“He can’t harm me,” he scoffs.
“Please,” I plead, grabbing onto his arm.
“You’re really rattled by this, aren’t you?” he asks, sounding surprised.
“Yes,” I gasp. “Wouldn’t you be?”
He just gives me abe seriouslook.
“Okay, well maybe not you.” I roll my eyes. “But I am scared. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Nothing is going to happen to me, hen,” he says gently. “But I need to get you somewhere safe now.”
“No,” I cry out, and he hushes me so that I won’t draw attention to us while we’re out here unguarded. “I don’t want you to leave me. I’m not safe without you.”
“Shhh…shhhh,” he says as he brushes my hair back from my face, freeing the strands that stick to my face in my tears. “It’s going to be all right. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. You have my word.”
“I’m just so tired of people trying to kill me,” I whisper.
“I know. It’ll be over soon.”
“I can’t tell if you’re lying to me or not,” I sniffle. “Right now, I’m kind of okay with it but later I’m going to be really mad.”
“That sounds lovely, hen.” He guided me back to the building but we take a different passageway so that we bypass the room full of people. I’m sure I look like an absolute mess after my slight breakdown.
Rhys motions to Leo as he passes by and he follows us through these back hallways. This must be how the staff move throughout the castle unseen. Leo pushes open a door and ducks his head out to see if it’s safe before motioning to Rhys and me to follow. This passageway opens up into the far end of the hallway we live off of, opposite of how we normally make our way through to the traditional hall. I let out a gasp when I realize there are secret passageways. I’m more unsafe than I realized.
Leo hurries us down the hall and to our suite. He pushes open the door, and we follow him in as he clears the rooms. When he comes back ito the sitting room, he looks at Rhys and me and demands, “What the fuck is going on?” Rhys looks at him with a raised eyebrow and Leo lets out a heavy breath before adding, “Respectfully.”
“It would appear,” Rhys answers, “that Stella was correct when she said that Lady Thomley had been, at the very least, attacked at the opera.”
“She’s dead. I know it,” I interject.
After a tense moment where no one speaks, Rhysfinally speaks, breaking the silence. “I think that’s a fair assessment to make at this point.”
“And the earl is responsible?” Leo asks.
“I saw him strangle her,” I pipe in. “I know it.”
“But people have seen her around,” Leo adds.
“Have they?” I ask. “Or have they just heard someone else say they saw her?”
“Shite.”
“Agreed,” Rhys says.
“But who else besides the earl?” Leo questions. “The dowager?”
“Aye,” Rhys answers. “And Maeve.”
That news seems to startle Leo. “But her relationship with the late King…”
“I know,” Rhys says cryptically with his brows drawn down.
“What am I missing?” I ask hesitantly.
Leo looks to Rhys for guidance on how to proceed, but it’s my husband who sighs before answering my question. “Mave was my father’s mistress for decades. I always thought their feelings for each other were true.”