Unlikely Traitors by Clare Langley-Hawthorne Read Free Book Online Page B

favorably upon me. It may appeal to their readers’ nobler instincts.”
    “I doubt the readers of the Daily Mail have much in the way of noble instincts,” Lord Wrotham retorted.
    “That may be, but I cannot simply let you rot in here without trying to help.”
    “There’s nothing you can do, Ursula, so please don’t interfere.”
    Ursula rolled her eyes. Were they going to argue about this once again? Surely he knew her better than that by now.
    “Can they hear us in here?” Ursula asked, ignoring his reply. She tilted her head enquiringly towards the prison guard who was waiting outside.
    “No,” Lord Wrotham looked around him. “I don’t believe so.”
    “Then I need to tell you that there’s a chap from the War Office, Sir Reginald Buckley, who appears to be heading up the investigation. I met him yesterday—the police were turning the library at Bromley Hall inside out. Buckley thinks he’s going to stumble upon the key to unlocking some kind of book code.”
    Lord Wrotham eyes glinted for a moment. “Go on…” he said.
    “As I said, he’s turning the library upside down. Chief Inspector Harrison was present at the time but, apart from a little run down on your activities with Admiral Smythe of Naval Intelligence, he didn’t give me much to go on.” Ursula paused but Lord Wrotham said nothing. “Pemberton tells me that Count Frederich von Bernstorff-Hollweg is one of the Crown witnesses against you.”
    “Yes,” he replied, his face impassive. “The Count is my second cousin.”
    “So I hear, and from your mother of all people,” Ursula replied. “It’s amazing what I’m finding out about you. Who knew you were friends with the likes of Friedrich von Bernstorff-Hollweg and Fergus McTiernay?…I certainly did not.”
    Lord Wrotham watched her closely but she was not about to give him the satisfaction of an outburst. For his part, it was clear, he was not about to give her the satisfaction of an explanation either.
    “I received word this morning that Harrison and Sir Buckley want to interview me about your alleged activities,” Ursula finally said, after the silence between them became too painful to bear.
    “They must be desperate if they think you know anything,” Lord Wrotham responded.
    “Thank you very much,” Ursula replied drily. “Though as it happens I don’t really know anything do I?”
    Lord Wrotham visibly flinched and she was pleased that her retort had finally hit home. She was startled by the extent of her anger that he had never confided the truth in her. Only now did she realize, as the bitterness rose acrid inside her, how humiliated she really felt.
    “I cannot help you unless you tell me what this is all about,” she said.
    “I’ve already told you I cannot.”
    Ursula reached out her hand and clasped his. “I know, because of some obligation of secrecy. But surely in the circumstances?” Ursula paused, but her plea, however, went unheeded. Lord Wrotham remained silent. “I won’t let it stop me,” she said. “You may as well accept that.”
    He looked away for a moment, but his hand remained in hers.
    “Has the notice of our cancelled engagement gone in?” he asked, gruffly, eyes downcast.
    “Yes,” Ursula replied, clearing her throat. “It’s in The Times today. Mrs. Pomfrey-Smith placed the notice for me. I haven’t yet had the courage to read it.”
    His hand gripped hers.
    “Are they treating you fairly?” Ursula asked in little more than a whisper. She no longer trusted herself to rein in her emotions.
    “Yes, I suppose they are,” Lord Wrotham replied and, if his appearance lacked his usually fastidious formality, his voice did not. “Pemberton is seeking to allow me to have a change of clothes and the possibility that I might bathe and shave.”
    There was a knock at the door signaling that their time together was at an end.
    “Can I kiss you?” she asked.
    The door opened and the prison warden walked in.
    “Best not,” he