“Not a weasel, exactly,” I said, but I could see it, now that his true nature was being unveiled.
Out of all the Trinity boys, James had been the one I never had a real connection to. I recalled how he’d treated poor Harold and also how incensed he’d become when I’d filched his bread in the dining hall—one would think I’d robbed his pockets of actual coin. It was a small thing, but when someone was pretending to be a different person, small things were usually what gave them away. I should know.
Blake shook his head, peering at Ansel with a grin. “He definitely despised you for nicknaming him Sir Lowly.”
“Not one of my finer moments,” Ansel said. “How do you even remember these things? Our first year was a haze of drink and wom—” He sputtered to a stop with a sheepish glance at me and the other two girls.
“I remember everything,” Blake said sagely, tapping his temple. “Everyone. Every place. Every time.”
“You were rakes, we know,” I bit out, my thoughts churning.“But we have much bigger problems than that. Because if James hated you, wouldn’t he have known all along that I wasn’t the real Ansel? If I truly loathed someone, I would not forget their face, no matter how many years had passed.”
The silence in the room was heavy and telling.
Blake swore softly under his breath.
“You’re right. This goes deeper than any of us realized,” Will said, his eyes round with apprehension.
Even the twins looked perturbed. Because if James knew of my impersonation and was holding that close to his chest like a villain with a winning hand of cards, how and when did he plan to use it? I was the daughter of an influential duke. I remembered his expression when he’d asked about my father, if he was a powerful man, in the dining room and the way his eyes had glittered with…avarice.Calculation, too. Tarik had said that James would do anything to get ahead…Did that include the possible extortion of a duke?
“Does Tarik know any of this?” I asked, not concerned that I was using his given name. If it was true and James had our secrets—my secret—in the palm of his hand, then our actual lives were at risk.
“Not yet,” Will said. “We haven’t been able to find him, and we have looked all over London.”
I inhaled and bit my lip before glancing at Ansel. “Have you been to your apartments at The Albany?”
Surprise flared in his eyes. “Is that where he’s been staying? Then, yes, and he’s gone. The place was cleared out, spick-and-span. If you hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have fathomedanyone had been there. It’s empty of his belongings. There’s only an unfinished telescope there, tools, and some books.”
“Those are mine,” I said, heart sinking. I missed the days when I could focus on my small dream to build a telescope while Tarik looked on.
Bloody hell.
How would we find him? London was a big place.
My despair must have shown on my face, because Blake stood up. “We need to divide and conquer.” I shot him a grateful look, and his lips curled into a reassuring smile. “It’s evening, and if he’s in town, my guess is he will be at a club somewhere. He mentioned that he enjoys a hand of cards when things are strained. I doubt he will be able to get into any of the member’s clubs like White’s or Boodle’s, but we should still check those anyway. Ansel can take St. James’s Street and Pall Mall. Will and Harold, you can go with him.” He paused. “Ela and Zia can check with Ridley and Nasser to see if they know of any other places. Doppelgängers, you’re with me.” Klaus and Kristof seemed ecstatic at the prospect. “Roz, you can stay here, just in case a foxed lover boy shows up looking for you.”
“Why would he…?” I trailed off as the answer became obvious. When people were in their cups, they did unpredictable things. “Ela or Zia can stay here. I want to help. I can’t sit here and donothing.”
“I’ll stay,” Ela volunteered, seeing my wild expression. “Zia will check in with Rafi and Keston.”
“Thank you,” I said with feeling. “Just give me a few minutes to change, and we can go.”
The twins sat opposite Blake and me in the coach. It was Blake’s carriage, since Ansel had taken ours. I could feel Blake’s stare fluttering over the side of my face with equal amounts of curiosity and reluctant admiration.
“Stop staring at me,” I hissed.
He chuckled and slapped his palm against his knee. “I wish I could. But with what you’re wearing, it’s astonishingly uncanny how much you look like Ansel. You pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes.”
“Wearefirst cousins, Blake,” I said dryly. “The children of twins. It’s not a stretch of any capable imagination, even yours.”
“Why the change?” Kristof asked. “You don’t need to pretend you’re a boy anymore.”
“Highborn young ladies do not usually visit the West End, much less unmarried ones without a chaperone,” I said, even though Ihadbeen there before unchaperoned with Tarik.
Blake snorted. “I honestly cannot fathom that you existed like this for months, pretending to be Ansel. No wonder you two and everyone else were so convinced,” he said, jerking his chin to Klaus and Kristof, who couldn’t stop staring, though for different reasons.
They were used to this version of me. But I’d bet anything they were trying to reconcile the lady I was beneath the spectacles, top hat, and men’s clothing now that they knew the truth. I hadn’t had time to fit the wig, so my hair was braided and tuckedunder a hat. I’d forgone the mustache and had barely been able to glue on the false facial sideburns.
I thought that I would have been discomfited putting on the costume, but it had felt like slipping into a comfortable skin. Not the elements of the disguise, but the person I embodied when camouflaged. It was ludicrous how at ease I was…likethiswas the true version of me: the smart, scholarly bookworm who preferred to gorge on celestial mechanics and build an amateur telescope rather than wear fancy gowns and dance at a ball.
