Oh God.
Oh God.
Barbara’s knees gave out and she stumbled back, her bad foot twisting beneath her.
Only then did Kenneth reach for her to support her. Always caring for her!
But in that moment, not knowing what to believe, or how to feel, she shook him off. “Awager, Kenneth?” Her voice raised in volume and pitch. “The best rake in London?”
“Hush, love?—”
“I willnothush!” Barbara was frantic. “Who cares if the whole household hears me?”
Oh God, the counterfeiting ring wasn’t coming tonight? Really? All this had been for nothing? Her outrageous leap to conclusions hadn’t landed properly at all…she wasn’t nearly so clever as she thought. As he had told her. If the article wasn’t a lie, wasn’t an attempt to ruin her reputation by false means and distract her, then the criminals they’d been trying to catch for the last three weeks hadn’t chosen her as their next mark, and weren’t coming tonight to rob her!
She had been wrong. Kenneth had told her she was brilliant, clever, to trust her gut, and so she had…and she was wrong.
Wrong about the counterfeiters. Wrong about her canopic jars.
Wrong about him.
All these thoughts swirled in her head, overwhelming her mind and her heart. Oh God. Her chest hurt, and she couldn’t draw a full breath.
If theRake Reviewhad been right, then she should be panicking about more than just her incorrect hypothesis;everythingshe and Kenneth had shared over the last three weeks was built on a lie! He’d had no interest in her—her as a person—at all! He’d just been trying to win some stupid wager.
Oh dear Lord, she was actually ruined.
“Oh God,” she whispered out loud.
And then Kenneth was there, his arm around her shoulder, pulling her against him. “Hush, Barbara.”
Again, she shook him off. “I will nothush! So what if my family hears! Let them know you are here, ruining my reputation! That has been the point all along, was it not? To ruin me!”
“Never!” He’d uttered the vow so quickly, so sincerely, she could almost believe him.
An hour ago, she would have. An hour ago, she didn’t know everything he’d told her had been a lie.
“Yes, it was!” She’d whirled on him, and now jabbed a finger toward the writing desk where she’d stashed the ridiculous—and now, she realized, damning—scandal sheet. “Thatwas the point of your wager! To ruin me, and to be declared the best rake in London! As if that is something to be proud of,” she finished in a derisive tone, hoping he might feel a modicum of the pain she was feeling. “I will nothush, just to make this easier for?—”
Her words cut off with a yelp as Kenneth stepped up beside her, wrapped his arms around her, and slammed his palm over her mouth. For a moment, she froze in affront—the nerve of the man!—then began to struggle.
Kenneth didn’t seem to notice, which only angered her all the more, and she tried to kick him as he bodily lifted her and dragged her across the room.
What in the world?
For a moment, she wondered if she should kick him in the bollocks, as he’d taught her.
But even after his betrayal she found herself believing he wouldn’t hurt her, and forced herself to go limp. Which was good, because he deposited them both behind the large desk where she studied her antiquities, leaving them crouched on the floor in the darkness.
“Barbara,” he breathed in her ear, “hushwasnae working, so now I’ll say: for the love of fook,cease making noise. Do ye understand?”
She didn’t—not until she heard the scrape at the window.
Chapter Ten
Calm had settled over Kenneth, and he was grateful for the years of experience which meant, as soon as danger reared its head, he knew how to handle it.
Though not how to handle her.
