We will discuss this at length when my guests have departed. You will be more honest before morning, I think.” “Almost.” He slowly scratched a line upon her cheek with his thumbnail, following a tear. She squeezed her lids and let tears slide in cold tracks down her cheeks. It was a most useful skill and one she had practiced assiduously. Do you think I’m such a fool I’ve stopped being afraid of you?” She let tears brim into her eyes. “You swear? Little Cub, I have watched you lie and lie with that angel face since you were a child. Cursing Vauban, who was far away and safe. If I had the Albion plans, I would lay them at your feet to buy it back.” Never.” She tried to swallow, but her throat was too dry. Her voice had gone hoarse a long time ago. I have told you and told you.” The fingers on her chin tightened. I was a pair of eyes watching the British. With such a useful stone wall to hold on to, she would not fall down. She dug her fingers into the wall and held on. “Why would he give me plans? I am not a valise to go carrying papers about the countryside.” She had held the many pages in her hands, the dog-eared edges, maps covered with smudges and fingerprints, the lists in small, neat writing. I never saw them.” Even as she said it, the Albion plans were clear in her mind. “They are a mad dream, these Albion plans. “You will tell me where you have hidden the plans, Annique.” “Just so.” He touched her cheek where he had hit her and turned her toward him. Then she was back again, in the dark and in pain, with Leblanc. For one instant she slipped over the edge of consciousness.

The openhanded slap whipped out of the darkness. She slumped against the wall, which was of cut stone and immensely solid, as prison walls often are. SHE WAS WILLING TO DIE, OF COURSE, BUT SHE had not planned to do it so soon, or in such a prolonged and uncomfortable fashion, or at the hands of her own countrymen. Dyer, Karen Watson, Karl Hagen, Kim Laird, Kris Reekie, Linda Grimes, Margaret Campbell, Mark Mussari, Marsha Skrypuch, Martin McArthur, Pamela Patchet, Steve Lopata, Susan Adrian Barth, Varda Amir-Orrel, Vicki Pettersson, and many others. I thank Allene Edwards, Barbara Rogan, Beth Shope, Betty Babas, Carol Krenz, Cat Dubie, Darlene Marshall, Diana Gabaldon, Donna Rubino, Janet McConnaughey, John S. I want to express my profound appreciation for the fellowship and support I have found at the CompuServe Books and Writers Forum.

You have been endlessly patient and encouraging. Thanks also to my crit partners, Mary Ann Clark and Sofie Couch. Their resource materials have been enormously helpful. I’m grateful to the Beau Monde Chapter of the RWA for their tireless effort in promoting historical accuracy in Regency-period books. I want to thank my literary agent, Pam Hopkins, and my editor, Wendy McCurdy, for their faith in Annique’s story. (The first book in the Spymaster's Lady series)

The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne