“The Fox,” Derrick said softly.
She nodded. “I’m getting there. This is my villainous monologue, Derrick. Allow me my gothic moment.” She saw his mouth twitch a little despite himself, but he didn’t stop her from continuing. “One night I snuck into a party. The one I told you about where I saw my father.”
“That was the first time you stole,” he said.
She flinched. “How do you know that?”
“When I’m not being seduced by my quarry, I’m actually a very good investigator. Well able to put together evidence, my love.”
She froze at the endearment that gripped her heart in its fist and squeezed. Tears stung her eyes and she blinked at them, trying to rein in the reaction. Trying not to give too much or ask for too much in that moment.
“Am I your love?” she whispered.
He hesitated, his gaze holding hers. “Continue your story, Selina.”
She bit her lip hard enough that she tasted blood, and it did what she wanted—it dragged her back to the present. Away from the dreams she didn’t need to have. Away from whatever future she never could have had in the first place.
“I was upset after my encounter with the late Duke of Roseford…my father,” she continued, wishing her voice didn’t shake. “I had snuck into a parlor to have a good cry when there were voices. I hid behind the curtains, and there was this horrible woman who dragged a servant into the room. She was screaming at her and screaming at her, berating this poor, shaking girl who was begging for her own life. This wretched woman, revered by Society, slapped the girl and left her sobbing in a pile on the floor as she laughed and went back to her party.”
“What did you do?”
“After the servant left, I went back into the ballroom, found that bitch and did exactly to her what I am accused of doing to Katherine. I slipped a yellow diamond bracelet right off her wrist without her even noticing I’d done it. And I was terrified and thrilled in equal measure. It was spontaneous, I should have been caught by all rights, but it felt…good! As if I’d taken back control not just for myself, but for that girl left crying on the floor. Also, it was before I got my settlement from my father, so the money helped.”
“Selina.” The way he said her name, she couldn’t tell if he was angry, disappointed, sad…or some combination of them all.
She folded her arms, a poor shield against what just his look did to her. “You can judge.”
“I won’t be the one judging in the end.” He let out a shaky sigh. “Why didn’t you stop?”
She shrugged, because that was a question she’d asked herself a dozen times over the years. “Because it was…” She struggled for a word to explain it. “It was safe.”
“Safe?” he burst out, his control wavering as he took a long step toward her. “How the hell was that safe, Selina? You could have been caught, abused, even worse if the wrong nobleman found you with your hand in his wife’s drawer. You could have been arrested—”
She moved toward him, and now they were nearly touching. “By you?”
He shut his eyes, his breath coming in and out of his nostrils like a riled bull. She reached up, letting her fingertips stroke over his rough jaw. Watching his eyes come open, heavier and more focused. He didn’t step away, but he said, “How was it safe?”
Her fingers fell away as her heart throbbed. She’d promised the truth, but it was so hard to say. So vulnerable to admit. But this man was the only one she could truly be vulnerable with. The only one she trusted with her secrets, her heart, even though she knew he had to take her away in the end.
He’d never lied about that. He’d never lied at all.
“If I could do it…if I could take from those who deserved to lose…then I didn’t have to depend on my father and his whims. Or my brother, who I didn’t know at the time. My future was my own.” She dropped her head. “And it also helped me…balance the scales.”
He hesitated, and then he whispered, “Justice. You saw it as justice.”
“Yes,” she said. “I know you don’t understand.”
“I understand,” he said quickly. “I’ve built a life around justice, haven’t I?”
She nodded. “I suppose you have. May I ask you a question?”
He shrugged, but she saw the wariness enter his posture and his expression. She hated that she put him on guard. She deserved it, but she hated it.
“How did you know it was me?” she asked. “Even before the ruby bracelet in the ballroom, I know you suspected me. Maybe you even intended to confront me about it when you and I were going to be alone in the library that last night in Roseford.”
“I did,” he admitted.
“How did you know?”
