“You want to make certain Miss McKenna is treated fairly,” the duchess observed.
“Of course I do,” he said. “It is our duty to treat everyone with whom our paths cross with fairness. The Crown has imbued us with such an obligation.”
“But there is more,” she noted, her countenance softening. “You care about her, do you not? You began all this with the notion that you would bring McKenna to heel by using his mistress against him, but you have fallen for the mistress yourself along the way.”
“She is not his mistress,” he said before he could stay the words.
How foolish he sounded. How like a man who was being held helplessly in the thrall of one Johanna McKenna. Because he was. Yes, indeed. He was.
“So says the lady in question,” Arden added. “A woman who is an actress by trade.”
Yes, this too, was damning, and he knew it. Johanna was incredibly skilled at her trade. Easily the most compelling actress he had ever watched on stage. Her command of her art was unparalleled. But he had also, he thought, come to know the woman beneath the great Rose Beaumont’s façade. That woman had a heart, a past, pains and hurts and scars.
That woman was the one he kissed. The one toward whom he possessed tender feelings.
He sighed. “I understand your skepticism, Arden. Indeed, I am battling against my own inner cynic. Johanna is undeniably a skilled actress. But I have reason to believe everything she has revealed to me thus far.”
Arden’s expression was one of undeniable disgust. “Forgive me, Winchelsea, but it seems to me that you are thinking with your…” His words trailed off as he sent a glance in the direction of the duchess, as though belatedly realizing he had been about to say something he ought not in the presence of a lady.
Even if the lady was his wife and had likely heard far worse.
And, since the lady and duchess in question was formerly the famed H.E. Montgomery, Felix could only presume she had.
“You were going to say something inexcusable to Winchelsea,” the duchess accused Arden before turning back to Felix. “I think what my husband is trying to convey is that you must take care to separate the way you feel about Mademoiselle Beaumont—er, Miss McKenna—from the duties facing you. We must all take care and proceed with great caution, while we determine the lies from the truth. In the meantime, given the recent explosion at your townhome, it is paramount that we do everything in our power to see you and your daughter safe and to see McKenna caught once and for all.”
“Ever my better half,” Arden said on a sigh, sending his duchess a besotted look.
Felix cleared his throat, feeling suddenly ill at ease. His neck cloth had perhaps been tied too tightly that morning. For the strangest sensation struck him as he watched the ease and undeniable love between the Duke and Duchess of Arden. Surely it could not possibly be envy.
He was pleased with his life exactly as it was. He had no desire to marry another woman. Hattie was the wife of his heart, the wife of his soul. No other could take her place or compare.
“We will divert some guards to your current residence,” the duchess said.
“I have already taken the measure of moving some myself,” he said, relieved that husband and wife had realized they were not alone in the chamber once more. “But if you have more to spare, I would gladly accept them. I want Verity safe. And Miss McKenna as well. I think it would be best if the League and Scotland Yard together confer to obtain the trunk. But that brings me to another matter.”
Scotland Yard. While Felix was often the binding thread between Scotland Yard and the Special League, the police force had recently developed a new counter-Fenian division that was working in concert with the League. And the number of arrests of suspected Fenian sympathizers had tripled since then.
“I cannot promise you Miss McKenna will be safe from charges, Winchelsea,” Arden said then. “You know as well as I that such a thing is impossible.”
“The devil you cannot,” he argued. “You are working closely with the head of the Criminal Investigation Department.”
“She could be guilty as sin,” Arden returned flatly. “As I said before, your judgment is clouded by the way you feel about the lady. Regardless of what her story is, she is a known associate of one of the most dangerous blackguards of our times. Even if she is truly the man’s sister, she could still be taking her orders from him. Has it not occurred to you that she could be using her wiles for her brother’s nefarious gain?”
Of course it had, but it also made precious little sense.
“If that were indeed the case, she would have come to me immediately, rather than the other way around. And there would have been no need to reveal her true identity. She came to me in good faith and provided her knowledge of evidence against McKenna that I believe will prove invaluable to our efforts to see him apprehended.” He paused, warming to his cause. “But Miss McKenna will only provide the evidence if she is given the assurance that no charges will be laid against her.”
The last was pure fiction on his part. Johanna had made no such stipulation, but the Duke of Arden’s reaction to Felix’s revelations concerned him. For he knew that Arden’s suspicions would only be magnified by Ravenhurst, the inspector leading Scotland Yard’s newest counter-Fenian division.
Ravenhurst was a stickler. Suspicious of everyone. A coldhearted bastard.
And there was no way Felix was throwing Johanna upon the mercy of such a man. Not without some reassurance. Since Arden had been working closely with Ravenhurst, he was just the man to obtain that reassurance.
“That is very wise of Miss McKenna,” said the duchess then, pinning Felix with a frank look that said she knew precisely what he was about.
The damned woman was too intelligent for her own good, but that was part of what had made her such a tremendous asset to the Special League.
“I agree,” he said to the duchess, meeting her gaze unflinchingly. “She is already taking a great personal risk in providing us with the evidence. Her brother has threatened her life should she speak against him or turn over the trunk in her possession.”
