Chapters (50)
- Cover
- Half Title Page
- Books by Elizabeth Camden
- Title Page
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Historical Note
- Questions for Discussion
- In 2021, look for Luke Delacroix’s story in
- About the Author
- Back Ads
- Back Cover
Luke suspected Captain Holland in the procurement office was at the root of the problem, but it was hard for Caroline to concentrate on the political scheme he outlined. So many questions remained unanswered, but at the moment all she cared about was that he was out of jail and his name had been cleared.
“Did you give my letters to Philip?” he asked.
“Philip the Meek? Why would I do that?”
Luke vaulted off the sofa, knocking over the parlor table as he stood to full height. “You didn’t turn over my letters?” he asked, his eyes wide in horror.
She stood too. “You never told me to give them to Philip.”
“I told you in every letter!” he shouted in exasperation. “I told you to trust a good dancer. To tell the good dancer everything.”
“Is Philip a good dancer?”
Luke looked ready to implode. “Philip won statewide waltzing contests for three straight years!” he roared. “You were in the front row of the audience our sophomore year when he won first place! Why do you think everyone at the Naval Academy called him Twinkle Toes?”
“I thought they were teasing him for being a lightweight.”
“Philip isn’t a lightweight,” Luke snapped. “He’s the biggest spy in the American government. That’s why Roosevelt put him on the job.”
She gaped at him, unable to get her mind around it. “But he’s so bashful and timid!”
“He’s very good at letting you think that. Meanwhile he’s got spies all over the globe who send him information in that seedy little basement office, and he’s running rings around everyone.”
“And the second in command? Who did you mean by that?”
“The vice president, obviously!”
Caroline threw up her hands in frustration. “Why didn’t you just write directly to Philip or Roosevelt in the first place?”
“Because everything I wrote was read by the military before getting sent, and I couldn’t risk exposing them as part of an undercover surveillance mission. That’s why I had to write in riddles and Hebrew. Honestly, I think you should go confess to Philip you are a complete and total nitwit for thinking him a mild-mannered clerk all these years.”
Caroline sat back down, sagging as relief washed through her. Luke was back. She still didn’t understand the plot he was in the middle of foiling, but she didn’t need to. Fifteen months of tension lifted from her shoulders, and she still didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry.
