“We can discuss this more later, but…” Clementine turned serious again, her expression somewhat regretful. “I think you know that there are more pressing matters to be addressed.”
Oh no.Amelia wasn’t ready to talk about those pressing matters, to hear the reason why Clementine and Lord Winterhope had come to Smuggler’s Manor—with Lady Foxbourne and Miss Henrietta in tow.
Amelia’s legs drew up toward her almost of their own accord, and her arms wrapped around her bare knees as they rose above the surface of the water.
“What would those be?” she asked weakly.
Clementine plucked at her gloves, and Amelia couldn’t help but notice how proper her cousin looked. Not as stiff and proper as Amelia had been, but so very elegant and beautiful. Marriage, it seemed, suited her.
Being a marchionesssuited her. Clementine met Amelia’s gaze.
“Uncle Lysander.”Amelia’s father. “He is involved with a very bad man.”
“The Duke of Crossings,” Amelia said. At least this much she was familiar with.
“Yes. It seems your father didn’t realize who, exactly, he was dealing with, however. They had a… falling out. Unfortunately,the duke is a powerful man. He’s evil, Amelia. He trades opium for tea.”
“He is a smuggler,” Amelia said.
“Yes, but not like Mr. Beckworth. The dukekillspeople. He kills anyone who gets in his way. When Benjamin told me you might be in danger, I was desperate to warn you.”
“But I wasn’t receiving your letters.”
“Exactly. And Benjamin, well, he, Mr. Beckworth, and few other gentlemen are trying to stop the duke. It’s a dangerous business and they couldn’t risk your father knowing that they knew… It’s all very complicated, but everyone agreed the only way to protect you was to?—”
“Make it look like a kidnapping.” It was all making sense now. It explained why Mr. Beckworth hadn’t taken her father’s jewels. It explained why he’d promised her father that she would be safe. It even explained why he didn’t want her to go walking outside alone.
“Mr. Beckworth kidnapped you at Lord Winterhope’s request, to protect you.”
Amelia hadn’t kept a single thing from him. And yet he hadn’t even seen fit to tell her the truth of her own circumstances. Would he have told her now? If they hadn’t been interrupted? Was that what he’d been going to say?
There she had been, waiting for him to declare his love. But…
This was only temporary.
“He could have told me,” she said in a small voice. “Once I was safe, why didn’t he tell me?”
Clementine shrugged. “No one could be sure that you weren’t in on it. I remembered that you helped your father with his books—his accounts…” She winced. “I told Benjamin you wouldn’t be, but…”
No one had trusted her.
Mr. Beckworth certainly hadn’t. Had all of it been a lie? And if her mother was here now…
She needed more time!
“Is it over? The danger? Is that why you’ve come?” She didn’t want to hear the answer, but she asked anyway.
But Clem was shaking her head. “The opposite, I’m afraid. I have… terrible news, Amelia. Your father has disappeared. No one knows if he’s left the country or if he’s been…”
“My father might be dead,” Amelia whispered. This couldn’t be happening.
“Benjamin says it’s possible that he caught a packet across the channel, so there’s still hope. But until this is all settled, and until your brother returns, you are still in grave danger, and your mother needs protection as well now.” Clementine offered a weak smile. “That is why we are here. Benjamin and I, and you and your mother, we are going to wait all of this out somewhere safe.”
“That’s why you’ve come.”
“Yes.”
That numb feeling, the same one she’d felt when she’d first been… kidnapped, took over her body from head to toe. It was too much. Best to feel nothing. Suddenly, she was watching all of this happen to somebody else—some other lady.
