on,” he said as if thinking aloud. “Too much depends on it.”
Violetta pressed a hand to her stomach. She was being set up as bait without a doubt. It came as a shock that Lord Beverly would be so quick to put her in danger for his own ends, but then again, part of the understanding she’d agreed to when going to work for Her Majesty was that her individual life was not worth as much as the good of the Empire.