Chapter Twenty-Six

This was the second time I'd been forced to open a safe in an evening gown in the presence of Major Ramsey, and, despite how glamorous I had felt earlier in the evening, I didn't think it was entirely fair that I was drafted into service while wearing uncomfortable clothes.

Jakub dropped us off down the street, and we made our way toward the building, as casually as we could with a grappling hook and rope ladder tucked beneath the major's arm.

It seemed the nightclub was a popular spot, even in wartime, for there were several couples making their way down the blacked-out streets toward the entrance, and I could hear the sound of music from within.

Just before we reached the building, the major's arm on my back guided me to the shadows at the side of the building and around toward the back garden. Everything was dark, of course. Even the nightclub had blackout curtains, but there was a quarter moon, and it was enough to see by.

Cautiously, we made our way into the back garden, where we stood still for several moments, listening. It seemed whatever entertainments the club offered happened inside the building, as the garden was entirely dark and quiet.

The major motioned for me to follow, and we moved to the spot where we could see the iron railing of the balcony two stories up. Taking the grappling hook in his hand, the major swung it upward. It hit the railing with a little clatter and then dropped back to the ground.

He swore beneath his breath.

He took it in his hand again, visually gauging the distance and angle he needed. He would not have admitted it, but I suspected just throwing the hook was painful. There was no way I was letting him climb the rope.

The second throw was good, and there was again a clatter and then a scrape as the hook caught the balustrade. Ramsey gave a little tug, and it held firm.

Before he could attempt the climb, I stepped in front of him and grasped the rope. "Give me the ladder," I whispered.

"Electra, I don't think…"

"We don't have time to argue," I said. "I'm climbing it. But if I ruin this dress, you must buy Noelle a new one. I can't afford it."

With that, I removed the fur coat and set it carefully on the ground. The sleeveless, backless satin dress was no match for winter weather, let me tell you. It felt for a moment as though I'd jumped into ice water. But I could tune almost anything out when I was focused.

Ramsey reluctantly handed me the little rope ladder, but I found that it was too wide to easily drape over my shoulder.

"I'll go up," he said, attempting to take the ladder back from me. I held firm.

"Nonsense." I considered for a moment, and then I realized what would work. I rested it in the skirt of the gown at one side and tied up the hem to create a little sack. Now my legs were free to climb, and the ladder was secure. It wasn't heavy, just unwieldy, and this had been the perfect solution.

"Won't be a moment," I whispered. Then I grasped the rope and began to climb. It was much easier with my legs free. The going was not quite as effortless as it had been when I was a child, but I managed the first floor easily enough.

Major Ramsey watched my progress for a moment, but, the next time I glanced down, he had averted his gaze. I thought at first he was just keeping guard but then realized I had probably been flashing him my drawers.

I pushed aside any embarrassment I might have felt. Modesty was of secondary importance on a mission, and it was dark anyway.

Besides, I was confident they were not the first pair of knickers he had ever seen.

I reached the balcony and carefully pulled myself over the railing. Untying the sack I had made of the dress, I quickly secured the rope ladder so Major Ramsey could climb it. He did it so quickly, it felt as though I'd barely had time to drop the ladder to the ground before he was beside me on the balcony.

He pulled it up behind us and then gave me a little nod to proceed. Moving to the French doors of the office, I pressed my ear against the cold glass. Naturally, the blackout curtains were drawn, so we would have to trust that Aristide had been able to make enough of a distraction that no one was in the office.

I listened for several moments and heard nothing. It was entirely possible, of course, that someone was working quietly in the office, and we would be caught as soon as we came in.

That was a risk we were just going to have to take.

I pulled a pick out from where I had secreted it in the bodice of my dress along with the map and moved to the door. It took only a few seconds for the lock to give. Locks on second-floor balcony doors were generally not intended to withstand much resistance.

Slowly, the major pushed the door open a crack. There was a small alcove behind the curtains due to built-in shelves on either side of the French doors, and he stepped into it and pushed one of the curtains aside ever so slightly. The room was dark. The coast was clear.

He motioned for me to enter, and I hurried inside, glad to be out of the freezing wind.

I moved directly to the safe in the wall. A quick inspection told me it wasn't one of the more complicated varieties. It was, in fact, an easier model than I had anticipated. We might even get out of here ahead of schedule.

I put my hand to the dial and began turning it, ready to go to work. The major stood quietly a little ways away while I worked, moving the dial to feel for the internal contact points. I found one and then two.

Suddenly, there was a sound at the door. We both stopped and looked at each other. Surely no one was coming in. Aristide was meant to be downstairs causing a distraction.

I looked over toward the French doors. Ramsey had closed them behind us, so they wouldn't cause alarm in themselves, but I didn't think there would be time enough for us to get out of them before the door opened.

Ramsey jerked his head toward the balcony, and I hurried in that direction with him hot on my heels.

His hand on my elbow, he hustled me into the little space between the curtains and the French doors just as the office door opened. There was no time to get out onto the balcony, so we both froze. My back was pressed against the cold panes of glass with the very warm major pressed against the front of me.

He likely couldn't move without jostling the curtains, so we stood still.

I tried not to think about how close we were, tried not to notice the way I could feel the rise and fall of his chest against me.

Instead, I forced myself to focus on the sound of movement inside the room. Someone was moving around, though it seemed to be only one person as there was no conversation. He was also whistling to himself, which seemed to indicate that there was no cause for alarm.

"Ah," a voice said after a moment, as though he had found what he was looking for. The footsteps retreated. Then the door inside the office closed and there was silence.

I let out a breath.

But I had not yet begun to breathe easy because Major Ramsey hadn't moved. He was still standing so close I could feel the press of each of his jacket buttons through the satin of my bodice.

I looked up at him.

He looked down at me.

"They're gone?" I mouthed.

He nodded. But he still didn't move.

The attraction was electric, zinging through me. I felt drawn to him, like there was a magnet preventing us from moving apart. I clenched my hands at my sides to keep from putting them around his neck. He'd made it very clear how he felt about a romance between us; if he wanted a step in that direction, he was going to have to take it himself.

He let out a slow breath that caused a loose curl to dance against my neck. He reached up to touch it, his fingers warm against my chilled skin. My breath caught in my throat. Our eyes met.

Then he blinked, and he stepped back. I was left with only the cold glass for comfort.

"All clear," he said.

I followed him from behind the curtains, feeling that my head was not at all clear. But I understood as well as he did that the job needed to be done, and we didn't have time for distractions.

We went back into the room, and I marshaled my focus and moved quickly toward the safe as the major moved back toward the office door. He leaned close, listening, and gave me a quick nod.

I went back to work, thinking only of the numbers and the feel of the dial beneath my fingers. Major Ramsey stayed very still and very quiet, and I blocked him from my mind. I didn't have the luxury of addressing those emotions now.

After perhaps half an hour, I had the combination, and the safe lock gave a click as it released.

Ramsey moved to my side as I pulled the door open. He reached inside, sifting quickly through the papers as I drew the map as unobtrusively as I could from my neckline.

"Here," he said, after a moment, unfolding a map. "This is it."

I unfolded the map that Felix and Archie Blandings had drawn up and compared them. It was good work. It wasn't a map of the same area, as the goal had been to give them bad information. But I doubted anyone who had given the map a cursory glance would notice they had been switched.

I quickly folded the map back up and put it inside the safe, the major layering the other documents inside over it in the order in which he had found them.

Then we closed the door, and I spun the dial.

"Good work," he said. "Now let's go."

We hurried back out onto the balcony, and Major Ramsey helped me climb over the rail. My dress rode up my legs as I went over, once again giving him a bit more of a view than I'd intended, and I didn't dare look at him as I began my descent.

Once I reached the ground, he unfastened the ladder and dropped it, then looped the rope around one of the rails so he could lower himself down.

He dropped to the ground beside me. I was always amazed at how soundless he could be for a man his size.

He pulled the rope down after him and quickly looped it so he could carry it conveniently. With a glance around to be sure the coast was clear, he nodded.

I grabbed up Noelle's fur coat from the ground, not taking the time to pull it on until we were safe, and we hurried away.

There was a small garden down the street that was suitably secluded, and we stopped for a moment to catch our breath. The major consulted the luminous dial of his watch. "We have a quarter of an hour before we rendezvous with Dupéré. It will be best to wait here, I think. We have little chance of being observed in this spot."

"All right."

"You did well," he said. "That went off without a hitch."

It had almost been too easy, really.

The wind gusted, and I shivered.

As though without thought, his hands moved to my shoulders, rubbing up and down my upper arms, warming me. He seemed to realize the intimacy of it a moment after he'd done it, but though his hands stilled on my arms, he didn't pull them away.

He was looking down at me, his gaze hard to read. It was softer than usual, somehow, but more closed off at the same time. It was the same way he had been looking at me as we were pressed together behind the curtains.

One thing was obvious: he wanted to kiss me badly. And I wanted him to. I'd been longing for him to do it ever since I'd first gone back to his office a week ago.

But his self-control won the day again, and his hands dropped from my arms. He was still looking at me, though, as if trying to decide what to say.

I began to pull on Noelle's coat, which had been draped over my arm. He moved to help me, but I didn't let him hold it up for me, putting it on myself instead.

"Noelle's coat is much warmer than mine," I said, because the silence was growing excruciating.

"She had a lot to say to me after you left," he said.

I didn't look at him. "Oh?"

"She's quite taken with you." I couldn't tell how he felt about this from his tone, but I realized there was a reason he was telling me.

"I like her very much, too," I said.

Another drawn-out moment of silence. He was debating on that invisible line between us, the one he had told himself he could not cross again. Now he was standing with his toes on it.

"She's… noticed there's something between us," he said.

"Yes, she mentioned that. I told her there couldn't be." My voice sounded tight and breathless to my own ears. Because what we were saying was entirely at odds with what I knew we were both feeling.

"Perhaps if things were different…" he said.

I looked up at him, the meaning of the words crystallizing in my mind.

"If I were different, you mean." It had always been clear that I would never be up to snuff in the major's world. At least now it was out in the open.

"No."

I smiled, though I felt a bit sick to my stomach. "It's all right. I understand. We'd better go." I turned away, began to walk from the garden.

He gently caught my wrist, stopping me. "Electra. That's not what I meant…"

I turned back, looked up at him. "I'm not the kind of girl a man like you romances," I said without bitterness. "It's just the way things are. And we're both practical enough people to realize it."

He swore, his eyes flashing silvery in the darkness. "It isn't your past, Electra. Or your family. You've proved what kind of woman you are when it counts."

My heart began to hammer at the words, and my throat tightened as tears threatened to spring to my eyes. Was it possible he meant it?

I was so elated that it took me a moment to remember this was not a declaration; he was still listing his reservations.

"But you know better than anyone how all-consuming my work is. I'm not in a position to make promises at present. There are… so many things to consider." He sighed. "If I could just forget this bloody war for one minute…"

"What would you do?" I asked. Suddenly, I felt bold enough to want to press him. To make him acknowledge his desire for me, if nothing else. Nothing would happen after tonight—we'd both go back to our separate lives, no promises given—but perhaps I wanted to go back to my life with a few romantic memories.

Our eyes caught, and I could feel the weight of the air shift around us.

"If you could forget the war…" I pressed softly, leaning ever so slightly closer. "For just one minute… what would you do?"

His hand, still on my wrist, slid up my arm. His gaze met mine, and I felt the spark zag through me.

"Electra." I didn't know if the warning note in his voice was meant for him or for me.

"War's a difficult thing to forget, of course," I said as casually as I could manage. "But, after all, a minute isn't very long."

"I told you in Sunderland it wouldn't happen again," he said in a low voice, though his gaze flickered to my mouth and his fingers closed around my arm.

"Forget that, too," I whispered. "Just for one minute."

His eyes on mine, his other arm moved around me, and he drew me closer. I felt as though all the air had left my lungs, as though my body melted into his as I rested my hands on his chest and tilted my mouth to his.

He kissed me. It wasn't a fiery kiss like the one in Sunderland had been. It was slow, languorous, and it melted me just as effectively. I slid my arms around his neck, held on to him as though I could catch on to this moment and make time stand still.

For a few breathless moments, I didn't think about any of the things that separated us. I thought only of the warmth of him, of the slow, simmering passion of his kiss. Of the romance of embracing a handsome man in the moonlight.

All too soon, he pulled back slightly, though he didn't release me. "That was longer than a minute," he murmured.

"I wasn't counting," I replied, breathless. "Perhaps we'd better start again."

He kissed me again, the intensity of it increasing as one hand slid into my hair and the other moved inside the fur coat and around my waist, pulling me more tightly against him. I clung to him, every inch of me tingling.

I understood then the recklessness of passion, why people were willing to risk so much for it, why it was so dangerous.

He understood it, too. And that was why he stepped back suddenly, his hands once again grasping my upper arms, as though to steady us both. "Dupéré will be waiting."

I nodded.

Our eyes held for just a moment longer, savoring the magic of that moment that lingered.

And then he let out a breath that was almost a sigh, released me, and motioned for me to precede him out of the garden.