Up to her neck in it? In what? Did this have something to do with Carter?
“Tommy?” He nudged his friend as he was about to walk by him, oblivious to what was happening around them. “Do you hear that?”
“What?”
He gestured to the group of men they were walking by.
Tommy slowed, tilting his head as though it would help him to hear better.
“Who are they talking about?” he asked, wrinkling his nose.
“Ada.”
“Our Ada?”
“Yes,” Jonny said, his nostrils flaring slightly. “Our Ada.”
He’d like to sayhis, but that wasn’t anywhere near the truth.
Jonny stepped forward, ready to tell these men exactly what he thought about all of their suppositions, but Tommy placed a hand on his chest. “Wait,” he said. “Let’s find out more about what’s happening, and then we’ll address it. Saying something to these idiots will only cause a fight that we don’t need right now.”
Jonny took a breath, knowing that Tommy was right despite his desperation to do something, even if it was just with this lot.
There was no discussion about it in the change room, but then, everyone in here had been on the field with him.
It wasn’t until the women met them afterward to make their way to The King’s Head that he learned more.
“What’s going on?” he demanded as they all entered thecarriage together. It was a tight fit, but they managed it. Ada and Emmaline exchanged a glance before Ada bit her lip.
“There are rumors going around that I’ve been seen with someone from Blackwood — now Sharpe’s — organization,” she said. “They’re saying that’s why David won’t marry me. Because I’ve sullied myself with them.”
Jonny’s eyes widened. This was worse than he had thought.
“Do they know…”
He trailed off as Ada started whipping her head back and forth. The other men didn’t know that she was the one who had shot Blackwood. At least, as far as he knew.
He let out the breath he was holding. It would have been much harder had the rumor been the truth.
“This should all die down when people realize how wrong they are,” Rhys said.
Jonny nodded. “Your father was involved. Not you.”
“No one cares about the truth,” she muttered, looking out the window at others who were making their way in the same direction.
They rode in uneasy silence, no one having an answer.
“Where do you think the rumor began?” Emmaline finally said.
Ada lifted her head, but it wasn’t Emmaline she looked at. No, her gaze was directed straight at Jonny.
“I don’t know,” she said, staring at him. “Who would know about my family’s past and want to take the heat off of himself?”
Jonny straightened, squaring his shoulders as disbelief filled him. “You thinkIdid this?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know,” she said, clearly exasperated as she pushed through the carriage door after the vehicle came to a stop, not waiting for anyone to open it for her.
“I can’t believe this,” Jonny muttered as he followed therest of them. Colin heard and turned back to him with a slight wince.
