Any Other Name (The Split Worlds) - By Emma Newman Page 0,35
did, they would have saved Mother.”
“They didn’t have the chance. If Father is managing to stay free, he’s got to have someone helping him. He’s just waiting until it’s safe to make contact, that’s what Uncle Alfred said and I believe it.”
“But look what happened to him.”
“We’re not in the same boat. Besides, our uncle was hardly the sharpest thorn on the stem, was he?”
“I suppose we have a little time.” Amelia kissed his hands back. “William will be away on honeymoon, and then there’s the rest of the Season in Aquae Sulis. He won’t have time to come here.”
“That’s right,” Cornelius said as cheerily as he could manage.
“Do you think he believed Horatio?”
Cornelius silently cursed the Gallica-Rosa for the hundredth time. The way he’d tried to drag him and Amelia down with him had been unforgivable. He’d wondered the same as her in the days since the debacle, and hadn’t come to a firm conclusion. It was possible William believed the claim that he and Amelia had been manipulating him, and still took them in anyway so that he could take Amelia as a mistress. But would a man as capable as William disregard such a betrayal just for guaranteed bedsport?
He looked at his sister, the beauty of Londinium, and suspected that William would. And his own life had probably been saved in order to secure her trust and gratitude. It made the bile rise up his gullet.
“If you can, you need to find out what he thinks,” he said. “We need to keep him on side.”
“I know,” she said. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
He pulled her into an embrace so she didn’t see his face twist in disgust. He needed to work out whom he could trust and how the Agency was spying on them. Then he could get a message to his father. If his contact was to be believed, even the most powerful Letterboxer Charms could be intercepted.
The front door slammed and the gentle boom reverberated up the stairs. They exchanged a worried glance, knowing that no one was expected for the evening and their residence was firmly off the social circuit now.
“Not the Agency?” Amelia asked as he let her go and stood up.
“Who else could it be?” He put a hand on his sword.
She dropped the necklace down the front of her bodice, scooped up the jewels, crammed them into the jewellery box and shut the lid as footsteps came up the stairs and down the corridor towards her room.
“I won’t let them take you,” he said, drawing the steel an inch, readying the Charm he’d bought with the diamond cravat pin he’d worn at the last ball.
There was a knock on the door. He dropped the sword back into place, looking at Amelia. The Agency wouldn’t be so polite.
“Amelia?” William called through the door. “Are you in there? May I come in?”
“Perhaps they didn’t marry,” she whispered and pointed at the wardrobe. “Quick!”
Cornelius darted over to it and got inside. He released the catch on the inner secret door that connected to his room before closing the wardrobe and losing the light.
“William?” Amelia called back. “Just a moment.”
Cornelius waited. He wanted to hear what the Iris had to say first-hand, rather than an abridged version next time he and Amelia were alone.
He heard the atomiser and then a moment later smelt the Charmed rosewater even through the wood. The bedroom door was opened and William came inside. Cornelius wondered how he looked and wished he’d left the door open a crack.
“What a lovely surprise,” Amelia said. “I thought it was your wedding day… you certainly appear to be dressed for it.” The bedroom door closed. “Is something wrong? Has–”
She was cut off, for a moment Cornelius wondered if something had frightened her, then he heard the gentle sound of a kiss ending.
“I had to see you,” William said. “I’ve missed you. Are you well? Are the servants to your liking? Do you have everything you need?”
“Yes, thank you,” Amelia said with a notable breathlessness. “But why are you here? Did the marriage not take place?”
“Oh, it happened,” William replied, accompanied by the sound of the bedsprings creaking as he sat on the bed. “But I just want to be with you. I want all of you, Amelia. Will you be my mistress? I swear I’ll provide for you and your brother, I’ll keep you both safe. I would have married you if I’d had a choice.”