Scandalous Desires (Maiden Lane #3)(67)

There was a growl and he was torn from her. Silence was hustled into the hall. She held Mary Darling close as Asa, Winter, Concord, and Lord Caire formed a phalanx about them and escorted her from Michael’s grand palace. They met no resistance, whether because Michael’s men were busy elsewhere or because he’d called them off, she didn’t know.

Abruptly a door opened and she was once again out in the chill night air. She glanced over her shoulder at the palace’s shabby outlines, and then she was helped gently but urgently into a waiting carriage.

The door slammed, a man called something, and the carriage jerked forward.

“Silence,” Temperance said, and Silence made out the dear face of her sister in the seat opposite.

For the second time in her life Silence burst into tears as her sister bore her away from Mickey O’Connor’s fortress.

Chapter Twelve

Clever John put on his armor and went to the top of his mountain and called, “Tamara!”

At once the rainbow bird swooped down from the clouds and circled his head before alighting and turning into the girl Tamara.

She clapped happily at the sight of Clever John. “How have you been, my friend?” she asked. “Do you like your kingdom? Have you swum the sparkling lake?”

But Clever John merely frowned to the west where his neighbor was even now marching toward his castle. “I wish for an invincible army.”

Tamara threw up her arms. “As you wish!”…

—from Clever John

“I have a traitor,” Mick said quietly just after midnight. He watched Harry to see how the other man would react to the news. He was almost certain that the traitor was not Harry, but then until the events of tonight he would’ve said that none of his men would betray him.

That was patently not true.

And what was more, he’d had to let Silence’s brothers bear her away because the palace wasn’t safe for her or the babe now. Conceding to anyone was not something Mick was used to doing. If any man had told him a month ago that he’d let four men walk out of the palace with something—someone—he considered his, Mick would’ve laughed in his face. But that was before Silence and the babe had come to be important to him. More important than even his self-esteem and his reputation. If that made him a weaker man, well, then so be it.

Harry’s ugly face creased as he frowned. He looked troubled at the announcement of a traitor, but tellingly, not surprised.

“Ye figure ’twas a traitor let in the Vicar’s men?” Harry asked.

Mick nodded and leaned back in his chair. They were in his planning room—the safest place in the palace for a discussion such as this. The room lay against one of the outer walls, with thick interior walls on either side. The passage outside was the only entry point and Mick’s desk lay across the room and out of earshot of anyone listening at the door.

He’d always been a suspicious man, just, it seemed, not suspicious enough.

“Did ye find out how the kitchen fire started?” Mick asked.

The big man scratched his head while regarding the ceiling critically. “ ’Twere a bit ’ard to figure out, truth be told. ’Ole place is a mess and Archie in a right fit about it. ’E said ’e’d gone to fetch some turnips and other victuals from the cellar and when ’e returned the kitchens were boiling with black smoke.”

“The chimney wasn’t stopped?”

Harry shook his head decisively. “Naw. ’Tis drawin’ well now. But me and Bert we found a pile o’ greasy rags—or what were left o’ them—by the back door. They might’ve been lit and left to smolder while the traitor took to ’is ’eels.”

Mick nodded. “Who gave the alarm for the fire?”

Harry screwed up his face, thinking for a moment. “Bran. Or maybe Archie.” He shrugged. “Everyone were shoutin’ at once.”

“And when did you realize we were under attack?”

“We ’eard a scream—must’ve been Fionnula. They came at us as we tried to get back to the baby’s rooms.” Harry shook his head. “The ’all were full o’ them, must’ve been near two dozen or more armed men. We was fightin’ them when ye came from the other way and we finally got to the rooms.” He shook his head sorrowfully. “They must’ve got to Fionnula almost at once. That vitriol doesn’t kill fast like but she was already still when I found ’er.”

Mick nodded. “The guards at the front door were hit from behind—attacked from inside the palace.”

Harry scowled. “ ’E’s a right bastard ’ooever ’e is. Lettin’ men in to kill a babe and a ’armless lass. If it weren’t for Fionnula’s quick thinkin’ Mary might be dead as well.”

“No, not dead,” Mick murmured absently. “The Vicar wanted her alive. She’d be a good hostage against me—she’s me daughter. And the fact that he knows that, means the traitor has been tellin’ him secrets for a bit. The Vicar knew about Mary, knew where she slept in me palace, and knew that I was away tonight. Come to think o’ it, a traitor might be how the Vicar found out that she was hid at the orphanage in the first place.”

Mick steepled his hands before him and stared at the rings sparkling on his fingers while he thought it out. The traitor’s identity was obvious. He felt a small twinge of what might have been grief, but Mick ruthlessly shoved the useless emotion aside. The man had put both Silence and Mary Darling in danger. The only decision to be made was what to do about it. He could expose the traitor, have him killed as a warning to his other men. Or he could let the traitor think he was undiscovered and use the man against the Vicar.