The way her body pressed against his belied any belief his business acumen was of primary consideration to her at the moment, but he'd learned he liked her teasing. "Mr. Drake?"
She looked around his shoulder, her eyes widened in surprise. She had just realized they had visitors. Her gaze shifted back to him, a question in their beautiful blue depths.
"I've brought some guests."
She broke away from him, her pretty cheeks turning the color of a rose in bloom, and turned toward the two men occupying the other end of the drawing room. "So I see."
"Barton was making a mad dash for parts unknown when Hansen, the bright fellow standing next to him, convinced him to come talk to me instead."
Thea crossed the room and stood in front of Barton. "So, you've brought him here so I could question him as well?"
The blond assistant swallowed audibly, his nervousness apparent in his shaking fingers and pinched lips. "I haven't done anything wrong."
"Then why were you leaving the city?" Thea did not sound as if she believed the assistant.
Drake had his own doubts, but Merewether, not Barton, had been seen going into the warehouse storing the stolen goods. Barton's tale sealed the other man's guilt.
Knowing the news that her adopted uncle's family was to blame for recent events would upset her, Drake slipped his arm around Thea and hugged her to his side. "Tell my wife what you told me, Barton."
"Mr. Merewether came to me and said as how you suspected me of stealing from the warehouse. He offered to help me hide in the country until he found the true culprit and cleared my name. He told me you planned to have me sent to Newgate." Barton shuddered at the name of the prison. "I didn't steal anything. I noticed discrepancies in the ledgers months ago. When I went to Mr. Merewether with my concerns, he said he would look into it, but that it was probably simple calculation errors. Since he kept the books, I had no choice but to accept his word."
"You could have contacted me via letter," Thea chided.
Barton nodded, clearly miserable. "Yes, but I wasn't sure of anything, and Mr. Merewether took over all the accounts after that. He kept the ledgers locked in his office. I had no way of substantiating my claim."
"You should have tried." Drake was not as calm about it as his wife. His hold on her tightened. He could not bear the thought of losing her. "When Thea discovered the thefts, he sent someone to try to kill her."
Barton's face lost what little color had remained after being accosted while trying to flee the city. "I didn't realize."
Thea squeezed Drake's arm. "He did not succeed, my love."
Was he her love?
He could not demand an answer to that question in the middle of their investigation, but soon he would.
Thea measured Barton with a glance. "I don't suppose you would have any idea of who Mr. Merewether sent to our island?"
"You mean you don't know?" Barton asked, sounding surprised.
"No."
A little color returned to Barton's face and he pulled himself erect. "I believe I know the answer to that. I saw Mr. Merewether pay one of our previous dockworkers a substantial sum of money before sending him aboard a Merewether ship bound for the island. It could be someone else, but I doubt it."
Drake's irritation nearly spiraled out of control. "Didn't you find that behavior odd?"
Barton held himself perfectly erect now. "I do not make it a policy to question my superior's actions."
The only thing that prevented Drake from doing the prissy assistant bodily injury was the restraining hold Thea had on his arm. "Pierson, you must remain calm. We now know who the infiltrator on the island is. Mr. Barton can give us his name and description."
Barton nodded vehemently. "Yes. I can."
Drake decided to wait until the man had given them the information before he knocked Barton senseless for allowing Thea's life to be put in jeopardy.
He was still annoyed two hours later as he drove his curricle toward Merewether Shipping's office, the assistant and Hansen following in a hansom cab. Thea had not allowed him to beat even a modicum of sense into the irritating Barton.
Thea sat silently by Drake's side as they made their way through the congested London traffic. Her voice surprised him when she decided to speak. "Lady Upworth came to call."
"She had said she would."