What he didn’t know was the reason for the emotion. Was it because she thought a criminal had slipped into her chamber and stolen from her while she slept a few feet away? That could engender fear in even the most confident and brave of people.
Or was it because shewasa criminal and Derrick had nearly caught her by the fluffy fox tail?
He found himself praying it was the first. Because if she’d truly been victimized by the Fox, she couldn’tbethe Fox. And that would make everything easier, bearable…
“Derrick, that would explain everything, wouldn’t it?” she asked, drawing his attention back to her in this moment and not all the ways he was trying to absolve her in his mind. No, not his mind. His heart.
“I suppose it would,” he said slowly. “Though the Fox’s modus operandi is a bit…different.”
Her gaze fluttered away from his. “Oh? How so?”
He shook his head. This was not a conversation he should be having with a suspect in his investigation. In fact, considering how compromised he was, perhaps he shouldn’t be having a conversation with her at all.
He cleared his throat and tried to clear his mind so easily. “Come, we must speak to Barber.”
Her eyes widened. “But…why?”
“Because if you have been robbed by the Fox within the last twelve or so hours, that means he’s on the move and Barber needs to be kept up to date.” He dropped his gaze from hers. “Get dressed.”
She stared at him a beat. He felt those blue eyes boring into him even when he didn’t look at her. She even drew a breath as if to say something. He waited for her to do so, waited not knowing exactly what hewantedher to say. A denial? A confession? Neither one would satisfy.
But then she shook her head and instead went looking for her stockings in the mess on the floor around them.
It felt like an eternity as she dressed, though it couldn’t have been more than a quarter of an hour, in truth. Selina was efficient—she even was able to fasten herself. Perhaps that came from how she’d grown up. He wanted that to explain it. He wanted not to wonder how she was so practiced when she now had a companion to help her.
He tried not to add it to the growing list of reasons to think her the Fox. He also tried not to stare as she wound her hair up in a loose bun and pinned it in place. Gone was the woman he’d made love to. She now looked as pulled together as she was when he’d found her playing piano a few hours before. As if that woman were a mask she wore.
He feared she was.
He cleared his throat. “Is there anything else you need?”
Her gaze dropped to his lips, but she shook her head. “No, I’m ready. But you might want me to peek into the hallway to ensure we won’t be caught leaving my chamber together. Not everyone has such a liberal-minded view of unmarried people making love all afternoon. We wouldn’t want you caught up in something you didn’t want.”
She slipped past him as she said it. He stared at her as she looked into the hall. She meant he might be forced to marry her. There was a thought.Marryingher. Being with her every day for the rest of his life.
Knowing she might be lying to him every one of those days.
She gave a strained smile from the door. “All clear. Let’s go before that changes.”
He followed her into the hallway, and they walked in silence back downstairs toward the workspace provided for him and Barber. Tension coursed between them with every step they took, but for the first time it wasn’t merely erotic tension. For the first time he truly felt like an investigator with her.
Perhaps he should have been all along, given what he now suspected.
As they entered the study together, Derrick’s eyes found Barber sitting at the desk, his dark head bent over the timeline he and Derrick had been formulating together the past few days. Derrick’s heart sank. In some small part of him, he’d hoped they wouldn’t find his partner. That he’d be able to put off this inevitability for a little while longer.
But he wasn’t so lucky, it seemed. Barber looked up from the desk. His gaze flitted over Selina and then swung to Derrick. He held there for a long moment, and Derrick saw him analyzing the situation. Barber knew what he’d been doing and from the deepening frown on his face, he didn’t approve.
At last, he rose to his feet with a sigh. “Miss Oliver,” he said. “Good afternoon.”
“Mr. Barber,” she said. “I’m so sorry to intrude on your work.”
“My work?” Barber repeated, his eyebrows lifting toward Derrick again. “I’m merely a visitor in your brother’s home, miss. I assure you I was doing no work.”
The room spoke otherwise, of course, with its papers strewn about, notes written on them, desks pushed together in the middle of the space.
Derrick bent his head. “Selina knows,” he said softly.
Selina caught her breath, as if she only just realized they were outing her knowledge of Derrick’s true identity. She rushed forward, hands raised in a gesture of surrender. “Mr. Barber, you must understand, I rudely eavesdropped on the conversation you and Mr. Huntington had with my brother last week. You were never betrayed by your partner.”
