Chapter One
He wasn’t there.
For the first game of the season in Manchester Central’s next bid for the FA Cup, Jonny Tate wasn’t there.
Ada watched Rhys fume on the sidelines, and could feel Rhys’s wife, Emmaline, tense beside her.
“This isn’t good,” Emmaline muttered. “Their substitute is Mack Cook, and he’s a nice enough man, but not the half-back Jonny is. Where could he be?”
Ada had some ideas, but she wasn’t about to voice them aloud.
For doing so would reveal all too much about just how she could know such things.
Murmurs began to spread through the stands as the rest of the fans finally started to realize that something was amiss.
“Where’s Tate?” a man shouted, another one joining, making their discontent audible to the players gathered around the bench as Colin, husband of Ada’s friend Lily and Rhys’s unofficial second-in-command on the footballpitch, spoke with the captain of the other team, likely trying to stall for time for Cook – or Jonny – to arrive.
Emmaline stood and pointed her finger at the jeering fan as she hollered, “They’ve enough to deal with at the moment without needing to answer to you!”
Chagrined, the man sat, although Emmaline appeared far from satisfied as she retook her seat.
“If only Rhys had agreed to leave my name on the roster as a substitute,” she grumbled, and Ada couldn’t help a small laugh.
Emmaline was right. She would fit with the team far better than anyone else, having played with them — disguised — a season herself, but she could hardly do so again with everyone now knowing her identity.
“You could play as well, Ada,” Emmaline said, her eyes gleaming as she leaned over. “You’ve come a long way since we began.”
When Emmaline had first put together her women’s football team, Ada had joined in support of her friend, but she had been shocked to discover just how much she loved playing the game. The women’s sport was still slowly growing; the team only played a few matches a season when they could find an opponent, but Ada still loved the opportunity.
“Thank you, Emmaline. I will take that as a compliment,” she responded wryly.
“You should. That’s how I meant it.”
Lily laughed at them, while Minnie, the fourth in their little group of friends, rolled her eyes with a smile.
“At least this season, so far, a missing player is our largest concern,” Minnie murmured. “No more looking over our shoulders, wondering if someone is coming after us — me, specifically.”
Last season, Minnie’s fatherhad become involved with a man far more sinister than anyone had ever realized — anyone except Ada.
For Ada had known Barker Blackwood’s reputation all too well. She had been raised with the name swirling around her in the shadows, a name that had grown her family’s wealth as well as their complicity in Blackwood’s schemes.
Ada had a feeling she knew exactly what had kept Jonny Tate away from a game that was important to his team — a game that should have taken priority for him.
“He must have a good reason and at least this is just an exhibition game,” Lily said, ever the optimist. “Do you think all is well?”
“All is just fine,” Ada bit out. “He just doesn’t care enough.”
Emmaline peeled her eyes away from the pitch to take a long look at her. “What is it about him that gets to you? I know you don’t trust anyone, but youreallydon’t trust Jonny.”
“I know him,” she said before amending at their surprised glances, “his type, that is. He’s looking out for himself, and everyone else just comes second.”
“He saved us last year when my father tried to barter my hand away,” Minnie said. “If Jonny hadn’t brought us Blackwood’s ledger, who knows where we would be now.”
“And where was he at the end, when you really needed him?” Ada snapped back, remembering the scene on the docks, when Minnie and Tommy had been surrounded, Colin and Rhys had been discovered, and Jonny was nowhere to be found. It had looked dire for Minnie, until— well, Ada tried not to think about just how they had escaped.
“He explained himself,” Minnie said softly. “His brother arrived, although why that caused him such a distraction, I have no idea.”
Ada did. It was because Jonny hadn’t seen his brother inyears, and whatever had happened between them had created repercussions that still rippled through Manchester today. At least, the side of Manchester that she, unfortunately, was all too familiar with.
