Page 40 of A Relentless Rake

“Because I trust you.” He added somberly, “And because part of you already doubts your brother, too, or you would have screamed by now and alerted the entire school that I was here.”

Her silence proved him right.

“Where are the copies of his work, Olivia?”

A betrayed look clouded her face. “That’s what you were looking for that first night when I found you going through my dresser, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.” There was no point now in pretending otherwise. “But I didn’t find them.”

“Because he hasn’t done any work recently except for his presentation and article for the Society.” Then she capitulated to what he was telling her and whispered so softly that her words were barely louder than a breath, “If he’s done any other work, I would know. He needs me to check his calculations.”

He believed her. Fate had just slammed the door on his best chance at finding Scepter.

He blew out a harsh breath. “You’ll inform me if you come across anything?”

Another nod, but he knew he’d get no more information from her. The stubborn woman would only entrench herself deeper in defending her brother.

But he needed to leave her with this— “You can’t tell anyone about me or what we’ve discussed tonight.” He fixed his gaze on hers. He wanted no misunderstanding about this. “Not even your brother.”

When she began to protest, he placed his fingers against her lips to silence her.

“These men are dangerous. If they discover that you know about them—if they evensuspect—they’ll kill you both.”

“You’re exaggerating,” she whispered.

“I’m not. You’re caught in the middle between men who want to overthrow the government and those who want to stop them. Theonlything that can save you for certain is your silence.”

She looked down at the mask that dangled from his hand. “And I’m supposed to simply trust you?”

He placed his forefinger beneath her chin and lifted her face until she had no choice but to look straight into his eyes. “Right now, I’m the only person youcantrust.”

Ten

Olivia stood in front of the two schoolgirls in her most studied governess pose, with her hands on her hips and a disappointed expression on her face. Yet she fought to keep her lips from twitching with laughter at their latest antics.

At fifteen, Mary and Daphne were a handful. Enrolled at the school since they were both twelve and as close as if they were real sisters, one did nothing without the other. Including, it seemed, getting into trouble.

“You left school without notifying anyone and without taking a chaperone.” Olivia announced their offense like a magistrate at the Courts, injecting a gravity into her voice she certainly didn’t feel.

What they’d done was relatively harmless. They’d heard that palace and Whitehall officials were rehearsing a grand spectacle to mark the official opening of the new Waterloo Bridge and the second anniversary of the battle, so they’d sneaked out when the students had their midafternoon pause for tea and biscuits, waved down a hackney, and sped toward the embankment. They would have gotten away with it, too, if Mrs. Adams hadn’t noticed the open sitting room window, then promptly closed and locked it. Upon their return, the two girls had no choice but to enter through the front door and face their punishment.

Olivia didn’t blame them for wanting to witness all the royal pomp and grandeur. But she also couldn’t allow any infraction of the rules to go unpunished, or next time, God forbid, they might decide to do something that would endanger their reputations. Or their lives.

“We weren’t planning on being gone long,” Mary began.

“Just to the end of break, honest,” Daphne added with an earnest and rapid nodding.

“And then we came right back—”

“We didn’t get into any trouble—”

“Or do anything you would have objected to.”

“We just stood and watched, honest.”

“And oh, Miss! T’were so grand! The gold carriages—”

“All the horses!”