“Very well,” he said. He didn’t want to lose any more time. The longer they waited, the less chance he had of catching up or finding her, wherever she’d vanished. It would take at least a good few hours for the ship to be thoroughly searched, but he knew that Lisbeth would have it in hand. This was her operation, after all. “If you find anything, send a cable when you dock in England. I’ll do the same.”

She tugged on his sleeve, her voice going low. “Val, don’t do anything rash.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your feelings are tangled up in this woman,” she said. He opened his mouth to deny it, but the hard look on her face stopped him. “If I were in her shoes, I would have left, too. It’s not personal, but you need to exercise wisdom when you do find her. There are too many open-ended questions. I’ve thought about it more, and we need her help.”

“Do you know who she is,” he whispered furiously. “Or have you bloody forgotten?”

“An operative who has foiled nefarious plots against our leaders.”

He scowled. “And stolen confidential documents.”

“You don’t know that,” she returned. “They could have been given to her by someone in the Home Office, and that person could be working for the queen herself. You of all people understand how it works—we don’t always know who is part of the network at any given time. We need more information to be sure before we expose her to the wolves.”

His mouth pulled tight, but she had a point. “Fine. I won’t throw her to the ground and restrain her in my handcuffs the minute I find her.” Valentine felt the flush flood his cheekbones as his helpful brain supplied a very lewd image to accompany his words.

The small laugh at his expense and the knowing look in Lisbeth’s eyes made him blink. “Well, I’ll never advise you not to do that in the right circumstance, Your Grace. A little consensual bed sport between friends can be quite diverting.”

He ignored that, along with the visions supplied by his vexing imagination. His ears burned at the provocative idea of using the cuffs in a more carnal way. He wondered whether Bronwyn would consent to such a thing and then cursed himself in the same breath. This wasn’t the time to be daydreaming!

Valentine shook his head. “Where would you go?” he asked his former partner, who was still watching him with a too-intense expression as if trying to confirm that he could be trusted to do right thing. He would! Maybe. Women’s intuition was a valuable thing and he respected Lisbeth’s opinion. Perhaps she could shed some light on a dismal situation. “If you were her?”