Felix was involved in counter-Fenian enforcement? Involved in the government?
Everything inside her went cold. He had never said a word. Not in all the time they had spent together. Not when she had confessed everything to him. Not when she had told him she was in possession of dynamite. Not when he had kissed her or held her. Most definitely not when he had shared her bed.
“You are telling me that His Grace is the reason I am under arrest?” she asked, a sick sense of betrayal brewing inside her, filling her stomach with a churning sea of nausea.
“You are under arrest because you admitted to brining lignin dynamite into England with the express purpose of delivering it to known Fenians,” Ravenhurst countered. “Fortunately, that information was given to us by Winchelsea before you were able to sufficiently work your wiles upon him.”
“I asked him to give that information to the proper authorities,” she said, still struggling to make sense of the situation.
“The Duke of Winchelsea was the proper authority,” Ravenhurst informed her. “But of course, you knew that when you fabricated your plan to seduce him. Do not think for a moment that your naïve innocence act is deceiving me. Was it your brother’s idea, or was it yours, Miss McKenna, to infiltrate counter-Fenian operations? It was a clever notion, I will admit.”
She stared at Ravenhurst, the betrayal merging with anguish. If what he was telling her was true, that meant Felix had deceived her. That Felix had used her. That perhaps everything he had told her, everything he had shared with her, had been a lie.
That he had been manipulating her all along.
“I had no such plan,” she defended herself, finding her voice at last. “My only plan was to thwart my brother using whatever means I could. I want his men to be arrested. I want him to be brought to justice.”
“Ah, and now you will act the part of the martyr.”
“I am not a martyr,” she denied, tears burning her eyes. Tears of frustration. Of rage. Of confusion. “I am just a woman who was trying to escape a desperate situation. A woman who was trying to do what was right and protect myself at the same time.”
And Felix had taken her trust and abused it. He had lied to her.
Dear God, he had been in her bed. Had told her he had tender feelings for her. He had offered to make her his wife, had delivered such a pretty speech. He had made her believe him. Had made her believeinhim. Had made her love him.
How dare he?
“What you are, Miss McKenna,” said Ravenhurst calmly and coldly, “is a Fenian viper. An excellent actress and seductress. But your games have ended. Give me all the information you possess on your brother, and I will consider reducing the charges which will be laid against you.”
Charges.
She was going to go to prison.
This was it, then. The end. For once she reached prison, surely Drummond’s foot soldiers would find her. She was as good as dead.
She inhaled slowly, trying to decide what her next course of action should be.
But before she could speak, the world exploded around her.
And then, everything went black.
Felix was desperate.
Desperate to find a way to save the woman he loved from being incarcerated for a crime she had not committed. Watching her being taken away by Scotland Yard detectives earlier that day, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop them, had been akin to a dagger in the heart.
After seeing to Verity’s safety and making certain she would be well looked after and guarded, he had gone immediately to Arden. It required every shred of control he possessed to walk calmly behind Arden’s butler as he showed him to the study. Everything within him was crying out and raging to chase after Johanna. To save her.
But he knew he had to proceed with caution. He needed to approach Johanna’s arrest with as clear and untroubled a mind as he could manage. Because she needed him now more than she ever had before.
Guilt skewered him as the butler announced him and he stalked into Arden’s study. If he had procured the license quicker, if he had not bungled his proposal, they would have been wed. As his duchess and a peeress, her standing would have been much greater. His position with the Home Office would have benefited her in a way it could not now.
Arden stood at his entrance. “Winchelsea.”
“Arden,” he greeted in turn. “Scotland Yard detectives forced their way into my home a mere hour ago. They took Johanna and are charging her with conspiracy.”
“Damn Ravenhurst,” Arden swore. “He is overstepping his bounds.”
“Yes,” Felix agreed angrily. “He most certainly is. The Home Office and the Special League have been directing all inquiries into Fenian operations for the past three years. The establishment of this new arm of Scotland Yard does not give them the power to make arrests without our consent.”
