Page 75 of An Honorable Deception
Fairfax scowled and folded his arms over his chest. “Why even have such clever disguises if you go ripping off our masks, X?” Amusement shone through the cracks in his scowl. “Merritt, he’s taking the fun out of things.”
Sir Merritt snorted a laugh. “You’re the one who deputized him.”
“You’re the one who brought him here to begin with last year.”
“You’re the one who told him he was welcome at the Tower anytime.”
Good men. Such wonderful, good men. She let a chuckling Xavier lead her to a leather sofa, not at all sorry when he settled beside her.
Lavinia picked something up off one of the tables and brought it to her.
A paper. Innocuous, in and of itself. But the moment sheglimpsed the script, her every muscle went taut, and her skin crawled in revulsion. Her friend might as well have handed her a spider. “What is this?”
Lavinia sat on the edge of the nearest chair. “The trip to London—we staged a bit of a deception. I posed as you and made certain the gossips saw you were back in Town, supposedly staying with Xavier’s cousin Annabeth at the Hastingses’ home. We thought to draw out your uncle. And it worked.”
That was what yesterday’s trip had been? Alethia had given up asking why anyone was coming or going—it had seemed more gracious to grant them their secrecy and simply welcome them back again with unquestioning smiles. But she never would have told Lavinia to borrow whatever she wanted if she’d realized that’s what she was about. “Vinia, how could you do something so dangerous? Am I not being kept here because we feared the moment I showed my face in London again, the men who shot me would return to finish the job?”
“And finally someone agrees with me.” Fairfax had moved to one of the desks and was sorting through a formidable stack of papers.
Lavinia merely motioned toward the note clutched in Alethia’s hands. “We would value your thoughts on that.”
She didn’t want to read it. Didn’t want to look at anything written by her uncle—and when in her first glance she sawmy little lotus bloomleap off the page, she feared she might be sick.
Lord Xavier slid a little closer. Covered her hand with his own around the paper. She was shaking. She hadn’t even realized it, realized that was why the words had gone blurry, until he steadied her.
“You are not alone,” Xavier said softly. “He will not hurt you.”
But Samira was alone, and she was hurt. Again.Shewas the one he’d always called his lotus. Alethia had to do whatever she could to help her. She nodded, swallowed, and read the full note.
Her stomach churned, and she wished she hadn’t eaten the pudding. Or the meat. Or the bread.
“It seems pretty clear what his meaning is,” Marigold said from her place. “He means to draw you out of hiding by offering to trade Samira. We have to assume he means to kill you once he succeeds. That he was referencing your injuries to remind you of what he can do.”
“No.” She said the word softly, but it brought immediate stillness to the room.
Fairfax was the first to move, turning slowly to face her fully. “No?”
She wet her lips, shook her head. It had never made sense to her, that her uncle would conspire with Rheams to shoot her, and not just because he’d been at the house party with her parents when it happened. She hadn’t until now been able to put her finger on why, so she’d never questioned their assumption that the others were working with her uncle’s knowledge and blessing.
But Uncle Reuben would never,neverlet another man rob him of the power he held over her. He would never let anyone else hurt her—as if that right was reserved to him alone. “He wouldn’t have sent men to kill me. He wouldn’t think hehadto, for one thing. He would know very well that he could guarantee my silence simply by threatening to hurt Samira. I think that’s why he took her—because the Season made him start thinking about what may happen once I leave home, whether I would tell a future husband about what he’d been like. But I think it’s because Mrs. Rheams witnessed it and confronted her husband that things took the turn they did.”
Fairfax looked at Merritt, held his gaze a long moment, then transferred it to Xavier. “They could have been so desperate to kill her before ‘his lordship’ returned because they didn’t want him to stop them, or even to associate it with them. Not to finish the job before he held them responsible for its failing.”
Merritt paced to the unlit hearth, pivoted. “I don’t fancy giving him that much credit.”
“It isn’t credit.” Alethia had to squeeze her eyes shut. Even knowing no one here would judge her, she still couldn’t bear to see their faces. Didn’t want to see the effects as she shifted their view of the world a little more. “He ... it is about possession to him. Control. Power. He always claimed that ... that we werehis. Both of us. She was his little lotus—I was little darling.”
Even now, the endearment made her shudder, no matter whose lips it fell from. Her mother had stopped using it ages ago, only usingdearor a variation. She must have picked up on that.
“If he’d known someone else had attacked me,” she said slowly, working it out as she went, “he wouldn’t have rested until he’d found me and learned who’d done it. He’d have tracked Mama here instead of assuming she’d gone flitting off for a holiday.”
She opened her eyes and wished she hadn’t. Her gaze tangled immediately with Lavinia’s, whose face was a mask of pain and confusion. “I don’t understand,” she whispered. “It seems he only wants you hurt—”
“By no one but him. It isn’t ... it isn’t about the outcome, the punishment. It’s about the control.” Alethia shook her head and then turned it away, granting herself that respite once more. “He would never relinquish that, not willingly. That’s why Samira knew he’d move her the moment he realized they’dlet someone else into the room. These other men ... perhaps they know that about him. But I daresay they don’t have the same cause to fear him that we have had.”
Fairfax tapped a finger to a wooden surface rhythmically. Softly. Contemplatively. “In the Empire House—Dunne certainly didn’t sound as though he catered to him. You’re right about that. He seemed to think he could ‘handle’ him. He knew his likely reactions but dismissed them.” He muttered something in Romani. “Lionfeathers. We’ve miscalculated. I think I assumed that he was the ringleader. That he gave the orders.”
Alethia handed the letter to Xavier, grateful when he took it so that she couldn’t see the familiar script anymore. “So you see, I don’t think there’s quite the danger you presume—not with him, anyway. He won’t be wanting a physical trade, he’ll be wanting my promise of silence. It’s Rheams who likely still wants me silenced forever, if he thinks his wife told me everything she learned. If he thinks I realize he had something to do with her murder.”
