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They were completely different. And although Greyson had broken her heart more times than she could count, she still loved him. He was her young, first, foolish love. And he would always remain that for her.

And Ian… Ian was the man she couldn’t let herself have.

Ian tightened his arms around her, pulling her out of her dire thoughts.

“I am sorry,” he said into her hair. “I am sorry for lying to you. I am sorry for dragging you cross-country while you were sick. I am sorry for everything I put you through in the past two weeks.”

She snuggled closer to his body. “You used me,” she accused softly. “But I also used you for my benefit.”

Ian chuckled. “The benefit was more than mutual.”

Helen looked up at him. It was dark, and she couldn’t see his face, only the laughing eyes staring back at her with mischief. “I wanted to have an adventure. And I got it in spades.”

“Hmm…” His voice was a pleasant rumble in his chest that reverberated through her entire being. “I can guarantee you more adventure if that’s what you seek.”

Helen smiled. “Just as long as you don’t lie to me again.”

Ian swallowed. His body tightened briefly, leading her to question whether there was something else he was holding back from her. But he smiled the next moment and said, “You, too.”

Helen caught her breath. She had never truly lied to him. But she was holding something back. And she wasn’t ready to start that discussion.

Luckily, someone entered the earl’s study at that moment, causing Helen and Ian to fall into silence.

Chapter 24

Lies, betrayal, and glaring omissions seemed to surround Helen and Ian’s relationship. When she asked him not to lie to her again, he couldn’t promise her the full truth, because there was something he was holding back from her. Something that he would have to disclose to her eventually, and the sooner the better.

However, it wasn’t the right time. She had been ill and was only now starting to recover her strength.

Helen wasn’t innocent either. When he’d jokingly asked her not to lie to him either, by the way her muscles tensed, he could tell she was holding something back as well.

Right at that moment, a man entered the earl’s study, breaking the spell between Ian and Helen.

They needed to leave this place.

This tight little room had been a huge source of pain in Ian’s young life. He had hidden from his father there, listening to him, pretending to participate in his conversations.

In hindsight, this was his training for his future as a spy. This was his biggest secret growing up. He hadn’t shown anyone these secret passages that he’d found as a child. Not even Annie. By the time she was old enough, he had already left for London.

Now he could let go of this place—of this entire place—not just the hiding nook and move on with his life.

He was about to do just that, leave and go back to Helen’s room, tuck her into bed, and wish her good night when he heard something that caught his ear from the earl’s study.

It sounded like the earl said something about the Stuarts, then added that he would do everything he could for the cause.

Some other words floated between the two men, but the last exchange was undeniable. The second man leaned in and said in a loud whisper before he left, “God save the King over the water.”

Ian was in a state of disbelief as he processed what he had just overheard. If his ears didn’t deceive him, his father, the Earl of Atholl, was involved with the Jacobites, a group of rebels seeking to restore the Stuart dynasty to the British throne.

And Ian was a spy working for the reigning King, whose job was to catch the Jacobites and bring them to justice.

It shouldn’t have been that hard to believe, Ian thought as he struggled to reconcile this information with his prior perceptions of his father. The earl had never shown any signs of being a traitor, though he had certainly expressed his disdain for King George II on numerous occasions.

Ian let out a breath, and Helen turned toward him. “Is anything amiss?”

He smiled tightly and nudged her on. “Let’s go back.”

As they moved through the secret walls of the mansion, he tried to think of his next move. As a spy, Ian knew that he needed concrete evidence before taking any action about what he’d heard. He couldn’t afford to jump to conclusions or make hasty decisions.