“Yes.”
“Sì. He is that Fabrizio Sacci.”
“Do I want to know howwellyou know him?”
“No,” she replied far too blithely.
“Will he be a problem?”
“Oh, most definitely.”
Kendall’s irritated grunt pleased her to no end. “Is there anythingelseyou would like to tell me about Signore Sacci?”
“Well, let’s see,” Allie sighed, making it woefully dramatic. “Fabrizio and I are old acquaintances. He was the leader of our small gang the day Ethan Penn-Leith was robbed. Therefore, he was an eyewitness to those events. Fabrizio has spent the past several months threatening to reveal my past unless I give him money for his revolutionary cause. Obviously, he has gotten nowhere with that, mostly because I have no money and loathe Fabrizio for the betraying, backstabbing blackguard that he is.” She tapped her lips. “I believe that sums up everything.”
Kendall sucked in a long breath. “And why did you neglect to tell me any of this?”
“Because I didn’t care if Fabrizio ruins me.” Allie finished smoothing her hair. “And as men of your ilk are wont to do, you would most assuredly have punished me for Fabrizio’s perfidy instead of helping me in any material way.”
She frowned at her reflection in the mirror. No amount of primping would ease her puffy eyes. She poked at the dark circles underneath them.
Finally, she noticed Kendall’s stony silence behind her.
Again, she met his gaze in the mirror.
Her twin appeared troubled—gaze stormy, mouth drawn into a tight line. Or was he perturbed? Constipated?
She hardly knew.
“Do you truly believe that?” he asked. “That I would do nothing to help you?”
Allie dropped both hands to her lap, eyes rolling back in her head.
“Of course, I do,” she retorted. “Why would I think otherwise? When I needed you most, you not only refused to lift a finger to help, but betrayed me in the most brutal way possible. Why should this situation with Fabrizio be any different?”
“Because if you had bothered to speak with me, I would have told you that Sacci has already attempted to blackmail me!”
She swiveled around in her chair, looking up at her twin.
“Pardon? Fabrizio told me you forbade him, on pain of severe retribution, to ever contact you again.”
“He lied.”
“That seems like . . . ,” she paused and then sighed, “. . . precisely something Fabrizio would do. Were you stupid enough to comply with his blackmail attempts?”
Her twin appeared affronted. “Of course not. A Duke of Kendall does not succumb to blackmail. We counterattack.”
“Ah.”Of course.“Like requesting Ethan Penn-Leith to accompany us north? Threatening journalists? That sort of counterattack?”
“Precisely.”
Allie pressed two fingers to the bridge of her nose.
“Given that his past attempts have failed, why would Sacci be here now?” Kendall continued.
“I cannot say with any confidence. In his last letter, he claimed to have proof that I was on that road in Italy with Mr. Penn-Leith.”
“What proof?” her twin retorted. “It isn’t as if you paused the robbery long enough for a local photographer to take a daguerreotype.”
