“I do not require fetching.” She frowned at him, feeling Bennett’s presence behind her. “How did you know I was here?”
“I know a great many things, Miss Todd. Including the identity of your, ahem, bodyguard here.” Ransom slanted a cold and strangely triumphant glance at Bennett. “Do you want to tell her or shall I?”
“I know who Bennett is,” she scoffed.
She looked to her lover for confirmation—and his flinch, the wary tension of his large frame sent a sudden shaft of apprehension through her.
“Tessa,” he said in a low, urgent tone, “there are things I need to tell you. I would have told you earlier, but—”
“But he didn’t want you to know that he’s been lying to you for the entirety of your acquaintance.” Ransom smiled thinly. “He lied to get into your grandfather’s employ; Bennett is not his real name. He is, in fact, Harry Kent, a disgraced scientist and a member of the Metropolitan Police Force. He was sent on a covert mission to spy on your family.”
“What?” Shock numbed her. “You…you’re making that up. Bennett,”—she turned desperately to her lover—“tell him that isn’t true.”
The expression on Bennett’s face struck her heart like a dagger.
“My name is Harry Kent, and I do work for the police. I was sent to investigate your grandfather,” he said hoarsely, “but the goal of the mission soon changed to stopping the hellfire. We’re on the same side. Once I got to know you, your family, I realized—”
“He realized he could land himself a bigger fish,” Ransom cut in. “How paltry a policeman’s wages must have seemed compared to the dowry of Bartholomew Black’s granddaughter.”
“Devil take you, that had nothing to do with it,” Bennett—no,Harry Kent—snarled.
“My mistake,” the duke drawled. “Perhaps I have you confused with that other Kent family. You know, Ambrose Kent, ex-investigator who married the divine, and divinely rich, Marianne Draven. Or Emma Kent, who netted herself the Duke of Strathaven—”
“One more word about my family, and I’m calling you out,” Kent growled.
“A gentleman’s duel? How ironic coming from you,” Ransom shot back.
“Stop.”
The word came from her lips, but it seemed to come from some place far away. Some place that was housed in ice, numbing the pain that was spreading like a crack, threatening to splinter her into pieces. The man she loved, the only man she would ever love, had betrayed her.
He’d never wanted her. He’d been using her as a means to an end: as an instrument to destroy her family.
“Tessa, I swear I was going to tell you everything once the danger was over.” Kent was talking, but all she could think was,You’re lying. All of it. Lies.“Your grandfather, he knew all along who I was. And he agreed that telling you the truth now would risk—”
“Likely story,” Ransom drawled, “and difficult to disprove since Black has gone missing.”
Panic flared, momentarily blocking out the pain. “What’s happened to Grandpapa?”
“I’m sorry to inform you, my dear, but he’s been missing since the day before yesterday. He and your father,” Ransom said gravely.
“Oh God.” She closed her eyes, dread washing through her. “My mama—”
“She is fine. From what I understand, your grandfather’s man Ming got her to safety. She’s staying with the Garritys…friends of your grandfather, I believe.”
“I must get back to London.” She focused on that purpose, on that hope. Her world may have fallen apart, but one thing did not change: she was a Black. “I must see to Mama, help in the search for Grandpapa and my father.”
“That is why I’m here, my dear. To aid you however I can,” Ransom said.
“Swift Nick, get in the carriage,” she said.
“Don’t go, Tessa.” Kent gripped her by the arm, his eyes blazing into hers. “It’s not safe. I don’t trust this bastard—”
“That’s rich,” she said bitterly. “You’ve been lying to me since the moment we met.”
“I know. And God,God, I wish for once that I had the right words.” His hold tightened on her. “That I knew how to tell you how sorry I am.”
She couldn’t take any more of this. Her emotions were already a seething morass.
