He stepped away from her and put his hands behind his back, widening his stance. A military posture. A posture of a man of discipline. Of the control she so enjoyed taking away. In this moment, he didn’t look as though it could be taken.
“I gathered evidence I didn’t want to see,” he explained. “A list of things that, when put together, pointed to you as the culprit. First”—he ticked one finger off—“I caught you at Lady Winford’s room that night when I came to search it. You had your explanations and they weren’t bad.”
“Thank you. They were off the cuff and I was terrified you’d arrest me then and there,” she said.
His lips pursed as if that answer gave him no pleasure. But he continued, “Later you mentioned a party with Lady Winford, another time when you chose a victim thanks to her treatment of a servant.”
She lifted her chin. “I’ve seen servants, especially woman, treated worse than one would treat shit on a shoe. People, Derrick. Deserving of respect.”
“Yes, you are their champion, it seems. I can’t fault you for that. But your mention of the party sent me to look at some of the lists we had compiled from the Fox’s…fromyourhistory.”
“Really?” she breathed.
“It wasn’t that hard. Your targets were public. We crosschecked guest lists because we thought some gentleman was perhaps the culprit. We’d thought the robbery of Lady Rendleman’s bracelet was probably an early strike by the Fox. When you mentioned the party with your father, I could guess your age and glean the facts from some details.”
“I always knew you were brilliant,” she said. “So you tracked me via the parties. What else gave me away?”
“You once told me I had no idea what you were capable of. An off-the-cuff comment, but one that added to my suspicions. And your companion… I suppose she isn’t a companion, though, is she?”
Selina froze. It was one thing to give this man all the details of her own misdeeds. Another to force Vale into prison along with her.
“She is a companion,” she said.
“Selina,” he said, his tone sharp.
She folded her arms. “I won’t do something that will send her to gaol along with me. I won’t lie about my own life, but I won’t reveal hers.”
He sighed. “Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. “But the night I came to your room, when I found her there. She said something about you being…fire. That you have to be controlled so you don’t burn out of control.”
She wrinkled her brow. “Vale said that?”
“Yes.” He sighed. “And lastly was your hairpin. Though that was after you disappeared, after you admitted the truth, so perhaps it doesn’t count.”
“My hairpin?”
He tilted his head. “I was taking your hair down one night when we made love and scratched myself on your pin. I thought it was oddly shaped then, but was too distracted. But when we searched your rooms after you disappeared, I found the pin. It’s a lockpick. You didn’t leave a great many clues, Selina. But they were there, waiting to be collected.”
She nodded. “And I suppose you would have to be the one to collect them. I got so much more careless after I met you. I knew you were tracking me but I kept…failing. Being reckless. If you punish yourself for being distracted by me, know that I was also distracted by you.”
He stared at her a long moment, his gaze unwavering on hers. Then he stepped closer. “One last question. Wasanythingbetween us real?”
Chapter 24
Derrick was holding his breath as he waited for the answer to the only question that had ever mattered to him. His chest felt like it was collapsing around his heart, squeezing it. His hands shook like leaves in the fall.
She moved toward him, her own trembling hands cupping his cheeks as a tear slid down her face. She held firm there, keeping her eyes on him, revealing herself to him in ways she’d never fully allowed before. This wasn’t just confession or vulnerability—this was surrender. It was bittersweet and he could see she felt that, too.
“There wasn’t a moment I spent with you that wasn’t true.” Her voice caught and she struggled to compose herself. “I told you things, gave you parts of myself, that no one else has seen. Ever.”
“Not your brothers?” he asked. “Not your friends?”
“Never anyone but you.Iam a lie, Derrick. But what I feel for you isn’t.”
He covered her hands with his, smoothing his thumb along hers. Her skin was satin and he wanted to roll himself up in it forever. But he needed her to say the words, to go further. To go all the way now. “What do you feel for me?”
She licked her lips, he felt her tremble, he saw her fear. But she was stronger than all of that. Stronger than anything or anyone he’d ever met.
“I love you,” she whispered.
