Enticing Temptation

Chapter 16

Government House, Viceroy’s Office

            “Thank you for seeing me right away,” Myles told the Viceroy once he was shown into the man’s office by his aide.

            “What has happened that you, Twynforde, and not Colonel Bishop or one of the others is here to see me? Did you rescue Dalquist?” the Viceroy asked him concern showing on the man's face.

            “I have two reports for you, one from Bellman and Fanshaw, the other from my wife,” Myles replied. “Colonel Bishop is dead.”

            “What! How!” the man roared.

            “It’s all in the reports,” Myles said again handing them across the desk to him. “We rescued Dalquist but he did not find the man he was sent to search out. We did not stay in Hong Kong for Cat or the others to learn who the man is because Bishop shot Cat and left her for dead. It’s all there in the reports.”

            “Good lord!” the man said as he sank in the chair behind his desk, his face white with the shock. Myles watched as he opened first Cat’s report then the other’s. The Viceroy was silent for several long minutes once he finished reading, Myles thought he was digesting the information in the reports.

            “This is most shocking about Bishop. The man’s always been exemplary in his duties here,” he finally said. “I don’t understand how he could do such a thing. How he could betray is country as he did or his friendship with Catherine.”

            “I know,” Myles replied. “Cat wants me to bring Mrs. Bishop to the ship so that she can be the one who personally informs her of her husband’s death. They have been friends for many years, since they both attended the same girls’ school, Cat doesn’t want her to hear about Bishop’s death from someone else.”

            “Yes, I understand,” he answered. “So we have Dalquist back but not the answers he was sent to China to find.”

            “No, but as Cat stated in her report, only five people are suppose to know about her involvement with the Foreign Office. One of those five is your traitor but then there is one other, you of course.”

            “What!” the man sputtered. “You think it was me?”

            “How did you learn about Cat’s working for the Foreign Office? How long have you known?” Myles asked him. “Only five men were supposed to know and you were not one of them.”

            “Lord Terryton. He informed me before I left England about both Dalquist and Catherine,” he answered. “He stated that he was going to inform her the next day that she was the one they were sending to search for her uncle and he thought she might need my help along the way. I said nothing to anyone about Catherine until I informed Bishop, Bellman and Fanshaw, the night before you sailed and I sent them along, I had hoped to help protect Catherine not see her hurt or possibly killed. They all seemed genuinely surprised about her work. I picked Bishop because I knew he and Catherine were good friends and the other two because they have aided me in the past with special assignments and I knew they were men I could trust to protect Catherine.

            “I’m not the man you’re looking for since I never had access to the knowledge leaked or the men’s names who were murdered. Since Terryton was Bishop’s uncle, he will be on the top of the list of suspects, of course. I’ll send a missive directly to the Prime Minister about this as well. Someone from that end needs to find the real culprit in this. I don’t like that a man I thought could be trusted betrayed us and almost killed Catherine, a young woman I’ve know since childhood and I think very highly of.”