Hugo sat in his private box, his wife, Melanie, beside him. But as the opera began his gaze was not on the stage. Rather, it was on the balcony across from them. Charles, his mother, and his sister were all in the Lonsdale box, but when Hugo recognized the fourth among them he smiled. His little spy was in place, playing her part as the lovely widow. Word was already spreading among the ton that Charles soon would propose. No one had ever seen him so besotted before. Perfect.
He rose from his seat.
“Hugo? Where you going?” Melanie demanded in a harsh whisper.
“Apologies. I have business to attend to. I shall return shortly.” He slipped out of his seat and into the corridor, waving down a serving boy.
“Yes, sir?” the boy asked.
“Do you have pen and paper?” Sometimes the boys came prepared with such items to help the opera patrons pass notes to one another.
“Yes, sir.” The boy provided him with pen, paper, and a small polished board to write upon. Hugo scrawled a note to Lily, folded it, and handed it to the boy.
“You are to deliver this to Mrs. Wycliff. She is in Lord Lonsdale’s box. No one else must read it. See to it and I will pay you double this.” He handed the boy ten shillings. The boy rushed off to deliver the note. Hugo returned to his box and took a seat. Melanie glanced at him once he sat down.
“Sorry, my love.” He leaned over to kiss her cheek, but that was simply a formality. His marriage had grown cold even before the birth of their son. After his failed attempt at reconciliation with his mother.
After he had learned the truth.
At first he had missed such comforts from her, but as work and the desire for revenge consumed him, he realized there were plenty of women in London who could see to those needs. He was a servant of the empire, and as such he came to see such things as his due.
He had been careless with Lily, however. He’d mistaken her overtures of kindness and sympathy as an emotional ploy, and he’d assumed she had been planted in his home by one of his rivals. By the time he realized the truth, that she had been sincere, rage had consumed him, and he had lost control.
Though he would not admit to feeling shame or regret at the act, he did recognize it for what it was—a mistake. She had seen into his heart when he had spent his life perfecting the means to disguising it. That was no easy task. And she had kept her wits about her when he had been most savage to her, which was equally impressive.
So instead of dealing with her right away, he’d had her followed to see how she would cope without money or connections. To his surprise, she did well for herself, even though she was with child. She had begun with begging, of course, but she did not stop there. She connected with people, talked to them, and eventually found employment as a barmaid at the gambling hell that became her home.
It would have been preferable if she had given birth to a son, one he could raise to succeed him at the Home Office, while Peter took the family name and title, but that was not to be. Still, the woman herself had shown her worth, and he did not waste things of value.
On her own, the girl served little purpose except to potentially expose him to scandal. But she did allow him to force her mother into obedience. If he hadn’t, she might have tried to use the whelp against him someday. He had simply gotten there first.
Hugo’s lips curved as he watched Charles and Lily in their box. They were entering the endgame now. Soon he would strike at Charles’s heart, and there would be no stopping him.
During the first intermission, a small boy approached Lily, slipping a note into her hand carefully, unseen by Charles or his family. Only a few words were hastily written in a hand she recognized with dread.
When he proposes, say yes.
Lily tore up the paper and disposed of the pieces behind a potted plant near the entrance to the box.
“Everything all right?” Charles asked as she returned to her seat. She glanced across the theater, and her heart stuttered to a halt. Hugo was here. He was watching her, but where? She scanned the private boxes and soon spied Mrs. Waverly across the theater. But no Hugo.
“I…I’m afraid I’m not feeling well. Might you escort me home?” It was still the intermission, and it wouldn’t be too disruptive if they slipped away now.
“Of course.” Charles studied her with concern. “Mother, Lily is feeling poorly. I am escorting her home.”
Violet and Ella both stood. “Are you all right, my dear? Anything we can do?”
Lily shook her head. “No, no, thank you. I’ll be fine once I’m able to rest.”
Violet clasped her hands and gave them a squeeze. “Well, please let us know if we can help. It was lovely to meet you.”
“And you, Lady Lonsdale. Thank you.”
Lily took Charles’s arm, and they exited the box. They passed through the mingling crowds and had reached the top of the stairs when Lily stopped. Hugo was there at the bottom of the stairs. He raised a glass of champagne toward her. Charles had his back to Hugo and did not see him.
“Charles…”
“Yes?” he asked.
There was no turning back. “Yes,” she echoed declaratively.
He raised a brow, still confused. “Yes?”
“Yes,” she replied more emphatically. “Yes to your question in the coach.”
Suddenly the anxiety and concern in his eyes vanished. “Yes?”
Before she could finish nodding, he grabbed her by the waist and twirled her in the air, laughing. The bold action attracted stares and gasps, but Lily didn’t care. For one brief moment she allowed herself to believe she had said yes for herself, not for Hugo. She buried her face in his neck as he slowly set her down and held her.
“I’m so happy I can scarcely breathe.” He chuckled in her ear. “Let’s get you back to Emily’s so you may rest. We have much to prepare. Will a wedding in a few days be suitable? I can procure a special license.”
“So soon?” she gasped.
“Yes. I’m quite set about this business, and I see no reason to wait unless you do. Do you want to wait?”
“Well…” She would have to tell him the truth, at least enough of it that he would know he was marrying Lily Linley and not Lily Wycliff. But that was a concern for tomorrow. Charles caressed her cheek, smiling so brightly it made her chest ache.
“A few days,” she finally agreed.
He took her arm in his as they started down the stairs. She could feel his happiness emanating off him. How she wanted to be with him in that same place of joy, but she couldn’t; she could only pretend to share it.
Charles froze when he spotted Hugo at the base of the stairs. Their eyes met, but neither made the first move toward or away from the other. What was he still doing there? Lily had hoped he would vanish back into the shadows where he belonged.
Slowly, Charles began to move again, but he kept Lily as far from Hugo as possible. When they reached him, Hugo smiled broadly.
“Well now, this is quite a lovely picture, Lord Lonsdale.” Hugo offered a grin as cold as the winter wind. “And who might you be, madam?”
Charles stepped between them. “Do not speak to her.”
Hugo ignored the comment. “I heard about Lord Kent. Terrible news. Wasn’t he a friend of your brother’s?”
Lily felt Charles’s arm tense. “You know he is. Just as I know you were behind it. And if I were free to do so, I would see to it that you paid for that.”
“Are you threatening me? My, my, Lonsdale, one might think you want to duel me.”
“Would that put an end to this?” Charles growled.
Hugo’s broad smile made Lily’s stomach turn. “No. I’m afraid not.”
“Because you know I’m a crack shot. And you aren’t.”
“Believe what you will.” Hugo’s eyes slid to Lily’s, lingering a little too long, before he looked back to Charles.
Lily couldn’t believe she was finally seeing these two men face each other down. There was so much venom and rage between them, hidden behind polite smiles and formal postures, that she was surprised they hadn’t come to blows.
“Whatever happened to your valet? Tom, was it? I heard he left London. I wonder…did he ever reach his destination? Would be a damned shame if that boy and his sister went missing.”
Lily swallowed hard. She hadn’t sent the letter to Charles like she’d promised, telling him that she’d reached her aunt’s home safely.
Fury, the likes of which Lily had never seen, blackened Charles’s eyes. He took a step toward Hugo, and for a moment Hugo seemed uncertain if he should retreat.
“If that boy or anyone else goes missing, I will come for you. I’m not afraid to risk a trial for murder, not if it removes a black spot like you from this world.” Charles didn’t even raise his voice. He didn’t need to.
Hugo’s lips curled in a snarl, but Lily intervened, tugging on Charles’s arm.
“Please, take me home.” Lily could feel the press of their mutual hatred from all sides, suffocating her. If she couldn’t get Charles to leave, he might do something rash.
“Charles, please!” She jerked harder on his arm, until his focus was back to her.
Charles reluctantly gave in. They left the theater and the danger behind them, but as Lily glanced back, she still saw Hugo’s face.
When Hugo had recruited her, he had promised her a chance to someday retire in the country with Kat. Her service bought her silence. In his twisted mind, he saw himself as being generous toward her. Perhaps it was his sick way to forgive himself the violence he’d wrought upon her.
But now, seeing Hugo’s face as they left, she was no longer convinced he would keep that promise. His hatred of Lonsdale was all-consuming, and in the end she knew he did not care who burned alongside him. And Hugo always took care of loose ends. So when Hugo was finished with Charles, wasn’t that what she and Kat would be to him?
I must tell Charles everything. If he knows and doesn’t despise me, then I may yet at least save my child.
They entered a coach, but Charles still hadn’t said a word. “Charles?”
He didn’t look at her; his mind was miles away. “I’m sorry, Lily. You must think my outburst earlier to be highly inappropriate. This night has turned out most wretched. I must see you home at once, and I fear then I must go.”
“Charles, wait. Please, listen to me first.”
He continued, still lost in his own black mood. “That man, Sir Hugo, he’s not a good man. You do not know what he has done to me, to my friends… He’s…”
“Evil. I know.”
Charles stared at her. “What do you mean? Has Emily spoken of him?”
Lily reached across the coach and covered one of his hands that rested on his knee.
“Charles, please. I must make a confession.”
“Darling, there’s nothing to—”
“Yes, there is. You will likely cast me out of this coach once I tell you, but before you do, know this. Everything that we shared, all of it, has been real to me. Please do not forget that.”
Charles leaned forward, studying her in the dim light. “Lily, love, you’re starting to frighten me.”
“Charles.” Her tongue felt thick. The words weighed heavily upon her. “I’m not who you think I am.”
He didn’t speak, but his eyes narrowed. She pressed on.
“I’m not a widow. I’m not Mrs. Wycliff.”
“You’re not Emily’s cousin?”
“Emily was helping me find a husband. My real name is Lily. Lily…Linley.” She waited, holding her breath.
“Linley?” He whispered the name. “You’re not related to Tom Linley in any way…”
“Charles,” she almost groaned. “I am Tom.”
He stared at her blankly. “What?”
“Tom isn’t real.”
“But…” He trailed off, and his gray eyes widened in complete bafflement.
“I am Tom, but I’ve never been Tom. Lily is who I truly am.” She dropped her affected feminine voice to better demonstrate how she’d played the part of a young man. It was perhaps the first time Charles had ever heard her true voice, neither that of Tom the valet nor the mysterious Mrs. Wycliff.
He scanned her again, this time in open concern. “Tom?”
“Tom was simply a disguise.” She drew in a deep breath, steeling herself for what had to come next. What he was already figuring out, no matter how much he tried not to.
“This whole time you’ve been…” Charles raked a hand through his hair.
“Charles, please, you must listen to me.”
“Lily, please don’t tell me you’ve been… Not him.”
“Yes. I’m working for Hugo.” She wanted to cry as the words escaped her.
His face turned ghostly white. “No… No…”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She reached out, but he stared at her hand like she held a poisonous viper, so she dropped her hand.
“This is a dream…a nightmare,” he stammered. “Why…why can’t I wake up?” He bent forward again and covered his face with his hands.
Lily bit her lip, pain cutting deep inside her. “Charles, listen to me. I never wanted this. I never wanted to hurt you. From the beginning, I cared about you.”
Charles jerked away from her, a flicker of anger in his eyes. “How dare you say such a thing? You confess to working for a man who wishes me dead and yet speak of caring for me? While you stood by and did nothing as he attacked my friends and their families time and again?”
“You do not understand. He will take my daughter from me if I don’t do as he says.”
The anger in Charles’s eyes softened a little. “Katherine? Why would Hugo care about a babe? He has assassins ready to be called in. Spies in every nation. What use to him is a woman and her child?”
Lily closed her eyes. “Because the child is his. Hugo is Katherine’s father.”
Charles let out a bitter, cold laugh. “Of course he is. And now he’s using his former lover to bait me so he can take away the last of my joy. Is that it?” His tone was so cold that Lily expected the inside of the coach to frost over.
“We were never lovers!” She spat the words out with such violence that he recoiled. It took her a second to calm before she could continue. “I was a maid in his house, and he…he took me.” She couldn’t bring herself to elaborate. The harsh winter of his gray eyes melted a fraction. Turning her face away, she wiped at the angry tears that trailed down her cheeks.
Charles’s voice softened. “He forced himself upon you?”
She nodded. “I ran from him. I begged on the streets to survive until I could find work. Many months later he found me…and my baby. He can take her away anytime he wishes, Charles. He can claim Katherine and take her away, because she’s his.”
Charles frowned. “And so he forced you into his sick and twisted game? Why?”
Lily swallowed. “He saw value in me. My height and build and how I faced crisis told him I could be useful in his service. And so he trained me to fight, to hide my appearance, to find all that is secret. And because of Katherine, I could not refuse. For nearly three years, I have not been able to refuse. And I have done terrible things, both to those who deserved it and those who deserved better. But when I met you, I…” She swallowed again. “You are a wonderful man. A loving kind man with a noble heart, and I died inside each day seeing the torments Hugo put you through.”
“And yet you said nothing,” Charles said. “Why speak now? What changed your mind?”
Lily looked to the carriage floor. “After you confronted Hugo, I knew I would never be free of him, no matter what happened. I realized I was helping him destroy a good man, selling my soul to the devil himself, without even being given my daughter’s safety in exchange. I know you no longer feel anything for me, but please, help me protect my daughter. I beg you. She is the only thing I have left in this world. I cannot lose her.”
Though she had killed whatever feelings he’d once had for her, she prayed that his noble spirit would still be in control, that he’d help her save her child in exchange for what she could tell him about Hugo’s plans.
Charles was quiet a long moment. Then he opened the coach window and called for the driver to change course.
Fear spiked inside her. “Where we going?”
“To someone Ashton trusts. We will need absolute secrecy if we are to have a war council.”