Broken Promises Read online

  He nodded and swallowed but, surprisingly enough, he didn’t back down and he didn’t look cowed. “The name is Peabody. Colonel, sir. I oversee the Hercules Project, under General Black’s directive.” He paused. “In fact, I answer only to General Black. Sir.”

  Black chuckled, but Jasper ignored him. “Christ,” he muttered. “The Hercules Project. You couldn’t come up with a better name?”

  “Just what does it mean?” Callie interrupted.

  Peabody turned to Callie again. “It means that I’m the one who assessed your case and approved the surgery which provided you with your enhancements.”

  Callie stilled, both hands clenched at her sides.

  Peabody didn’t seem to notice, as he continued blithely, “And I shall be the one who revokes them if it is ultimately determined that such enhancements are not being utilized for the best interests of the War Office.”

  Revoke?

  “The hell you say.” Jasper was halfway across the room with every intention of throttling the little pissant. To hell with holding back. To hell with listening and learning. The bastard just threatened to—

  “Jasper.” Callie had his arm in a tight grip. He stopped and took a deep breath, placing his hand over hers before gently prying her loose.

  “Mr. Peabody—”

  He pointed one finger upward and pursed his lips. “Actually, it’s Lieutenant Peabody, my lady.”

  Her face took on a softer, beguiling expression as she waved her hand and returned to her seat. She sat back down, regal as a queen even in her breeches, boots, white lawn shirt and vest.

  The tension in his shoulders wasn’t going anywhere, but he found himself suddenly biting back a grin. For the first time in many months he wasn’t just seeing Callie, his lovely wife. He was seeing Calliandra, the world-famous ballerina. The woman whose skill, beauty and fame had sent better men than this one to their knees, begging at her feet for a scrap of attention.

  “Yes, yes, Lieutenant Peabody, forgive me. But please, tell us once and for all what all of this is about.” Her voice was lyrical and inviting. Was it just him, or did it sound as if her throat was healing?

  Peabody sat back down in the seat across from her, looking entranced. “My deepest and most sincere apologies, Lady Carlisle. Of course.”

  Jasper glanced over the heads of Callie and the Lieutenant to General Black. He raised an eyebrow, as if to say Callie didn’t faze him one bit. Jasper wanted to laugh. She hadn’t even started trying yet.

  “As I was saying, my lady.” Peabody cleared his throat once more. “We require your assistance in Manchester to locate and contain one of our former agents.”

  “Who is it? What has this agent done?”

  “Captain Jamie Dunsmoor attacked his commanding officer and abandoned his mission. He was caught and contained for evaluation—at which time he attempted to kill Dr. Helmholtz. When General Black intercepted him, he disappeared and hasn’t been seen since. We relocated the doctor’s laboratory to a safe and secret location, but it’s our belief that Dunsmoor will try to get to him again. He’s a deserter and must be brought in.”

  “Dunsmoor?” Jasper was genuinely surprised. “I served with him under Colonel Wyndham years ago. He was a friend. There’s no way he would have—” Jasper thought back to Christmas, to the blaze that had consumed the clinic. The man who’d set that fire and tried to kill them was someone Jasper had also considered a friend. He’d trusted Murphy and never would have thought the worst of him either, but Murphy ultimately betrayed that trust for something so low as money and promises of power.

  “He did, sir. Several eyewitnesses can confirm this.”

  “But why?” Callie asked. “He must have some reason for doing something like that.”

  “Lady Carlisle, this is not a ton social event. I don’t care if he has a reason.” General Black sneered. “He’s a soldier who disobeyed and attacked his commanding officer, then fled his post and continues to evade sentencing. He is considered to be very dangerous.”

  Callie narrowed her gaze at General Black without flinching or showing any fear at all. Jasper couldn’t have been prouder of her, although it didn’t change the fact that he wouldn’t ever leave her alone with the dangerous man, even if his very life depended on it.

  “As you say, sir. This is indeed the furthest thing from a social event, so it should be within your realm of expertise, shouldn’t it? I fail to understand why you can’t find this man yourself. Is he very clever and intelligent, then? You are saying that you require the assistance of two members of the ton to find your deserter, are you not?”

  The general laughed. “Touché, my lady. But you are mistaken. I don’t need your assistance. I demand it because I can. Have I sufficiently clarified the situation for you? Do you understand now?”

  Nothing could have kept Jasper from crossing the room again. He had the general against the wall, with his hands fisted in the collar of his black jacket, and growled into his smug face. “You come into my house, insult us with your prejudices, and speak to my wife with disrespect. Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right here?”

  “Lord Carlisle!”

  Jasper only smiled at Peabody’s scandalized shout. “And the puny pissant you rode in on.”

  “I’ve put up with a lot from you, Carlisle,” Black spat. “Mostly because, for a noble, you’re better than the rest. I respect you. To a point. But don’t forget that I’m still your superior officer.” He shoved at Jasper. “So now you’re going to get your damn hands off me, and we’ll all sit back down and discuss the situation like professionals.”

  “First, you’re going to apologize to my wife.”

  “Jasper, it’s all right. I was baiting him as much as he baited me.” Callie approached and stood directly behind him. “In fact, we’ve all acted horribly this afternoon.”

  “No, it isn’t all right.” He narrowed his gaze. “Is it, General?”

  “He’s right, madam. My apologies.” Black didn’t look over his shoulder at Callie when he apologized. He continued to stare right at Jasper and didn’t seem at all repentant. In fact, he looked entertained, as if he’d just proved a private point.

  Callie sighed. “Thank you, General. Now please, let’s leave the schoolyard theatrics out of my drawing room and continue to the root of this matter.”

  Jasper didn’t want to let it go, but he reluctantly dropped Black’s lapels and retreated. The man shrugged his clothes back into place and adjusted his collar. Callie returned to the sofa.

  Peabody glanced at the general, who nodded. “Go ahead and tell them the rest of it.”

  The thin man handed them the file he’d been holding. Jasper opened it and glanced at the grainy photograph clipped to the top of a slim sheaf of papers. Then he shoved it under his arms to go over in more detail later. For now, he wanted to hear the story right from the horse’s mouth.

  “Early last year, Captain Dunsmoor was injured in the line of duty. He was very near death. Under the care of Dr. Helmholtz, he received enhancements similar to your own, my lady. In his case, however, he required a complete heart transplant and received significant facial reconstruction and skin grafting. In fact, the procedure was so extensive he would be…difficult to recognize now.”

  “I hadn’t heard about this,” Jasper interrupted. “What happened to him?”

  “I’m not at liberty to divulge that information at present.”

  Black interrupted. “It has no bearing on the mission you’re being asked to complete.”

  “Fine.” Jasper put his hand on Callie’s shoulder. She didn’t look back at him, but she reached up and squeezed his fingers tight. “What does his surgery have to do with the charges he’s accused of committing?”

  The general stepped forward. “I’m told that in the days leading up to the attack, Captain Dunsmoor exhibited increasingly uncharacteristic behavior and became embroiled in two violent interactions with fellow agents. He then endangered himself and others by acting count
er to direct orders during a delicate mission.”

  “That doesn’t automatically make him dangerous to others.” Callie’s voice was clipped. “Nor does it seem to have anything to do with his implants.”

  “On the contrary, Lady Carlisle. Dr. Helmholtz believes the captain may be exhibiting symptoms of degeneration, and that this is affecting his implants as well as his cognitive function.”

  * * *

  “Degeneration?”

  The word hung in the room between the four of them like a deadly wisp of poisoned gas. She didn’t dare breathe, lest she ingest it and be forced to face the question it contained.

  “I wasn’t aware this was even a possibility.” Jasper sounded so angry. She barely kept from wincing at the bite in his tone, but there was no hiding the sudden chill that moved through her.

  Her gloved hand rested on her lap. She glanced down and it twitched very slightly.

  Startled, she blinked and stared. She couldn’t feel the movement at all, and after a long moment it just stopped. She tucked both hands under her legs.

  “The doctor believes that the nanites might be—”

  “Nanites?”

  “The microscopial organisms running through the captain’s blood—and through yours, Lady Carlisle. Dr. Helmholtz believes they may be malfunctioning and causing damage to their host.” The man’s lips pinched together and his gaze flickered down at her now empty lap.

  “What kind of damage?” A heavy, twisted ball of uncertainty settled in the pit of her stomach.

  “I’m not authorized—I can’t speculate… The doctor has indicated the effects could become quite alarming, indeed.”

  “Specifics, man.” Jasper’s hand was still braced on her shoulder. She knew he meant it to be a gesture of solidarity and support, but he probably didn’t realize just how tight his grip had become. “What are these nanites doing to the people they have infected?”

  Infected.

  Her heart lurched. He made it sound as if she were diseased. Perhaps she might even need to be put down, like they’d done to his stallion three summers ago when it had suffered from botulism.

  “That’s what we would like you to help us determine by retrieving Captain Dunsmoor and holding him until he can be examined.” Peabody looked closely at her, and she understood now the reason for his intense scrutiny. He was trying to see if she were also showing signs of this degeneration. “You are to bring him to the doctor so his status can be evaluated.”

  She stifled a shiver. “What will happen to him then?” She looked to the general for her answer, knowing he wouldn’t care enough about her feelings to sugarcoat his response. “Will the doctor be able to repair the damage to his implants and the nanites?”

  She wasn’t asking about Captain Dunsmoor any longer, and from the way Jasper and General Black were looking at her, they both knew it. She held her breath.

  “We have every confidence that he will be able to, yes.”

  Well, there it was.

  It seemed even the famously callous General Black couldn’t always be counted on to tell the truth.

  Chapter Four

  The airship hovered high above their heads. It was framed by thin, lightweight straps of steel under which a massive patchwork cloth bag was ballooned to size, holding the gas that kept it afloat. The ship would be steered by way of the rudders and stabilizers located at the back of the vessel. A tiny wood-framed cockpit that looked as though it might hold four or five persons protruded beneath the balloonish structure like a saddle strapped to the underside of a horse.

  The carriage stopped. Callie took Jasper’s hand and exited, then proceeded forward while he said a few words to their driver and grabbed their single, shared bag.

  An officer was already waiting for them on the ground beneath the hovering ship. His blond hair flipped up from his forehead with the breeze. She felt a stirring of discomfort as he gazed overly long on her mechanical eye. That wasn’t unusual in and of itself. She’d become used to being stared at, especially since she found it uncomfortable to wear a patch or a veil and only did so when in public.

  When people noticed, it was obvious they were embarrassed by their own morbid curiosity. Surreptitious glances lingered almost guiltily, then shifted away before being drawn back again, because they couldn’t help but try for another look—maybe to determine whether she could actually see through the eye. But as the silence lengthened—as it always did—they’d realize she knew they were staring and glance around for something else to focus on. It was the reason Jasper had started restricting visitors to their home, and why she almost always wore gloves and boots out in public.

  But this particular study was somehow different than what she was subjected to by the curiosity seekers, perhaps because it made her think of Lieutenant Peabody’s stare the afternoon before. A stare that looked for faults and defects.

  The officer’s gaze was very direct and when he finally moved on from her eye, it was only so he could look slowly and purposefully down the length of her body. In fact, his gaze was so direct, he was lucky Jasper hadn’t caught him doing it. Yet.

  He stopped with a distinct pause on her hand and then her legs in turn, even though she wore black leather gloves and what had become her trademark high, heavy boots. Did this stranger also know about her enhancements? Were the exact details of her condition to be passed on to every agent of the War Office delegated to this mission as need-to-know information?

  Jasper stepped up to Callie’s side with a raised brow and a scowl. “Is there a problem, Lieutenant?”

  The officer’s attention snapped away from her. “No, Colonel.” He shook his head and dropped his eyes until Callie could barely see his face.

  “Then why don’t you give us a few moments of privacy.”

  “Of course, CC. Sir.” He gave Jasper a sharp salute, but his mouth twisted up in an odd sort of grin before he turned to walk a few feet away, ostensibly to check on the rope tethered to the ground that kept the airship from floating away before they boarded.

  Jasper’s studied look followed him for a long moment, then he shook his head and turned back to her.

  “Are you sure about this?” he asked her gently.

  A slight breeze ruffled her hair as she looked up.

  Way up.

  The rope did little to ease her misgivings. It wasn’t the durability or viability of the dirigible that worried her. She’d ridden in one of the contraptions before. No, it was the precarious, dangling rope ladder that was their only way of getting up to it that put the bitter taste of fear in her mouth.

  “Why couldn’t it simply dock at a boarding tower at the airstrip, so we could embark in a civilized fashion?” she muttered.

  “Because Black wants no record of this voyage to be entered at the airstrip. Our target could be monitoring such information.”

  Of course. As a trained, experienced officer gone rogue, Captain Dunsmoor would be aware of such procedures and would know what to expect of the agents the War Office sent after him. “And then he would be long gone before we made it halfway to Manchester.”

  Even though Jasper apparently knew the man they were after, Callie had not heard of him before the debriefing yesterday evening, which wasn’t surprising. She’d never encouraged her husband to speak about his experiences on those occasions when his work took him away from her…right up until the day his work came home with him and almost destroyed their lives.

  After the devastation and pain of last autumn and winter, they had promised each other many things. Forgiveness. Trust. That they would be true partners. Unlike so many couples of the ton who shared only a surface level of fondness, they’d always been more than just man and wife, but these new promises went deeper even than love.

  And yet, yesterday evening when the general had gone, there’d been a distinct and uncomfortable silence between them after their frenzied lovemaking. As Jasper had lain beside her, they hadn’t shared their fears with one another, or spoken of plans for
the future. She was certain he’d been thinking the same thing that had been on her mind, that she and this rogue agent had much in common.

  Both of them were former patients of Dr. Helmholtz.

  Both of them had received unnatural physical implants and now likely carried defective technology in their blood.

  Both of them had begun to show signs of degeneration.

  Thankfully, Jasper hadn’t yet noticed, but she’d caught her hand spasming on three more occasions throughout the evening. Was it only a matter of time now before she too would be considered a liability? Who would they send after her?

  Jasper squeezed her gloved hand. “We can still take the train, if you would prefer.”

  The general had made a point of instructing them not to waste any time. When he said that an airship had been dispatched and would be waiting in the field neighboring their estate this morning to take them to Manchester, Callie hadn’t thought about the mechanics of boarding the vessel. Looking at the rope ladder, it suddenly seemed like a complication she should have taken the time to consider, instead of worrying about things she had little knowledge of and less control over.

  She glanced away from the narrow wooden rungs swaying in front of her and was calmed by the patient confidence in Jasper’s deep blue eyes. “I suppose it will be much faster to travel this way,” she said, resigned.

  “An extra day can’t make that much difference, Callie.” The lines at the corners of his eyes stretched taut, as did the pained grooves in his forehead.

  “No. I can do this.” At least her husband wasn’t going to use this complication as another excuse to try and force her to remain behind. She looked up the length of the ladder once more and counted silently. Only thirty rungs.

  He moved around to the other side of it, reaching out to hold the ropes steady with his gloved hands as he looked between the crossbars, into her eyes. “Then up you go. It will be fine, but don’t forget that I’ll be right here to catch you if you fall.”