His expression was shattered, both for her and by her. The future she’d once seen, a tiny glimmer in his beautiful eyes, was gone. Everything was gone.
Barber cleared his throat, his discomfort clear as he stepped up to her. “I appreciate your candor, Miss Oliver,” he said softly. “And I apologize for everything I will now be forced to do.”
She lifted her chin and made herself meet his eyes. “I don’t blame you for that, Mr. Barber. You have a duty to uphold. I would not expect less from a man of honor such as yourself.”
He inclined his head slightly, surprise on his face. He had not thought she would accept her fate.
“What exactly does come next?” Robert asked, his tone numb, still refusing to look at her.
“It is very late,” Barber said. “But tomorrow Huntington and I will transport Miss Oliver back to London. She will be turned over to the guard and we will report back to the victims of her crimes who hired us. After that, it will be up to the magistrate what will happen. Miss Oliver’s sex and her connection to an important family might be swaying factors in protecting her. And if she is willing to return any items she might still have in her possession.”
“I will hire a defense counsel,” Robert said in that same cold tone. “Perhaps you two can recommend someone of good reputation.”
“You…you would do that?” Selina whispered.
He glanced at her briefly. “To protect my family from further harm, I would do so. Nicholas, especially, could be damaged by what you’ve done. I would hate for him to lose his chance at the title he so desires, thanks to you.”
She flinched. So it was not out of love, at least not for her, that he would help her. “I see. Of course.”
“If you do not mind, Your Graces, I will take Miss Oliver back to her chamber now. She will remain there under guard until the morning.” Barber motioned to her. “Come now.”
She didn’t resist. How could she? What was happening was what she deserved. She would see it through, however it played out. Her life as she knew it was now over. And she would have to face uncertainty alone, because that was what she had earned.
Derrick didn’t speak as he followed behind Barber and Selina through the winding halls of the estate. If they passed by a servant, the person stopped to stare. He heard whispers behind doors. This was a scandal of epic proportions, thanks to the dramatic revelation in the ballroom.
And it would not stop.
But even though all evidence pointed to Selina’s guilt, even though she had quietly admitted to being the Faceless Fox in the parlor a few moments before, Derrick had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t right.
Why would Selina turn out her pocket, a hidden pocket that no one would have guessed was in the gown at all, so casually if she knew the bracelet was there? She’d made no obvious effort to hide the piece from view or protect herself from what was to come. And she admitted she was the Fox, but declared herself innocent in the robbery of her sister-in-law. The crimes of the Faceless Fox were far more severe, so why deny this one small crime that had already seen its jewels returned to their owner? Except to protect her relationships.
But if that were the case, then he circled back to why she would do it in the first place. The robberies the Faceless Fox…Selina….had committed in the past had never seemed driven by compulsion, but were targeted events. Something carefully planned with a very specific kind of victim. Katherine didn’t fit that profile, even if her bracelet did.
Just like with the matter of the glove, Derrick felt uncertain. And he wouldn’t have true answers until he spoke to Selina alone.
They reached her chamber and Barber waited for her to open the door. She paused there, standing quietly to await orders. She didn’t argue, she didn’t declare anything. It was as if some of that beautiful spirit Derrick had come to admire had been broken by tonight. And his heart ached for her.
Even though he knew he shouldn’t feel empathy or heartbreak or…or anything else for a criminal he had hunted.
“There will be someone outside your door all night,” Barber said. “To ensure you don’t take it in your head to escape.”
“Certainly,” Selina whispered, her chin dropping. “I understand.”
Barber’s brow wrinkled at her capitulation, as if he, too, were expecting more of a fight from the famous Fox.
“Is that all?” Selina asked, her gaze sliding to Derrick.
Barber followed the motion and his frown deepened. “Yes. Goodnight, Miss Oliver.”
She sighed. “I realize everything will have to change after tonight. So I’d like to tell you thank you, Mr. Barber, for being so decent about this. I do appreciate your kindness, because I know it isn’t required.” She looked at Derrick again, and tears filled her eyes before she ducked into her room with a quick, “Goodnight.”
As the door closed behind her, Derrick moved toward it, but Barber lifted a hand, pressing it to his chest and keeping him in place. “Don’t,” he said softly.
Derrick backed away, trying to retain some control. It felt impossible. “How can you say don’t? You must see there’s more to this than what she said.”
Barber inclined his head. “Perhaps. I don’t deny the circumstances are…odd. But Huntington, you cannot involve yourself in this matter anymore.”
“Why the hell not? We’re partners, aren’t we?” Derrick snapped. “I still have a say in it, don’t I? And if I feel something is amiss, why shouldn’t I further pursue it?”
“Because you love her,” Barber said.
The words, stated as fact, not a question, slapped through the air and hit Derrick so hard he nearly staggered from them. Loved her. Love her. He couldn’t deny that those words rang in his head like a bell. They explained the unfettered desire that coursed through him every time she came near, the intense interest he felt in her past and her present and her future. The fact that the idea of losing her had become an actual, physical pain that kept him up at night.
“No,” he whispered, and it felt so false that he couldn’t maintain the lie. “Perhaps,” he clarified.
Barber nodded slowly. “I have no idea of the heart of the woman behind that door, friend. We’ve chased her for months, I’ve studied her ways and so have you. What you’ve shared could be real. Or perhaps you were being used—”
Derrick lunged toward him, catching Barber’s collar in both hands and giving him a shake. “Shut up,” he growled past clenched teeth.
Barber sniffed as he carefully extracted himself from Derrick’s grip and took a step closer to the door. “As you have just proven, yet again, you are compromised. Go to bed. I will manage who watches her.”
Derrick gripped his hands at his sides as a red rage pulsed through him. But more powerful than that was fear. Fear for her. Fear for himself. Fear for what would happen next that would destroy everything for them all.
And he turned and walked away. But he knew this wasn’t the end of it. He wouldn’t allow it to be.
Vale was seated before the fire when Selina staggered into the room. Her partner lifted her gaze and held there, judging. And Selina was too weak to hide.
“Something happened,” Vale said, a statement of fact.
Selina nodded and then the dam broke. She collapsed forward, bracing herself on all fours as the torrent of emotions rushed over her. Vale stared at her as she wept on the carpet and then silently came beside her. She tucked Selina into her side, rocking gently as she poured all her pain and fear and heartbreak into this person who had known her secrets for years.
Well, almost all of them. She’d never revealed all of herself before. The closest to that was what she’d shared with Derrick. And now he had to hate her just as her brother now hated her.
“Tell me,” Vale insisted as the tears eased.
“I owe you that,” Selina hiccupped, getting to her feet slowly and brushing off the beautiful dress she’d put on with such hopes and fears a few hours before. “Because it will affect us both in the end.”
She did tell Vale then. Told her everything about the night and the bracelet and the horrible confrontation.
“You admitted you were the Fox,” Vale gasped in horror. “Selina!”
“I have heard my name whispered as a curse, said as an admonishment by people I love all night,” she said, rubbing her eyes. “Please spare me it one more time. I had no choice, don’t you see? I’m cornered. I’m caught. But you don’t have to be.”
“How could I not be?” Vale said, pacing the room, her hands rubbing in front of her with nervous energy. “Christ, Selina, these two men must already suspect I’m far more than your companion. They’ll come for me, even if it is just to lessen the heat on you.”
Selina couldn’t argue that. Derrick and Barber were too clever not to see through all her lies now that they’d begun to unravel.
“And there is also the danger to you from whoever framed me for Katherine’s jewels,” Selina added. “Whoever put my glove in Lady Winford’s chamber. Well, whoever did that clearly knows who I am and wanted to punish me.”
“A victim, perhaps?” Vale suggested. “Or a rival?”
“Possibly one of those things,” Selina said on a shuddering sigh. “But how can I protect you now that I’m trapped in this chamber, ready to be marched to London tomorrow?”
“There is a guard watching the doors,” Vale said slowly. Then she paced to the window and threw open the curtains. She lifted the sash and a burst of cool air filled the room. “But I’m assuming he doesn’t know your skill with windows.”
Selina walked to the window and stared down. It was a long climb, fraught with danger. It wouldn’t be an easy descent for them, that was certain. Equally certain was that she could manage it. She’d escaped many a manor home exactly this way.
“If I run, it will destroy any hope I have to reconcile with my family,” she said. “It will make my confession look self-serving.”
Vale pivoted and caught her arms. “It should be self-serving! Why allow yourself to be caught? Why allow yourself to be punished? No. We run.”
Selina stared again into the night. She had done this to Vale. She owed her partner a chance at freedom. Together they had it. If she could get back to London, she could give access to funds to her friend, see that she escaped punishment for her part in Selina’s crimes.
And then Selina could turn herself in. Vale wouldn’t approve, but what would it matter then? She would have saved the last person she didn’t want to damage. And she could accept her fate.
“Fine,” she said, and turned her back. “Unfasten me. I can’t climb in this contraption.”
Vale laughed softly and rushed forward to unfasten her, but Selina felt no joy or thrill in this decision. Just another disappointment she would create in Derrick. In her family.
And she couldn’t imagine how much more they’d hate her when this was finished.
Derrick stepped from the protection of a doorway at the end of the hall. Barber wasn’t at his post. Of course, at four in the morning, he hadn’t expected his friend to be. They needed to be well rested for all to come, so he had probably assigned a footman to watch the door in the wee hours. Derrick moved down the hall toward Selina’s room and from the shadows stepped one of the servants, just as he had guessed.
“M-Mr. Huntington,” he stammered. “What business do you have?”
Derrick stifled a curse and smiled at the boy. “I’m taking over for you on watch.”
The young man glanced down the hall. “I dunno, sir. Mr. Barber and the Duke of Roseford were clear I wasn’t to leave my post.”
“Not to leave your post unattended,” Derrick reassured him. “Which you wouldn’t be.”
“I—”
Derrick straightened his shoulders and snapped into a military tone that he knew as well as his own name. “Boy, I’ve given you a direct order. I’m in the service of the King in this matter. To defy me is to defy your sovereign. Is that what you would like to do tonight?”
“N-No,” he responded, lifting his hands. “Of course, sir. I leave you to it, sir.”
Derrick felt bad as he watched the boy rush away. But in the end, Barber would blame him, not the young man. Derrick could take it. He had to because he needed to see Selina and resolve this.
Her door was locked, but it didn’t matter. He slipped a lock pick from his boot and popped the lock open with a few twists of his wrist. He settled his hand against the flat of it, opening it slowly so it wouldn’t creak.
He stepped into the room. The fire had burned low in the night. He saw the shadow of Selina’s form in the bed, but she didn’t stir as he entered and shut the door behind himself. He moved toward her, his breath almost nonexistent as he reentered her space. He needed to see her. To touch her.
To get some kind of explanation so he’d know what to do next.
He reached out a hand, watched it tremble as he set it where her hip should be on the bed. But instead of encountering the firm lines of her body beneath the covers, his hand sank into softness, deeper and deeper.
He yanked his hand back and stared. The lump still hadn’t moved. His stomach dropped.
“Bloody fuck, Selina,” he grumbled as he threw the covers back and revealed an expertly positioned group of pillows beneath. Selina was gone.
And all that was left was a note on her empty pillow that read I’m sorry.
Chapter 23
When Selina had come to Roseford from London, she and Vale had traveled a direct route on good roads. But the way back was far different. She knew there were two bloodhounds on her trail, working together to find her and make her pay for her crimes. So the past two days she and her partner had traveled carefully, on back roads, stopping at nondescript inns and hiding their carriage so it wouldn’t be seen.
Now Selina sat in the sitting room of their chamber at a rundown inn on the outskirts of the small city they’d stopped in. She didn’t even know the name as she stared at the wall with a blank, unseeing expression. She was so tired. She’d hardly slept in the time since she slipped from her brother’s window. She didn’t want to eat.
She just wanted to get Vale to safety and then turn herself in.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the cameo earrings Robert had given her all those months ago. The ones she’d lied about to save herself. As she looked at them, she felt the cameo face glaring at her. Digging into her skin and her heart.
“Stop staring at those,” Vale snapped.
“How can I not?” Selina asked, glancing up at her. Vale had been increasingly annoyed with her as they traveled. She couldn’t blame her partner, really, but she also couldn’t change what she felt. “My brother gave me these.”
“And he could have afforded to give you emeralds,” Vale growled. “Pearls. Rubies as fine as those in the bracelet that wife of his wore. Instead he gave you something with half the value.”
Selina shook her head. “Not half the value to me.”
Vale threw up her hands. “Come, we’ll go to the finer inn down the lane to sample their fare. Food will put you to rights. I’ve heard they’ll have music tonight, too.”
“No,” Selina said, turning her face away from her friend. “I’m not hungry and I don’t need any entertainment. You go. Enjoy yourself if you can.”
Vale pursed her lips. “Fine. I’ll be gone a few hours. I hope in that time you’ll reconsider your life and remember who you really are.”
She flounced out then, leaving Selina to ponder those words, she supposed. What Vale didn’t understand was that she’d been doing just that for days and had come to the realization that her life had been very…empty before she went to Roseford. Derrick had changed that. Derrick had changed everything. But it was ruined now. It had to be.
There was a knock at her door, and she started. She hadn’t asked for anything to be sent up for her. But then, perhaps it was Vale, back to force Selina to her will. She trudged to her feet and called out, “I don’t want to go to the entertainment
, I swear to you I just need—”
She threw the door open and her words caught in her throat. It wasn’t Vale there waiting for her—it was Derrick. A scruffy-faced Derrick who looked like he hadn’t shaved since she last saw him. A messy-haired, wild-eyed Derrick who clasped her wrist and yanked her against him before he dropped his mouth to hers and kissed her.
She melted, only vaguely aware that he was pushing her into the room, closing the door behind himself, locking it. Trapping her, she supposed, but it didn’t matter. If it meant being with him, she’d take trapped for all eternity.
But at last he released her and stepped back, panting as he stared down at her and she up at him. “I found you,” he whispered.
She nodded. “Yes. You found me, though I have no idea how. Except that you are very good at what you do. And I expect you’ll be returning me to London for all the trouble I deserve.”
He reached out and she froze, watching his hand extend toward hers. Only he didn’t take it. Instead, he slipped the cameo earrings from her hand. She flinched as he stared at them, another lie revealed.
“They’re pretty,” he said.
“Yes,” she agreed.
He continued to hold the earrings, even as he folded his arms. Her lover, her love, he was gone. This was an investigator come to call on her. A man bent on truth and reconciliation. On crime and punishment. Justice, or some version thereof.
“You need to stop lying to me,” he said.
She caught her breath, looking up at that handsome face that had drawn her toward him for weeks. Looking up into those eyes she had fallen in love with, eyes that could read her soul like no one else had ever been able to do. And she nodded because she didn’t want to lie anymore. Not to him. No matter what.
He looked relieved that she didn’t argue and he touched her cheek, perhaps as a reward. She leaned into his warm, rough palm, memorizing the weight of every finger on her skin.
“You’re the Fox.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I wasn’t lying when I admitted it three nights ago. I am the Faceless Fox.”
The Heart of a Hellion Page 21
