Page 46 of A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart)

She would have asked her maid, but Martine had stepped out to return her luncheon tray. After all that had happened last night, Evangeline had slept half the day away.

As she sipped a cooling cup of starmire tea, she reachedfor that day’s scandal sheet, hoping it might have an answer for her. And it did—only it wasn’t an answer to her questions about the Hunt.

The Daily Rumor

MURDER! MURDER! MURDER!

By Kristof Knightlinger

Bolt your doors! Don’t travel alone! Be on your guard! No one is safe! Last night Lord Jacks committed another heinous crime. During the early hours of the evening, he viciously slayed the entire family of House Fortuna—makers of the beloved Fortuna’s Fantastically Flavored Water. One guard that I spoke with said he’d never seen so much blood.

There was one lone survivor, young Edgar Fortuna. Unfortunately, the grief of it all was too much for poor Edgar. He died by his own hand shortly after the massacre. Edgar did, however, provide us with a sketch of the killer, which we are printing in this morning’s paper.

I urge anyone out there who has seen Lord Jacks to please alert the Royal Order of Soldiers immediately. No clues are too small. This heartless murderer must be stopped before he kills again.

Evangeline turned the page. This time there was no shadowy image. There in freshly printed black and white was a drawing of Archer. He wore a devil-may-care grin and tossed an apple in one hand, looking nothing like a murderer—and everything like what Evangeline secretly wanted.

“No,” Evangeline breathed.

No. No. No. No.

“This can’t be,” she said, her words coming out more frantic this time.

This had to be a mistake.

Maybe Archer just looked like Lord Jacks. Or perhaps this was the wrong drawing. Archer couldn’t be Lord Jacks. He was a guard. He’d saved her life—twice.

“Your Highness,” said Martine as she stepped back into the room, “you look a bit pale in the cheeks.”

“I’m fine. I just saw something in the paper that alarmed me.” She held up the page for Martine to see. “Is this really what Lord Jacks looks like?”

“That is him, Your Highness. I can see why you’ve gone all pasty. He’s just awful, isn’t he?” But her voice came out like a sigh, and Evangeline swore there were hearts in Martine’s eyes as she looked at the black-and-white image, which was anything but awful.

Jacks looked like a happy ending that was just out of reach, and Martine was clearly bewitched by him. Just like Evangeline had been, only she was afraid her feelings for him had been a lot deeper than bewitchment.

Even now she could feelthingsjust looking at this picture.

She didn’t want to believe it. Evangeline still wanted to think the paper had gotten it wrong. Archer—rather, Lord Jacks—had been with her last night.

But he hadn’t been with herallnight. He’d found her only after Apollo had been called away. But…

She tried to make another excuse. She once again reminded herself Archer—Jacks—had saved her life, so he couldn’t be a killer. Yet last night, he’d as much as confessed to her.

Maybe I just enjoyed killing people,he’d said. And instead of being horrified, she’d felt—Evangeline couldn’t actually think about how she’d felt last night. Now she just felt sick and foolish and stupid and absolutely furious with herself.

She should have known. She should have put it together that Archer was in the memories Apollo wanted her to forget. Apollo had warned her.Jacks has done atrocious, unforgivable things to you, and I think you might be happier if those things stay forgotten.

And he was right, because Evangeline felt awful.

She still didn’t want Archer to be the villain. She didn’t want him to be Jacks. And she definitely didn’t want to have feelings for him.

Her cheeks flashed with something like shame.

Martine looked at her with concern. Evangeline wanted nothing more than to smile and burn the paper and pretend none of this had happened. But even if she could pretend away her feelings—which she doubted, since feeling was what Evangeline did—she could not pretend away all the people Jacks had murdered last night.

She needed to tell Apollo that she had seen Jacks in Wolf Hall masquerading as a guard named Archer.

Evangeline grabbed the first dress she could find—a gown with a moss-green velvet bodice, a sweetheart neckline, and slender straps lined in pale pink flowers that matched the gown’s long gauzy skirt.

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