“There is a guard watching the doors,” Vale said slowly. Then she paced to the window and threw open the curtains. She lifted the sash and a burst of cool air filled the room. “But I’m assuming he doesn’t know your skill with windows.”
Selina walked to the window and stared down. It was a long climb, fraught with danger. It wouldn’t be an easy descent for them, that was certain. Equally certain was that she could manage it. She’d escaped many a manor home exactly this way.
“If I run, it will destroy any hope I have to reconcile with my family,” she said. “It will make my confession look self-serving.”
Vale pivoted and caught her arms. “It should be self-serving! Why allow yourself to be caught? Why allow yourself to be punished? No. We run.”
Selina stared again into the night. She had done this to Vale. She owed her partner a chance at freedom. Together they had it. If she could get back to London, she could give access to funds to her friend, see that she escaped punishment for her part in Selina’s crimes.
And then Selina could turn herself in. Vale wouldn’t approve, but what would it matter then? She would have saved the last person she didn’t want to damage. And she could accept her fate.
“Fine,” she said, and turned her back. “Unfasten me. I can’t climb in this contraption.”
Vale laughed softly and rushed forward to unfasten her, but Selina felt no joy or thrill in this decision. Just another disappointment she would create in Derrick. In her family.
And she couldn’t imagine how much more they’d hate her when this was finished.
Derrick stepped from the protection of a doorway at the end of the hall. Barber wasn’t at his post. Of course, at four in the morning, he hadn’t expected his friend to be. They needed to be well rested for all to come, so he had probably assigned a footman to watch the door in the wee hours. Derrick moved down the hall toward Selina’s room and from the shadows stepped one of the servants, just as he had guessed.
“M-Mr. Huntington,” he stammered. “What business do you have?”
Derrick stifled a curse and smiled at the boy. “I’m taking over for you on watch.”
The young man glanced down the hall. “I dunno, sir. Mr. Barber and the Duke of Roseford were clear I wasn’t to leave my post.”
“Not to leave your post unattended,” Derrick reassured him. “Which you wouldn’t be.”
“I—”
Derrick straightened his shoulders and snapped into a military tone that he knew as well as his own name. “Boy, I’ve given you a direct order. I’m in the service of the King in this matter. To defy me is to defy your sovereign. Is that what you would like to do tonight?”
“N-No,” he responded, lifting his hands. “Of course, sir. I leave you to it, sir.”
Derrick felt bad as he watched the boy rush away. But in the end, Barber would blame him, not the young man. Derrick could take it. He had to because he needed to see Selina and resolve this.
Her door was locked, but it didn’t matter. He slipped a lock pick from his boot and popped the lock open with a few twists of his wrist. He settled his hand against the flat of it, opening it slowly so it wouldn’t creak.
He stepped into the room. The fire had burned low in the night. He saw the shadow of Selina’s form in the bed, but she didn’t stir as he entered and shut the door behind himself. He moved toward her, his breath almost nonexistent as he reentered her space. He needed to see her. To touch her.
To get some kind of explanation so he’d know what to do next.
He reached out a hand, watched it tremble as he set it where her hip should be on the bed. But instead of encountering the firm lines of her body beneath the covers, his hand sank into softness, deeper and deeper.
He yanked his hand back and stared. The lump still hadn’t moved. His stomach dropped.
“Bloody fuck, Selina,” he grumbled as he threw the covers back and revealed an expertly positioned group of pillows beneath. Selina was gone.
And all that was left was a note on her empty pillow that readI’m sorry.
Chapter 23
When Selina had come to Roseford from London, she and Vale had traveled a direct route on good roads. But the way back was far different. She knew there were two bloodhounds on her trail, working together to find her and make her pay for her crimes. So the past two days she and her partner had traveled carefully, on back roads, stopping at nondescript inns and hiding their carriage so it wouldn’t be seen.
Now Selina sat in the sitting room of their chamber at a rundown inn on the outskirts of the small city they’d stopped in. She didn’t even know the name as she stared at the wall with a blank, unseeing expression. She was so tired. She’d hardly slept in the time since she slipped from her brother’s window. She didn’t want to eat.
She just wanted to get Vale to safety and then turn herself in.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the cameo earrings Robert had given her all those months ago. The ones she’d lied about to save herself. As she looked at them, she felt the cameo face glaring at her. Digging into her skin and her heart.
