“If it was,” he murmured, “don’t tell anyone. It would ruin my reputation.”
“As you know, I’m very good at keeping secrets,” she replied, too confused to think of a clever quip.
“Speaking of secrets . . .” Wrexford suddenly took her arm and drew her toward the stairwell. “To the devil with Griffin. He’ll have his hands full cleaning up this sordid mess, so he can wait until tomorrow to question me. Given all the secrets within secrets we’ve unraveled, you are right to insist that our friends deserve to hear the report without delay.”
They were quickly swallowed in shadows, theclump-clumpof their boots sounding unnaturally loud on the age-worn stone steps.
“I take it the Weasels are close by? And Skinny?” he asked as the stairs made a tight turn and continued downward.
“Yes. McClellan was clever enough to bring Skinny back from my house in your unmarked carriage to where Griffin and Sheffield were waiting. The boys are waiting with them.” The darkness was giving her a welcome respite in which to compose her emotions. Though Wrexford had appeared not to notice, she feared her face couldn’t help but give away the true state of her feelings.
“Excellent. We’ll have the Weasels go spirit Hillhouse away from the Runners, and then we can all head to Mrs. Ashton’s townhouse.”
“McClellan already dispatched word to Jeremy in Cambridge telling him about your abduction. I assume he’s already on his way back to London,” said Charlotte. “Her efficiency is very impressive, as is her fortitude. She seems remarkably un-rattled by the havey-cavey antics of my household. Most maids would swoon at the sight of her mistress dressed as an urchin and brandishing a pistol.”
“McClellan is no ordinary maid,” murmured Wrexford, “and no stranger to havey-cavey antics.”
“Which begs the question of how she came to be part of your household.”
“She’s Tyler’s cousin,” he replied. “Apparently she made some sort of mistake in her past—I know not what, nor do I care. And when he asked me if I might consider hiring her so she could get out of Scotland, I was happy to do so. It’s my belief that everyone deserves a second chance.”
A second chance.Charlotte flinched, her boot catching in a crack and causing her to stumble. How much had he already guessed about her past?
“Steady.” Wrexford caught her arm.
A mirthless laugh nearly slipped from her lips.Steady?Of late, it felt as if her life had been wrenched loose from its moorings and was spinning-spinning-spinning in a whirling vortex of dangerous crosscurrents.
Suddenly feeling dizzy and disoriented, Charlotte hurried down the last few stairs and flung open the door to the back alleyway.
Rain was spattering the rough-hewn cobbles, forming dark puddles of water over the uneven stone. A sharp gust tugged at her hat, pulling free a tendril of hair that danced in and out of the silvery drops. Hugging her arms to her chest, she lifted her gaze to the sky and drew in great gulps of salty air. The sting helped her shake off the fugue of panic.
I am stronger than fear.As the wild thumping of her heart slowed, Charlotte found her eyes held by the ever-changing play of grey against grey. There was a stark beauty to the infinite range of hues and the way they never stood still. Mixing and moving, the effect was subtle, but all the more intriguing for it. Gulls winged through the breeze-ruffled mist, storm-clouds scudded across the pewter-dark patch of horizon peeking up from behind a warehouse. She held herself still, soaking in the sense of calm and feeling the chaos within her begin to subside.
* * *
Wrexford let her go, slowing his steps to allow her a moment alone. He sensed the tension thrumming through her body, and the very un-Charlotte-like confusion pinching at her face. In truth, his own emotions weren’t on a very even keel. Being within kissing distance of death brought a certain clarity, he supposed.
But what he had seen had left him a little shaken.
On reaching the doorway, Wrexford paused to watch the quicksilver wisps of vapor dip and dart through low-hangingroofs of the facing buildings. It was, he reflected, strange how one’s own deepest thoughts played the same taunting games within the cracks and crevasses of the mind.Hide-and-seek.He didn’t often care about chasing them. But during the few fleeting moments of Charlotte’s hug, the oddest sensations had taken hold of him.
He had found himself acutely aware of how perfectly they fit together, even though all their individual shapes and contours were so very dissimilar. A conundrum, to be sure. As was the fact that the closeness had felt good in ways he couldn’t begin to define. It wasn’t sensual in the erotic sense of the word. For that, the words could come easily and glibly to his tongue. It had been something deeper. An elemental connection between them that contradicted logic, given that they lived in such different worlds.
Love.Perhaps that was the simple answer that cut through all the complexities.
The sharp crunch of her boots shifting on the scattering of pebbles brought Wrexford out of his musings. He took a tentative step out into the spitting mizzle just as her voice broke the silence between them.
“You’ve told me that you men of science think everything in the universe is in constant motion—the sun, the moon, the stars, the tide . . . the hearts that thump inside our chests.” she said. “Constant motion, which means constant change—it’s an elemental law of nature.”
He saw her profile pinch in a pensive frown.
“So, it seems ironic that change is so terrifying to us.”
“The world is full of beautiful contradictions,” responded Wrexford. “Perhaps someday we will have rational answers for all its workings. But I rather doubt it. Some things simply defy logic.” He allowed a wry smile. “Which to my way of thinking is all for the good, as rules are meant to be broken.”
She chuffed a laugh, though it rang a little hollow. “Now you are speaking like an artist.”
“I think we’ve both come to understand that there’s never just one way of looking at a conundrum.” He took a step closer to her. “What is it that has you so terrified?”
