She shut her eyes. In the past, when he had begun to rail about he, him, Tyndale, she had felt nothing but pity. Perhaps a little curiosity. But that was before she knew Matthew. Had spoken to him and kissed him, touched him and so much more. Before she had begun to know, even a little bit, how gentle he could be.
So now when he began to rail, her body and soul responded far more powerfully. There rose up in her a wild desire to defend Matthew.
“Him,” she said carefully. “I suppose you mean Tyndale.”
“Yes,Tyndale,” he spat, and glared at her as if she were as much to blame as the very man he despised. “You know he has no honor. No value at all, despite what those in Society think of him.”
Her lips parted. “Uncle—”
He pushed to his feet and slammed the cup on the table, sloshing hot tea all over the rim and his hand. He didn’t seem to care as he stomped across the room. “Do not defend him. Don’t you dare.”
She shut her mouth before she foolishly did just that. Say too many good things about the man and her uncle might see what she had to hide. What he could never, ever know.
“I’m going to solve this,” he muttered, almost more to himself than her.
“What?” she asked, rising slowly and tracking him as he paced. She didn’t understand, for there was nothing to solve, as far as she could see. Angelica could not be brought back. And yet Fenton’s face looked almost…calm in this moment. Serene despite his rage. That frightened her more than anything had in a very long time. “Solve…solve what? How?”
“I’m going to destroy him,” he said softly. A small smile tilted his lips. “I’ve been looking for a way to do it for a very long time. A way to get close enough to truly hurt him. And now I know.”
She stared. Her uncle’s face was red, his eyes glazed with a rage that seemed to almost pulsate through him. He had cursed Tyndale before, of course. Dozens of times. Maybe even hundreds. But this felt…different. This felt serious and real.
“Hurt him?” she whispered.
He nodded. “Just like he hurt my daughter,” he said.
She gasped and took an involuntary step away from him. Her uncle believed Matthew had killed Angelica. If he was to hurt him as she had been hurt, that meant he wanted to…to kill him.
“Please, you cannot—” she began.
He held up a hand to stop her. “You needn’t worry yourself, child. This only concerns you in the barest sense.”
She shook her head. He had no idea how deeply the situation concerned her. For his sake, for Matthew’s, for her own.
“And if you are worried that I have forgotten you, I haven’t,” he said, the tension slowly going from his face. “We’ve received an invitation to a ball tomorrow night and I’ve accepted. From there, the future will start. Perhaps for both of us.” He sighed. “Now I’ve things to do. Have a good time with your book, my dear.”
He patted her on the shoulder as he departed the room, and she sank back into her chair once he’d left her alone. Her uncle’s increasing rage and unhinged behavior was not going to get better, no matter how she’d hoped that it might change and soften with time.
And it was clear she needed to speak to Matthew about it. She had to tell him that he was in danger. Even if that meant she put herself at risk in the process.
Chapter Thirteen
“So she was at Mattigan’s?”
Matthew sighed and took a sip of his watered-down drink as he looked off into the crowd at the ball. It was Hugh who had asked the question, and his mouth was tight with displeasure as he awaited the answer.
“Yes,” Matthew said. “Yesterday afternoon, when I came to pick up my order. And before you ask me a hundred questions, I don’t know.”
It was Baldwin who tilted his head in question, his dark eyes narrowing. “Don’t know what?”
“Anything,” Matthew breathed. “I’m torn. Part of me doubts everything about this woman because she deceived me.”
Hugh snorted out derision. “Isn’t that all that matters? Liars are liars, and once you unmask them you can never trust them again.” Both Baldwin and Matthew stared at his sharp tone. One Matthew felt wasn’t entirely due to his situation. Their friend shifted. “Has it occurred to you that this woman might have arranged for the meeting at the bookshop? Perhaps she even paid the owner to help her in her schemes.”
Matthew drew back. “You’ve known Mattigan as long as I have. Do you really think he would take money from someone to betray me?”
Hugh folded his arms. “You have no idea what someone would do for money. Isn’t that right, Baldwin?”
Baldwin flinched and the color drained from Hugh’s face immediately. Their friend had not long ago been in dire financial straits. It had led to his nearly losing Helena, nearly losing everything. But in the past year solid investments and help from their circle of friends had inched him back toward solvency.
