“So you are actually in his debt,” she said evenly. Not bitterly. As though a negotiation of sorts was taking place.
“So he would like me to believe. It is, in fact, a bit more complicated than that.”
“You’ve been sent to find me and bring me back to him. Or bring him to me.”
He realized she couldn’t bring herself to say his name aloud, and he tensed against a fresh rush of rage at the man who had so frightened her.
He got it under control. Because he always got things under control.
“That was indeed my assignment,” he said gently.
“Was.” He’d used the world deliberately and he was certain she’d noticed.
“And he is rewarding you for this?” Her breathing had quickened a very little.
“Yes. He is paying me to find you.”
There was a long silence.
“And they took your fortune.”
He inclined his head slowly.
A heartbeat or two of silence ensued.
“I won’t go.” She said this almost offhandedly. Experimentally. Gauging his expression. But he could hear the tension in her voice at the very notion.
It was time.
He felt that what he was about to do bordered on cruelty, though it wasn’t as though he hadn’t undertaken the same strategy before in the name of extracting information. But this time he knew it would feel as though he was pulling the spike from his own flesh.
Or driving a knife in again.
It seemed he’d known from the moment he’d held the painting of the sweet-faced girl in the palm of his hand that he hadn’t come to return her to Brundage.
He’d come to free her.
And then to claim her.
“But I’ve been charged with a duty to find you and return you safely.”
“I’ve not committed a crime. I will not go back.” Her breathing had accelerated. Her fingers curled into the palms of her hands.
“He says he misses you and is terribly concerned for your welfare. He says his heart is breaking.”
“Lies.”Her voice was frayed and furious and horrified. “Helies.”
He pressed on, gently merciless, hating himself for inflicting the necessary pain, the necessary pressure, to drive her secret to the surface. “He’s such a very good match. You’d be the envy of many a young woman. He has all of his limbs and teeth. He’s handsome. He’s wealthy and powerful and influential. He told me he is in love with you. You will be pampered and protected. You will be secure for the rest of your—”
“I can’t go back!You don’t know what he—you don’t know him—what he—he did. I can’t.” Her voice broke. “I can’t,” she said wretchedly. “Oh, please. I cannot. I can’t. I can’t I can’t I can’t—”
“Aurelie,” he said softly. “Aurelie. Aurelie.”
It was first time he’d said her real name aloud.
It sounded like a benediction. A secret they shared.
It cut through the hysteria at once.