“Imogen,” Aurora whispered.
Imogen faced her dearest friend with a shaky smile. “You could have died because of me today. Please, just let me protect you.”
Aurora flinched, but sent a glance toward Nicholas Gillingham. Imogen watched him too. She knew about the man. Aurora had often spoken of him during their friendship. He was her first and only great love. Only he’d left her suddenly when they were very young, went off to the army where he’d been so badly injured. It seemed he had returned, and Aurora looked so calm, so at peace as she looked to him for comfort.
At least Imogen knewshewould be protected. Loved.
“We are all under a great deal of strain,” the duchess said, and brought Imogen’s attention back to her. “But the duke and Iarepart of the War Department, Mr. Fitzhugh.”
“Yes, I know,” Oscar said. He sounded so tired. Almost defeated. “I’ve heard of you before, though not by name. I heard a rumor the government was involved in investigating in some way. We clearly have a great deal to discuss.”
The duchess nodded. “We do. Another reason not to hide yourselves where we cannot find you. We have the weight of the entire government to bring to bear onto this case. I do think Imogen needs to be hidden, I agree with you. The fact that someone shot at all of us the moment she was brought out of hiding meanssomeoneis desperate to silence her.”
“We know who,” Imogen said. The duchess’s eyebrows lifted with interest. Although Oscar had worried titled would protect titled, Imogen got a very different impression now. The duke and duchess seemed genuinely concerned and willing to help. But it was possible Oscar couldn’t see it. He was so blinded by his past with his father. So thrown off kilter by seeing two of his siblings. She needed to help him. “Oscar, please, they can help us. Stop fighting it.”
He frowned but didn’t argue, and Imogen knew that was a good thing.
“Letusprovide the safe hiding place,” Diana said. “Protected by armed guards, hidden from plain sight. Someplace where no one will find her, but where we will have access to what she knows about the people trying to hurt her.”
Oscar paced off. When he lifted a hand to the place where Huntington had bandaged his wound, she felt an ache in her chest.
“Bloody fucking hell,” he snapped at last. “Fine. But I’m going with her.”
Imogen’s mouth dropped open. She hadn’t imagined he would let this situation go if she went with the Willowbys, but nor had she pictured he would compromise his life further and come with her. “Oscar, no! You protected me so well, but I can’t ask you to—”
“I’m going with you,” he interrupted. “That’s final. Let me just make some arrangements.”
He gave her one quick glance, but said nothing else. He strode from the room, leaving her alone with the duchess, Aurora and Mr. Gillingham. The duchess glanced at Gillingham, and her meaning was clear. They stepped away to speak to each other, and Imogen was left with Aurora.
“Imogen,” her friend whispered, wrapping her arms around her. It was so comforting to feel that embrace. “Howcould this happen?”
“I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Imogen sighed. How true that was and how much it had changed her life. His life. She glanced to where Oscar had departed and her heart ached. “Can I trust your friends?”
“Yes.” There was no hesitation in Aurora’s voice, and relief cascaded through Imogen.
Which allowed her a moment to let go of her own troubles. She looked over her shoulder at where Nicholas Gillingham stood with the duchess. “That’s the one you were in love with as a child, isn’t it? The one who left you for the army?”
Aurora’s face lit up instantly. She was so beautiful and so obviously in love that Imogen felt a tug of jealousy at it. “Turns out it’s more complicated than that, but yes.”
Gillingham was watching Aurora from the corner of his eye from time to time. And his emotions were as clear as hers. Their future, it seemed, was set. And it made Imogen’s seem all the more desperate. She loved Oscar with the same intensity that Aurora and this man loved each other.
But there were no guarantees for her. No promises, in fact just the opposite.
“He seems to love you,” she breathed.
“Yes,” Aurora whispered.
“Then hold on to that,” Imogen said, grasping her hands. “Hold onto it and to each other. Because others are…they’re not so lucky.”
Aurora tilted her head. “Are you talking about Mr. Fitzhugh? Because there is no denying your connection.”
Heat flooded Imogen’s cheeks. She was so easy to read, it seemed. So obvious and foolish that the world would know. Oscar would know. It would only push him further away.
“Connection is one thing. Protection is another,” she mused. Then she shook her head. “But he has made it clear that hecannotlove me. So…I just would like one of us to be happy. When this is all over, I want you to be happy.”
As she said the last, Oscar re-entered the room. There was the command on his expression again. Stern and certain. Her body reacted to that, as it always had. As she feared it always would.
“Arrangements have been made,” he said. “An unmarked carriage is around the back, ready to ferry us away to whatever location you see fit, Your Grace.”
