“Oh, Blake. It’s you. Why didn’t you call me like you promised?”
I stared at the young girl, who looked familiar. She held a stick mask, which she removed from her face. I instantly recognized Tatiana from the photos Barnes had shown me.
Maintaining a cool facade, I replied, “I don’t know you.”
“Yes, you do. We met at the Cherry Orchard. Three years ago.”
I looked at Dylan Fox, who’d just taken photos of Tatiana embracing me with his phone.
Penelope, meanwhile, stood by and watched. Her attention flitted from me to the young girl, who I knew was only seventeen. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?” she asked.
“I don’t know this girl.”
I took Penelope’s hand gently and led her away.
“Ah, ah… not so quickly, Sinclair.” Dylan looked Penelope up and down, wearing a sleazy smirk. “You’re very pretty.”
“Fuck off, Dylan.” I clenched my fists.
“We have to talk. Call me tomorrow.” He handed me a card. “This is not going away. Tatiana and you. Three years ago.” He arched an eyebrow.
I looked at Penelope. “We have to leave. Now.”
Her brow crumpled. “Who’s that young girl? Is that right… you were with her at the Cherry Orchard three years ago?”
“No. It’s fucking bullshit.”
“What’s going on?” Penelope demanded.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“He mentioned the Cherry Orchard. You were there that night. Are you into buying virgins? Underage ones?”
“I’m not, Penelope. I’m being set up.”
I held onto her. I wasn’t going to let her run, even though I felt her body tighten against mine as she followed along.
* * *
PENELOPE SAT IN THE armchair in my bedroom, watching me pace about liked a trapped tiger. “I’ve never met that girl.”
I told Penelope all about Barnes and how I’d been approached to protect Tatiana from Fox. “Fox is setting me up,” I concluded.
“So you keep saying. What’s his connection to you?”
“We grew up together. He tried to kill Sir William, his father, and I ended up saving the man. Twice. Dylan’s father left me everything and wrote Dylan out of the will. There were court hearings. It was a fucking circus. But Sir William had an ironclad clause, making the will uncontestable. He had evidence that Dylan had tried to murder him.”
“But how?”
“The cook said it was poisonous mushrooms. He’d seen Dylan sneaking into the kitchen.”
“Then why didn’t he stop Sir William from eating them?”
“Because Dylan strangled the cook.”
Penelope grimaced. “I take it the cook survived.”
I nodded. I was the one who felt the breath under his nose.
“You mentioned Dylan tried to kill his father twice.”
“The second time was opportunistic, given that Sir William was choking on a chicken bone. Luckily, I’d entered the room when I did. I found him frothing at the mouth while his son watched on.”
“How was he saved from eating the mushrooms?” Penelope asked.
“The cook revived in time to warn me. And just as Sir William held the fork to his mouth, I burst in to warn him.”
“Where was your mother in all of this?”
“She was his personal maid. They were very close.”
“In that way?”
“Probably.” I took a deep breath.
“Didn’t that concern you? I mean, where was your father?”
“In jail for killing someone in a drunken brawl.” I exhaled tightly. “It didn’t worry me knowing that my mother was close to Sir William because for one, my father was a sadistic brute, and for two, Lady Catherine, Dylan’s mother, had been having an affair with the gardener for years.”
Penelope shook her head. “My God. It was a soap opera in there.”
I sniffed. “That it was.”
“So this Dylan couldn’t contest the will, and he’s now trying to get his money by other means, is that right?”
I nodded. “I hadn’t seen him for years until that night at the Cherry Orchard.”
“You told me you went there out of curiosity after James invited you.”
A cold feeling gnawed my gut. I stared at Penelope. “That’s right.” I stopped pacing. “I need you to do something for me.”
She looked up at me.
“I need you to hang low. He’s affiliated with nasty people. If something happened to you, I’d fucking kill him.”
Her face scrunched in fear. “Oh. Please don’t talk like that. You’re scaring me.”
I knelt down at her feet. “I’ve never used that love word before because…” I let out a slow breath. “I don’t know how to.” I paused. One minute felt like ten.
There was no pity, only compassion that I detected in Penelope’s teary eyes. I kissed her hand and held onto it. “I need you in my life.”