Anne looked slightly more uncertain. “That is quite the shift from the past few weeks.”
“We’re all transitioning,” Juliana said with a tight smile for Anne. “And last night I feel I was…changed.”
Thomasina and Anne exchanged a look, and Juliana held her breath. She could see that unspoken communication they’d always shared flowing between the two of them. If they didn’t believe her, she would never be given an inch to help Ellis. But at last they both smiled.
“I’m glad that your time here has allowed you to think more clearly,” Anne said. “We should celebrate this! Thomasina, didn’t you receive an invitation to tea at Miss Winifred Wallington’s house for this afternoon?”
“I did!” Thomasina said. “My first invitation since our return to London. I am very pleased, as I’ve always liked Winifred. Won’t you come with us, Juliana?”
Juliana shifted. There was a part of her that wanted to go to this tea and support Thomasina as she shifted back into Society as a countess. But it also offered her an opportunity.
She lifted her hand to her scarred cheek. “I-I don’t think I’m ready,” she said, and sought the closest thing to truth there was. “Yesterday in the park, I felt people staring at my face. Heard them whisper. I’m just not comfortable yet. You two should go, though. Enjoy yourselves. I’ll stay here and read my book and eat too many biscuits. It will be heavenly.”
Anne wrinkled her brow. “Are you certain?”
“I am. But I do want to help pick your outfits.” She leaned forward, and now her excitement was true. “Thomasina, do you think the blue silk?”
Thomasina hesitated a moment, but then she laughed and the three began to talk about gowns and hairstyles and who else would be at this important tea. Juliana loved every moment of it, for it was a taste of something more routine after months of anything but.
She only hoped that if she and Ellis could catch and stop the man who threatened all of them, normalcy would be permanent.
Ellis shifted his weight as he stood behind the bush outside the servant entrance of Harcourt’s home. It was almost two, the exact time Juliana’s missive had told him to come. He still had the paper in his pocket and found himself reaching in to touch it from time to time.
The paper was heavy and expensive, her hand flowing and elegant. He had memorized how she wrote his name,Ellis, notMr. Maitland,as would be more appropriate. The very act of it was like a caress. And he certainly had more than one memory of those.
He’d sworn so hard and so long that he wouldn’t claim her. He had every reason not to ruin her for the future she believed would never come. But he wanted her. More than he’d ever wanted any other woman. So he’d found a way to justify what he’d done, claiming it to be for quid pro quo in their bargain to work together to find Winston Leonard.
The reality was that he knew his time was running out, like desperate sand through an unyielding hourglass. Being with Juliana was a deathbed wish. A final meal before he was marched to the gallows. And because he was exactly the villain he’d always been, he was going to savor that last bit of pleasure even if he knew it was wrong.
The servant entrance opened, and he ducked back into the bushes to keep from prying eyes. But it wasn’t a maid or footman who exited. It was Juliana, herself. He caught his breath as she stepped into the bright afternoon sunshine. She was exquisite, from the crown of her blonde head to the tips of her slippered toes. His body went on edge the moment he saw her.
But there was another reaction that struck him as she pulled the door shut behind herself and lifted up on her tiptoes to search the back courtyard for him. His chest stirred with…feelings. Emotions he had carefully trained out of himself over the years he’d performed tricks against ladies of her class. He cared about her. When he looked at her, he didn’t just want to touch her and make her shiver with pleasure. He wanted to talk to her. Be near her. He wanted to know her and let her see into what was left of his shriveled heart.
Which made her the most dangerous creature in his life.
“Ellis?” she whispered.
He shook off the unwanted thoughts and stepped from the bushes with his best false smile. “Miss Shelley, fancy meeting you here.”
A smile broke over that lovely face and it was brighter than the sun on a cloudless day. “You came,” she breathed as she stepped up to him and caught his hand in both of hers.
“Of course I did,” he said, trying to ignore the tug on his heart as he tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. It felt far too comfortable there, and he cursed himself. This wasn’t good. He needed to distance himself from her a little. For his own good as much as hers. “I need your help—I had to come.”
He felt her stiffen at the wall he’d placed between them, but she didn’t address it. Instead, she said, “My sisters are at tea. I haven’t seen Harcourt or Rook all day.”
“They’re at Harcourt’s club,” Ellis explained with a frown. “Trying to use some of Harcourt’s connections to get information about Leonard. The house isn’t busy with everyone out, but there is a little garden exit back here…” He guided her down and around a few secret paths to the same gate he had used to enter the property not a quarter of an hour before.
“I didn’t even know this was here,” she admitted as she followed him through and into a back alley behind the house.
He shrugged. “A whole life goes on in this city that you don’t know about. Servant entrances and pathways are my specialty, angel.”
“We can go around to the park this way,” she said, drawing him forward toward the street where they fell into the walking couples and faded into obscurity in a moment. A place he had always been both comfortable and restless. “Are you jealous of Rook and Harcourt?” she asked.
He jolted at the unexpected question and glared down at her. “That’s ridiculous. Why would I be jealous?” he snapped, perhaps a bit more sharply than he intended.
She drew a little breath, as if she were considering whether or not she should push. He waited to see what she decided, recognizing she would only pursue an uncomfortable topic if she gave a damn. He didn’t know which answer would make him happy, if any.
“You and Rook are family,” she said slowly. “You were partners in your endeavors. He credits you for saving him from a fate worse than even a life on the street. When you said he was with Harcourt, I heard that tension in your voice. I’m afraid I recognize it from my own tone.”
