“I do not know what you speak of,” she lied defiantly.
Crispin brushed his mouth over hers, a featherlight caress. Once. Twice. “Do not lie to me.”
Her eyes were wide upon him, her hands—free of the imprisonment of her sleeves—settled upon the tensed muscles of his upper arms. “I am not lying.”
“Yes.” His fingers tightened in her hair then. “You. Are.” He sneered. “What a stupid bloody fool I am, believing in you for a moment. Tell me, what was your intention in coming here to Whitley House? What devil’s bargain have you with the Earl of Kilross?”
At the earl’s name, everything in her turned to ice. “I came here because you hired me as governess,” she forced past lips that had gone numb. “Please release me.”
“Are you fucking him?” His question was a vicious snarl.
She flinched. “Release me.”
“Tell me the bloody truth, Jacinda.” He was breathing heavily, his eyes darkened like thunderclouds in an ominous sky. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
“I am the woman who loves you,” she said. “If you wish to punish me or to hurt me, I will not stop you.”
It was the most truth she could manage to reveal. For she did love him. Even if he was guilty. Even if the ciphers proved Kilross’ theory. She could not love him less. Her heart did not function in such a capricious fashion, one moment helplessly in the thrall of a person and the next not. Here was the truest part of her life over which she had no power, her heart. She could not control who she loved.
“Damn it.” He gripped her chin, tilting her head back. His eyes plumbed the depths of hers. “I have no wish to hurt you. All I want is the cursed truth, madam.”
“Do what you will to me,” she said quietly. “Go on, Crispin.”
“Where are the papers?” he bit out.
She met his gaze, unblinking. If she had to, she would save him from himself. That was how much she loved him. “What papers, Your Grace?”
“Shall I tear apart this chamber until I find them?” he gritted.
He would find them with ease. But she had nothing left to lose. “Tear apart this chamber if it pleases you. You shall not find whatever it is that you seek.”
He set her from him as if he could not bear to touch her for another moment. “If that is how you wish it, then I have no choice. In the morning, I will be seeking an audience with the Earl of Aylesbury. When I return, I shall expect your cooperation. You will answer my every question. Until then, you are barred from leaving this chamber.”
Already, it was as if he was a stranger to her, and how it crushed her inside. She had known it may come to this. Only her foolish heart had propelled her onward, naïve in the belief that one more day and one more night would be enough. But this, the awful finality, his harsh coldness and barely suppressed rage… nothing could have prepared her for it.
“How do you propose to keep me within this chamber?” she dared to ask. “I have duties in the morning, and Lady Constance and Lady Honora will wonder—”
“Do not dare to speak their names,” he interrupted, his lip curling as if she were beneath his contempt. “You are dismissed from your post, effective immediately. And until I can discover just how deep your treachery runs, you will find yourself confined to this chamber.”
Uncertainty merged with outrage. “Do you intend to lock me within this chamber?”
“I have a man stationed outside the door. You will not be permitted to leave without my approval,” he said coldly.
The words settled in the vicinity of her heart like an ice-cold blade. “You have had a man stationed outside the door from the moment you entered?”
He inclined his head. “You stole from me. You lied to me. Even now, you continue to prevaricate when we both know I have caught you at your games. I do not trust you. Nor have you given me cause to do so. Until I can determine how great a risk you are to me, I cannot allow you to leave this chamber.”
He had planned this, then. Had known from the moment he entered that she had been within his study, had opened his locked drawer, and had taken the ciphers. But how he knew about Kilross was a matter of question. And if he truly thought he could contain her in a chamber, and that she would meekly remain, awaiting him to mete out his punishment to her, he was wrong. She loved him, and she could not fault him for being angry with her. She had lied to him, after all. But she had only his best interests at heart, and his best interests did not lie in her remaining trapped in a chamber. But he could not know that, for she could not tell him.
Perhaps it was better this way. They had been doomed from the start. Better to end it now rather than later, when she had fallen even more in love with him.
“Very well,” she managed to say. “I think it best you leave now, Your Grace, for your lingering will only be cause for speculation and rumor. Unless you wish to tear my undergarments away as you did my gown and ravish me?”
He grimaced, raking a hand through his hair, her taunt hitting its mark. “I would never have to ravish you and you damn well know it.”
It was one of the few truths that had been spoken between them that evening. He turned to go, and for some reason she could not suppress the need to have the last word.
“I would never betray you,” she called after him softly, meaning the words more than she had meant any she had ever said, aside from when she had told him she loved him. Nothing had changed for her. She loved him, and she would fight to protect him, however she must.
