“They were hard on Scovell because they didn’t know he was a marquess’s son. They only knew he was a naval officer, which made him seem far more the enemy. What they didn’t realize was he was the least likely of us to be bothered by their tactics. You should hear what those lads go through as midshipmen coming up through the ranks. It’s brutal.”
“So I’m told.” Beasley stared down at the engraving, unseeing. “Still, I will never stop being grateful that you and the other gentlemen didn’t tell them about me. If I, too, had been sent to Bitche, my family …” He choked up a bit. “It is much appreciated, my lord.”
“Nonsense. You would have done the same for us.”
Beasley met his gaze. “I like to think I would have.”
“You’re a good man, Beasley. We all know that.” He heard the sound of laughter and voices overhead. “Besides, none of us had family in Verdun to worry about the way that you did.” Except Morris. Perhaps that was why he’d dragged his feet over the escape. “So, we weren’t going to let all of you suffer.”
“All the same, it was kind of you.”
Heathbrook cleared his throat, uncomfortable with the praise. “Getting back to Vaughan Jones, why do you think he’s been asking about the French passports of Miss Bernard and her mother? Does he truly want to get forged passports of his own? And for what? Or is he just hoping for news of you that might enable him to renew his attentions to Sarah?”
“You mean, news that I’m dead?” Beasley said dryly. “Because that’s the only news that would allow her to marry him. Even then, he’d have to get past the objections of her mother first. And her own objections, I daresay.”
“All right. He might just be unsure where you ended up and be hoping to find that out from Miss Bernard.”
Beasley nodded, now looking a bit worried. “That’s possible, too.”
“My other supposition will make you think I’m daft, but perhaps he’s heard that we’re hunting for the man who turned us in. If he happens to be the one, perhaps he’s hoping to get to us through you. Get you to tell him how much we know of him, what our plans are for finding him, that sort of thing? Perhaps even try to blackmail you into … I don’t know … revealing our plans to trap him? Since he has guessed that you forged the Bernards’ papers? He had to have guessed. I don’t know how else he would know.”
Alarm reddened his face. “Good God, none of that occurred to me. But it’s just the sort of things Jones would do, that sneaky scoundrel.”
“I’m probably wrong,” Heathbrook said hastily, realizing that his suppositions might be entirely insane, and he might have alarmed Beasley for nothing. “I merely thought I’d see what your opinion was.”
“I’m glad you told me.” Beasley straightened his spine as if preparing to march off to war with Jones. “I shall keep an eye out, make sure he doesn’t go sniffing around Sarah, and her with a new beau, too.”
“You do that. And if he should happen to approach you—”
“You’ll be the first to know, my lord. Jones is no one to trifle with.”
“I’m beginning to get that impression.” And now the arse had Giselle in his sights. What if Jones had just been trying to get her toadmit that the papers were forged, so he could blackmail her into doing his bidding? If the man had been obsessive about Sarah, he could just as easily have become obsessive about Giselle.
Damn it, if the man was bent on gainingher …
As he felt his anger surging, he tamped it down viciously. He had to be wise about this. Giselle didn’t deserve to have her protector go off half-cocked when she was so vulnerable.
And that reminded him … “Beasley, if the Bernard ladies wished to acquire proper papers, could they do so? Might I be able to help them in such an endeavor? Do you know?” When Beasley frowned, Heathbrook added, “Not that I don’t think your work will pass muster. I’m sure it will. But Nash, I mean,Jones, has Giselle all worried about it.”
“Miss Bernard shouldn’t be worried—once she marries you, you’ll have to apply for new papers anyway, if only because her name will change.”
“Of course. Right.” What had he been thinking?
“Unless you are considering a long engagement.”
He seized on that. “And if we are?”
“Honestly, my lord, wouldn’t the very fact that she’s betrothed to you mean that she’s protected from being sent back to France?”
“I told her that, but she still worries. And being engaged or even married to me won’t take care of her mother’s situation.”
“Hmm. I don’t know. Madame Bernard would then be an earl’s mother-in-law or future mother-in-law. You shouldn’t have any trouble. Of course, if you did, all you’d have to do is say that her papers were lost or stolen. That way she’ll avoid having them scrutinized, and when the records don’t contain her information, it can merely be dismissed as one of the vagaries of our late war. If you accompany her to vouch for her, it ought to help.”
“I should hope so,” Heathbrook said dryly, though the idea of claiming that the papers were lost was unsettling, to say the least. He would have to learn more before they took such a drastic step. He pulled out his pocket watch. “Well, I don’t want to keep you. Your family will be wondering what has got you sequestered down here with me for so long.”
Beasley cast him a rueful smile. “They know I have secrets, sir. They just don’t care.”
As Heathbrook took his leave, he wondered if his own parents had kept secrets from their children. Because surely there was more to Father’s reason not to make his own heir guardian, especially after knowing of Mother’s death. And there was that moment as his father lay dying when he’d looked as if he were trying to say something important to Heathbrook.