“I can’t tell you everything.”
Her chest pinched. If only he’d meant those words as a means to sever their relationship.
But she’d heard the distraction in his voice.
There was something more to his work with the Home Office, something he was terrified to confide. Jackson Cole was a terrible liar and always had been. How any agent for the Crown hadn’t seen that immediately either meant they were fools or desperate.
Or, perhaps, it was Anna who had been the fool.
Because she’d known from the beginning, he was more than some gentleman. Jackson Cole didn’t have it in him to sit idle, to be useless.
“I can’t tell you everything.”
When would she learn to see her own faults before condemning him for his? She had held things back from him too. Awful things.
Things he should know.
Thingssheneeded to tell him.
But she hadn’t.
Because she was afraid of what he’d think of her afterward. Because she didn’t want him to think she was broken.
Because she wanted him to keep looking at her like she was everything.
“You were everything.”
Tears stung her eyes. Hours of exhaustion had drained all her anger, leaving only clarity.
Damn the man! He washereverything. Did he not understand that was why she was so angry? If he thought he could put himself in harm’s way every day and she’d give his cheek a kiss and wish him a good day on his way out the door, he was delusional!
She didn’t need the lampposts now as she picked up her skirts and ran down the street, around the corner, along the sidewalk, and up the Grandfellow townhouse’s front steps.
The front door was unlocked when she pushed it open. She took to the stairs and marched down the hall before throwing open the duke’s door.
She glanced around. “Jackson?”
His chambers were empty.
So were hers.
After a quick change into one of her dressing gowns, she raced down the stairs and poked her head in the library, the study.
All empty.
She went to the parlor and threw her hands up at the likewise empty space. “Where the hell is he?” She couldn’t very well tell him he was an idiot, and she loved him for it, until she found him.
The door opened behind her, and she whirled around, heart flying.
To see the butler with a sour expression on his face.
“Yes, Lancaster?”
“A guest to see you, Your Grace.”
She frowned and glanced at the clock on the mantel. “At this hour?”
“The man is quite insistent.”
