Besides, Giles’s father, the Earl of Bancroft, was the very personage who had made Giles so harsh. If he saw through the act and a scandal erupted… Well, just the thought made Dennis shudder, despite it having nothing to do with him. But, Richard, as a coconspirator, would not be let off so easily if their plot came to light.
This is petrifying. The noblewoman who’s in on the scheme with him is in really deep water too.
According to Richard, she wasn’t infatuated with Giles’s good looks, and she had declared herself uninterested in romance—what in the world was she like? To agree to be a stranger’s fake lover, she would have to be quite desperate.
Finally, Dennis regained his wits. “Now, wait a minute. I take it this conversation is top secret?”
“Of course it is. The only ones in the know are me and the couple involved. And…” Richard pointed at Dennis. Realizing he had already become a coconspirator against his will, Dennis’s face tightened into an awkward smile.
“Oh, gee… Y-you never had any intention of letting me escape, did you!”
“Nope. I had faith that you wouldn’t betray my expectations, Dennis.”
His escape route smoothly blocked, Dennis cursed the heavens. He knew he shouldn’t have let his guard down.
The turmoil in Dennis’s heart contrasted sharply with the smooth ride of the carriage as they made their way to the Bancroft estate. It took only a glance at Richard with Dennis in tow for Giles to understand what the meeting was about.
“Dennis Green… Ah. That makes sense.”
“A-an honor to see you again, Lieutenant Commander!”
“I’m not your lieutenant commander anymore.”
“Yes, sir!” he barked reflexively, snapping his heels together and standing at attention. They were in Giles’s personal quarters, not at a military camp, and both of them were retired—the power of habit was a formidable thing indeed.
As Dennis squirmed uncomfortably and broke out in a cold sweat, Giles shot him a penetrating stare. “But I’m not sure he’s fit to be her bodyguard—”
“Whoa now, Gil,” Richard cut in cheerfully. “If we put a gruff military man in the gallery, he’d scare the customers away, wouldn’t he? Trust me, you want a bodyguard who doesn’t look the part.”
It was true: Dennis did not look like a military man, either in stature or in the face. Bodyguards were always boorish men, so if they wanted to use this stereotype to lull their enemy into a false sense of security, Dennis was a perfect fit. When it came to intimidating wrongdoers, however, he was lacking.
“Dennis has a keen eye, so he won’t overlook anyone suspicious. He’s perfect.”
“Uh, what exactly do you mean by suspicious?” Dennis whirled to look at Richard. When the subject of a bodyguard had been broached, Dennis assumed he was to ward off all the impassioned noblewomen who flung themselves at Giles.
“Oops, did I forget to tell you? Miss Clayburn stopped a con man from selling Lady Colet a counterfeit painting. The man in question seems none too pleased about that, and some of his buddies have been stalking her.”
“Yes, you did forget to tell me. That’s much more serious than you implied!”
“Well, that’s why she needs a bodyguard,” Richard said, sounding frustrated.
“Ah… Well. Fair point.”
To hire a bodyguard to watch her at her place of work, they must have really been worried about her. That she needed protection from con men as well as jealous noblewomen made the situation much more clear.
“So the only ones who will know about my bodyguard assignment are the gallery owner and her butler, Hans—correct? Neither she nor the other employees are to know about it. Additionally, only the three of us here know that the courtship is fake.”
“You got it,” Richard confirmed. “To Miss Clayburn, you’ll just be a new hire, not a bodyguard and definitely not somebody who’s in on the romance charade. If she ever does find out… Well, I don’t think I need to spell out for you what will happen, eh?”
“O-of course not, sir!” That smile on Richard’s face is giving me the creeps. I can just hear him saying that if I ruin this fun little game for him, he’ll end me!
What a mess. Dennis could only hope to get through his service without a hitch. He understood the situation all the way down to the counterfeit con, but it was a much bigger responsibility than he’d initially thought. Though the most daunting task was all the secrets he would have to keep. Dennis was not a blabbermouth, but he was not good at lying in the moment; backed into a corner and questioned, he could see himself blurting out everything.
“If you decline, we can arrange right away to send you to some other post,” Giles said ominously. “That’s right, I heard the fort in the west needed more scouts—”
“I gladly accept the bodyguard assignment, sir!”
With a satisfied glance Dennis’s way, Richard said, “Gil, you’ve informed the gallery owner, Roche, right?”
“Yes, I’m leaving all the work-related details to him.”
“All right, then. Dennis, I’ll loan you a carriage. Go straight to the gallery.”
“Right now? Isn’t this a bit—”
“Our enemy won’t sit back and wait for us.” Richard’s tone of voice was casual, but his words weighed heavily on Dennis. Sensing that this bodyguard business was not a mere precaution but rather a measure of protection from danger that was already afoot, Dennis braced himself for the task ahead.
“Yes, my apologies. I’ll head right out.”
“I’ll expect a status report every day after work hours; if it’s an emergency, contact me immediately.” Giles handed Dennis a letter of introduction and, receiving word from a servant that he had another visitor, left the room. Dennis and Richard watched him walk away, and Dennis let out a deep sigh.
“What’s wrong? Feeling upset?” Richard asked.
“Oh, uh, no. I planned to look for employment regardless. It’s just that things proceeded a lot faster than I anticipated, and I’ve never even set foot in a gallery. In a way, though, this assignment is actually a big help.”
To a man who’d lived his life outside of it, art was an industry he felt most ill-matched for. His duties would likely only involve protecting Fiona, but he was curious to get a peek into a whole new world, and he was grateful to have a job at all, besides.
But Dennis’s superficial answer did not satisfy Richard. Smiling, he pressed Dennis for more. “Good. Anything else?”
Dennis fell silent for a moment. Then, with great effort, he said, “Well…Lord Lowell seemed dissatisfied with me, like he believed I wasn’t up to the task. I just wonder if maybe there’s someone more capable you could have offered the job to.”
When Richard offered Dennis the bodyguard gig and during the briefing that followed, Giles’s emotionless face grew sterner and sterner. He looked grumpy, somehow. Though Giles had put on a polite mask and not said so explicitly, he seemed to feel that Dennis was not bodyguard material.
Richard burst out laughing. “Oh, no, no, no. It has nothing to do with you personally, Dennis. Gil would hate anybody who became her bodyguard.”
“Huh?”
“Well, you’ll see what I mean soon enough. Don’t worry about it.” He waved an airy hand, then stopped with his hand in front of his face and held up his index finger. “Don’t breathe a word of this to anyone else, you hear?”
“Yes. Of course I won’t…?”
For all the swearing to secrecy he had already done that day, Richard sure was dropping a lot of cryptic hints. Dennis could only cock his head, confused, at Richard’s knowing smile, and then he put the Bancroft mansion behind him.