Page 9 of How to Seduce a Viscount (Wed Within a Year #3)
‘No, but I feel I am close to having a cipher.’ He passed her the paper.
‘It’s written in Perso-Arabic, at least that’s what the letters are.
’ He reached for a book and opened it to a marked page.
‘The Perso-Arabic alphabet is here. You can see the symbols match. This is really nothing more than just verification I have the language right.’
He presented her with another sheet of paper. ‘Here, I have written out each translated word so that we can read the message in English. It took a while. I am not as conversant in Arabic as I am in other languages.’
In six other languages to be exact. Luce Parkhurst was a polyglot. He had mastered French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin and Greek before he was twenty, while having a more than passing ability in Russian, the Nordic languages and Arabic. He was far too humble about his talents.
Wren took a moment to read the message. ‘It doesn’t sound cryptic to me. Two men meeting, sharing a meal.’ Her specialty was unravelling people and obtaining information, not interpreting it.
‘You’re right. It’s not cryptic. One could read it and assume it was just a message, one with no high-level information in it.
However, the fact that someone intercepted it, coupled with the fact that you were followed and stabbed in an attempt to retrieve it, affirms that there is hidden value to this.
It is unusual for the Ottomans to use codes at all.
The Greek resistance uses them often, but not the Turks.
The codes in the region are commonly designed around the structure of a krifó scholió or a ‘hidden school’.
The Ottomans might have used one as well, especially if they were in enemy territory and worried the message would be intercepted. ’
She was having trouble concentrating on the details. Her mind was far more interested in the man who was speaking. He was breath-takingly intoxicating like this, entirely in his element. Intelligence was damnably attractive to her and he had looks and intelligence to spare. ‘Show me.’
Luce searched for a clean sheet of paper, printing out a sentence as he spoke and a ripple of want shivered through her.
‘For instance, maybe I use religious references and on the surface, my letter appears to be about a church service and the vicar’s sermon.
But someone who knows the cipher would know that any reference to the vicar is actually a reference to a certain general and the church service is actually a reference to his troop placement.
’ He pushed the paper towards her, ‘Now, read this with that in mind.’
‘“Attendance at church was sparse today. Many folks are down with an ague given the dampness of the season. There were perhaps only twenty in attendance for the vicar’s sermon and for that reason, I believe he cut it short.”’ She looked up from the paper with a grin.
‘“Our general did not follow through on an attack given his lack of troops due to illness in camp.”’
‘Very good. They’re not always that simple or straight forward but now you see what I mean by a hidden school.
The trick is to figure out what the ‘school’ or context is.
Is it religious? Is it historical? Is it mathematical?
What is important and well-known enough in that region?
Once we understand the context, we can decode the references.
This is very much a cipher that has to be built in layers.
’ He gestured towards the pile of books on the table. ‘Hence, the research.’
She laughed. ‘Hence? I like that. It’s a word we don’t use nearly enough.’ But it was a word Luce Parkhurst would use. An old word, a scholar’s word, and it was awfully sensual.
He leaned back in his chair and pushed a hand through his hair, smiling.
‘Well, that depends if we’re using it as a verb or a noun.
As a noun, it’s still active, less so as a verb.
’ He was in his element. Anyone could see it.
Surrounded by books, playing with words, solving puzzles. This was what brought him joy.
Wren stood, stiff from sitting too long.
She needed to work her muscles if she was to regain her strength.
She made a slow walk to the window. It was late afternoon but already the long shadows of night were gathering.
‘It gets dark so soon in the winter.’ She wrapped her arms about herself as if the cold could reach her through the windows.
‘Still, it’s an extraordinary view. You can see all the way down to the village. ’
Luce was beside her, draping the throw about her shoulders. ‘I don’t mind the dark. Winter is my favourite season.’
‘It’s not mine.’ She tugged the blanket tight around her.
‘I remember freezing in the winter. The cold would go on without end until I thought I’d simply die of it.
Many did. Some of the children in the cellar would go to sleep and not wake up.
My blanket, my singular possession, very likely saved my life until your grandfather came.
Then he saved me in truth.’ She slid him a smile to soften her words, knowing now that Luce carried a deep-seated love-hate relationship with the role he played within his grandfather’s network.
She’d learned a lot about Lucien Parkhurst today.
He was not all he seemed. He was in fact, quite a sexy, intellectual bit more, which only served to increase her intrigue with him.
If she had any sense, she’d take that as a warning and leave as soon as possible.
She floated the idea casually. ‘I should be able to travel within two or three days.’
‘I doubt it,’ Luce answered with equal nonchalance as if this discussion was of no great import.
‘You are in no condition to sit in a jouncing carriage or on a bouncing horse. Even if you were, Mother Nature has other ideas.’ He nodded towards the outside where night and snow had conspired to fall together.
White flakes lit the darkness. ‘We’ll have six inches on the ground by morning and another six by the end of the day tomorrow.
Supposing you were fit to travel, which you are not, the roads won’t be any good to you for a while, even after the snow melts.
I think you are here for the duration.’ He gave her a friendly smile.
‘I can think of worse places to wait out a snowstorm. You can help me crack the code.’
That was the problem, the very big problem.
She could think of worse people to wait it out with, too.
She’d wished for exactly this—time to work alongside the legendary Luce Parkhurst. But one ought to be careful what one wished for because wishes came with strings.
Now that she’d gotten what she wanted it was so much more than she’d expected.