Selina bit her lip hard enough that she tasted the faint hint of blood. It was better to have that physical pain than the emotional one Vale was causing with her words. After all, she wasn’t wrong, was she? Selina didn’t belong here. And if any of the people who claimed to care for her ever found out what she truly was…
Well, they wouldn’t love her anymore, would they?
“I know,” she whispered.
Vale sighed. “I hope you do. Now I’m going to bed.”
Selina kept her back to her friend as she slipped past her and left the room. When she was alone again, she lifted her hands to cover her face. Vale had only said exactly what she had to hear. Only reminded her of what she already knew deep in her heart.
That this place, that these people…they were all an illusion. And reality was that she was the Faceless Fox.
But it was also that the moment she took the necklace, every dream she’d been living in would be over. And there was a place deep within her chest that didn’t want that moment to come.
Chapter 15
Derrick stared at the pages of the journal before him and the list he had begun to compile in it. Although the list had to do with his investigation, he was not writing it in an official capacity or within the pages of the reports he and Barber were keeping. This was his private journal.
He frowned at the handful of items in the list. What was he doing? That was the question of the week, it seemed. And could be addressed to a dozen circumstances. What was he doing hiding this information from Barber, his partner and friend? What was he doing asking these questions? What was he doing going to Selina Oliver’s room and taking her until her legs shook?
What was he doing leaving afterward instead of staying with her until dawn, until noon, until a new year, until a new decade?
He shook his head. His mind felt like a maze and he a helpless rat trying to find its way to the goal. Only he didn’t know what the goal was and the maze kept changing.
“Mr. Huntington?”
He jolted at the sound of a voice at the door and looked up to find the Duchess of Roseford standing there, watching him.
“I’m so sorry,” she said as he lunged to his feet. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I tried saying your name a handful of times.”
Derrick blinked. In his profession, it was dangerous not to always be aware of one’s surroundings, and this woman had managed to surprise him without even meaning to do it.Thatwas how distracted he was. How compromised.
“I should be the one to apologize, Your Grace. I was obviously overly involved in my work.” He motioned her into the makeshift office the Duke of Roseford had provided for them during their stay here.
“I had forgotten what a pretty view of the stables this room has,” the duchess said as she moved to the window and looked out over the expanse of green outside. “I hope it is a comfortable space for you and Mr. Barber.”
“It is, Your Grace,” he said with an inclination of his head. “And a very kind offer from you and your husband that we be allowed to use it. I happen to agree about the view. I do love watching your man train the horses in the paddock there.”
She smiled as she fully faced him. She was a truly lovely woman with her dark hair and bright eyes. She had a kind face, open and welcoming, never judging. He understood why Roseford had fallen in love with her, for both her external and internal beauty.
“Was there something you needed, Your Grace?” he asked, trying to refocus on matters at hand.
“Yes.” She sighed and trouble flickered across that face now. An emotion she wasn’t capable of covering any more than any of the others. “I had rather hoped you and Mr. Barber would be together.”
“Barber is currently…” He cut himself off. The lady might know the generalities of his investigation, but there was no reason to inform her of the specifics and frighten her. “He’s in the middle of something. But I promise I will share whatever you tell me with him.”
She nodded. “Of course. This morning one of Lady Winford’s maids approached our housekeeper with an item she had found in her mistress’s chamber while she was making the bed. A glove, Mr. Huntington, butnotone belonging to Lady Winford.”
She dug into her pelisse pocket and withdrew a long, white satin glove, and held it out. Derrick stared at it a fraction of a moment, his heart sinking. He didn’t want to touch it. He didn’t want to take it, but he had no choice. The satin caressed his fingers as he whispered, “I see.”
“Now, under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t think much of it,” the duchess said, her face drawn and lips pinched. “Laundry sometimes is done together in the washroom and items are mixed up, someone could have dropped it and it was mistakenly returned to the wrong room, a dozen other scenarios I cannot think of in the moment. And perhaps those reasons are still valid. But since you and Mr. Barber are here to investigate someone wanting to steal from Lady Winford, there are also more sinister explanations, so I thought it important to turn the item over to you.”
Derrick nodded. Everything the duchess said, every other explanation rang true. They could have been the answer to almost any other item of clothing being misplaced in Lady Winford’s chamber.
But they didn’t explain this one. Because he recognized the glove. He had peeled it and its partner from Selina’s slender hands not twelve hours before. He peeked surreptitiously in the inside lining when the duchess bent her head, and there were the initials he’d seen the night before that confirmed he was correct.
Selina’s glove found in Lady Winford’s chamber. She’d had them both when he seduced her, so the only time this one could have been left there wasafterhe departed her bed in the middle of the night. Not left by a laundress or lost by a careless partygoer.
He swallowed and pushed the glove into his pocket. “You are right, it is probably nothing,” he choked out. “But I appreciate you bringing it to me. Barber and I will look into it.”
