Page 49 of The Governess and the Rogue

“Shall I, indeed?” Bea questioned in a peculiarly neutral tone.

Jack didn’t like the sound of it any better than he’d liked the sound of his own words. He didn’t let it stop him. “The instant I have your reference, and the direction of somewhere you might find suitable employment, I’ll send it to you express.”

“You won’t deliver it yourself?”

“It would take too long,” he said.

And it would be too painful. Saying goodbye to her. Knowing their mutual scheme had officially come to an end. That he’d likely never see her again.

Jack wasn’t sure he could do it.

Not to mention his leg would hardly be up to the challenge after having just travelled all the way from Southampton to Somerset.

“I see.” Bea folded her hands in her lap. A resigned look came over her. It was gone as quickly as it came, replaced by an expression of implacable resolve. “Well, I expect I shall be safe enough in an English hotel, providing I keep my door locked and don’t take my meals in the public dining room.”

Jack’s brows lowered. The prospect of leaving her alone in such an establishment was becoming less and less appealing. “Perhaps Mrs. Rawson can be convinced to relinquish Pearl to us?”

“And further embroil her in our deception?” Bea scoffed. “No thank you. I’ve risked her reputation quite enough. Henceforth, I shall risk only mine.” She lifted her traveling valise onto her lap. “I only wonder if it was worth it.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “For yourself?”

“For both of us,” she said. “Now it’s nearly over, how much good did it really do to have me as your protector on the Pera?”

Jack set a hand on the curved handle of his cane. He was tempted to answer her question with a jest, or perhaps with only his silence. But he and Bea were past the point of prevarication. “Do you see this cane?”

“What about it?” she asked.

Jack lifted it for her perusal. “I know many injured men who can walk without one, albeit with great difficulty. But I’ve just had surgery. Without this, I can’t walk at all. What do you imagine would have happened if Mrs. Farraday had stolen it while I was preoccupied reading in some remote nook on the ship, or while I was dozing in the sunshine on the deck?”

Bea’s lips parted in astonishment at the suggestion. “Surely she wouldn’t⁠—”

“Oh, but she would,” Jack assured her. “And then, when I was trapped, unable to remove myself from a potentially sticky situation, who do you imagine might have appeared in the seat beside me, in some isolated place, where our very presence alone together would be sufficient to constitute a compromising situation?”

Bea stared at him. “Not Miss Farraday?”

“Exactly Miss Farraday,” Jack said unequivocally.

Bea shook her head. “But she’s never behaved in a mercenary manner. Not to you. Not so far as I’ve seen. Indeed, she’s never seemed to have a genuine interest in you at all.”

“Oh, I don’t say that she likes me of her own accord. I’m not that vain. But she’s young and obedient, and she’s been brought up by her mother to do whatever’s necessary to achieve their ends. If her mother told her to join me in a darkened ship’s saloon, you can bet Miss Farraday would do it, and she wouldn’t lose a second.”

The look of disbelief in Bea’s eyes faded. “Until today, I’d have said that Miss Faraday wasn’t of the same mind as her mother. But the way she spoke to me on the platform… There was something in her tone that put me on my guard. It made me fear I’d misjudged her.”

“Her mother had doubtless pressured her to persuade us to stop with them in Paris,” Jack said. “Told her it was their last chance or some such rot.”

Bea searched his face. “Is it true that she and her daughter pursued you to Cairo when you went there to have your surgery?”

“She did,” Jack said somberly. “I heard about it after the fact.”

It had been enough to send a chill down his spine. It was one thing to be hunted so relentlessly when he had the capacity to outmaneuver his pursuers, and quite another when he was drugged and helpless.

“How did you manage⁠—”

“Pure luck. She couldn’t find the correct hospital. By the time she did, I had already gone. But I knew I’d encounter her again on the steamer out of Alexandria. I had two choices, either wait for the next ship, or employ evasive maneuvers.”

“A false name,” Bea said.

“For a start.”