“Two young housemaids went missing from your country estate, Samuel. Vanished, never to be seen again. They—”
“I know that, Emma! I made it my business to discover what became of Amy and Kitty as soon as I returned to England. What I don’t understand is why Lady Clifford should think Lovell is involved in it.”
Emma’s lips parted, but nowords emerged.
“Lovell couldn’t have committed the crimes you suspect him of. He fought a duel in January, and was nearly killed by a pistol ball to the leg. He’s done nothing for weeks but lie in his bed.”
“I know that, now.”
“If you’d asked me, you might have known it at once, and spared us all of this!” Samuel shouted, gripping his hair in his hands.
Emma flinched at his raised voice. “If Ihadasked, would youhave told me?”
No. Samuel couldn’t deny it, not even to himself. He’d been suspicious of Emmafrom the start.
For good reason, asit turned out.
He forced himself to take a deep breath until the ache in his chest loosened enough for him to speak calmly. He wanted this over, but there was one question he had to ask, one thing he had to know before this would ever be over for him.
If Emma had feigned her regard for Lovell, then couldn’t she do the same for any man? When she realized she wouldn’t get anywhere with Lovell, had she put Samuel in his cousin’s place, traded one of them for the other as if they were no more significant than discarded cards tossed carelessly aside aftera lost wager?
Samuel swallowed. “Our kiss in Lady Tremaine’s garden, my carriage, tonight at Vauxhall. Was that…were you pretending then, too? Was I part of your scheme all along?”
“No.” She didn’t hesitate, her voice strong and clear.
Her blue eyes were fierce, flashing with conviction, and hope sparked in Samuel’s chest. “There’s more to this than you’ve told me. If you truly do care for me, then tell me the truth, Emma. All of it.”
Silence stretched between them, thick with anguish. Samuel already knew what her answer would be before she spoke it.
“I-I can’t dothat, Samuel.”
Just like that, the spark was snuffed out, reducing his heart to a drift of hot cinders in his chest. After that, there was nothing more to say.
“I’m leaving London tomorrow, and taking my family back to Kent.” Samuel drew in a harsh breath. “Whoever hurt Amy and Kitty will face justice. I’ll make sure of it, but I don’t…I don’t want to see you ever again, Emma.”
He didn’t look at her after that, nor did he move when the carriage stopped in front of Lady Crosby’s townhouse. His coachman jumped down from the box and opened the carriage door, but Emma didn’t get out—not right away.
Samuel could feel her gaze on him, but he couldn’t bearto look at her.
After a moment he heard a faint rustle of silk, and felt a slight shift in the carriage as she turned away to accept his coachman’s hand, and stepped onto the pavement.
His eyes slid shut as the door closed with a quiet click behind her.
Chapter Seventeen
Emma dragged herself through the front door of Lady Crosby’s townhouse in a daze, hardly able to believe she’d passed through this same door merehours earlier.
It should take more time than that, shouldn’t it, for a dreamto fall apart?
She closed the door and stood there, eyes closed, unsure what to do next. Helena was safe, but Caroline was still missing. Lord Lovell was innocent, butsomeoneat Lymington House was guilty, and she was no closer to knowing who it was than she had been when this started.
I’m leaving London tomorrow.…I never want tosee you again.
Emma bowed her head, her eyes stinging as Samuel’s words came back to her on a rush of pain, and with it, the crushing realization that she was unsure what to do next, because there was nothing lefttodo.
It was over. By this time tomorrow Samuel would be on his way to Kent, his family with him. She’d remain in London, left to try and puzzle out the tragedy that had unfolded at Lymington House with the few fragments she held in her hands, and little hope of success.
Amy, Kitty, and Caroline, Lady Clifford, Daniel and Lady Crosby, Flora and Lord Lovell, and even Helena, who’d come so close to dying alone in a filthy alley—Emma could hardly bearto think of it.
