“Yes. Were you not?”
“No, I am!”
“I do have one request.”
“Anything.”
“When the time comes, you let me die first?”
He cupped my chin thoughtfully, lovingly. “Many, many years from now, you may die first. A century, perhaps?”
“A century sounds wonderful.” He kissed me again and I silently cursed his injuries. I settled back against his uninjured side once more while he thumbed through my hair.
“You never did tell me the whole story, you said someone threatened me?”
Forty-Three
RYCLIFFE PLACE, LONDON - JUNE 30, 1816
WILLIAM
“Victoria,”Celine answered, tracing a finger over my heart. “She found me at the ball, told me that Gabriel’s killer knew we were searching for them. She said they would kill you too. And Kit, and Xander, and Michael, and anyone else who helped me.”
Her unease that night made a depressing sense now. My hand, the one not curled around her hip, clenched at my side. I was filled with the impotent desire to hit something, someone.
“I knew you wouldn’t accept that…” she continued.
“So you ended things with me.”
“Yes. I’m so sorry, Will.”
I pressed a kiss to her forehead in lieu of a response.
“She said it had to do with the break-in at your office. I thought… I hoped that if I was seen to… if it was widely known that…”
“You weren’t with me?”
“Yes. If that were known, then they would stop. It wasn’t worth it, knowing the truth—the identity of Gabriel’s killer—it wasn’t worth you being hurt.”
If there was anything that would ease the sting of her rejection, the knowledge that she cared more for my safety than the answers that had plagued her for years would do it. Her thumb began to tap against my heart in time with the beat beneath.
My free hand found hers on my chest and traced the elegant lines of her fingertips while she tapped. I noticed that her hand found its way there often, her lips too. I was beginning to suspect it was a comfort to her, to check that it was still beating. Silently, I reaffirmed my impossible promise that she could go first. She should never have to feel my heart stop.
Pulling her fingers up to my lips, I pressed the vow to their tips before returning her hand to its home.
“I found the documents. I know Parker was involved.”
Just then, we were interrupted by a polite knock. Rising, Celine found Jane on the other side of the door. “My lady? Mr. Wayland, Mr. Ainsley, and Mr. Summers are downstairs hoping to speak to you and Mr. Hart.”
“Just left Kit’s apartment, he hasn’t seen enough of me?”
“Apparently not,” Celine answered. Turning back to Jane, she said, “In my sitting room. If you please, Jane. I don’t think it wise to move Mr. Hart all the way back downstairs.”
“Quite right. Mr. Ainsley brought some of those fairy cakes and tarts from Hudson’s. I’ll have those brought up as well?”
“Excellent plan. Be sure to let everyone else know they’re available before Bouvier eats the rest.”
“Already done, just as soon as I saw ’em. Do you want me to send in a footman for Mr. Hart?”
