Page 114 of Devil in Her Details

You don’t simply take on a mission, complete it, and you’re done. You become your mission. You become it so fully you couldn’t detach yourself even if you tried. That’s why you can’t detach yourself from me.

He suddenly laughed.

She’d been so bloody right on that score.

He could never detach himself. How could he have ever believed he could? He’d taken her on as a mission, and he’d completed his mission. By habit, he should be able to detach himself. Only his heart had taken up another, and now he doubted he could ever peel himself from her shadow.

Lilly Trenton was his mission for life.

But she wasn’t in his life. So he could only remain in the shade. Half a man. In mission, failing to ever complete it.

Dagger didn’t know how long he ran. He didn’t know when he stopped. But he never got that damn carriage back into his view. At some point, he sensed he was on the ground. He even sensed there were others around him as well. But his mind couldn’t comprehend anything but Lilly entering that carriage. That carriage leaving. It repeated over and over in his head until he thought he might go mad from the infernal repetition of that moment. It consumed everything. Devoured all the other memories of her. Even their night together. It had no mercy for him.

He didn’t think it would ever leave his head.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Five days later

Lilly held up a black ribbon to her face, studying the smooth silkiness of the item. She’d never had a preference for black, but now, she couldn’t walk past something black without stopping to stare. The color had become an entire language of its own. His coats. His scowls. The dark fur of the very panther she believed him to be. It was a foolish, aching sort of grief, mourning a color as though it belonged to a man rather than a wardrobe. Ironically, the wardrobe of those who mourned. But there it was, sitting in her chest like a stone she couldn’t set down—the ridiculous, tragic truth that even a ribbon could summon him.

“You like that?” Allie, who had returned to London with Leo after the news reached them by way of a confidant, asked.

Lilly nodded. “Yes, I believe I do.”

Allie selected a pink one for herself. “You’ve only been back for a short while. Are you sure you wish to attend a ball after that article that was published?”

“I have to face the gossipmongers sometime.” In fact, while the initial article had made the gossip rounds through the ton, it hadn’t made any significant waves. Her article, which had been printed this very morning, however, had the town buzzing. After all, a lady in scandal was one thing, a gentleman whose fortune was in question, quite another. She had quite a bit of a laugh at the rumors she’d concocted, but it had died a feeble death after the recalled where that letter had been penned.

Fury’s.

And the marquess’s place of captivity.

Calvington also hadn’t returned to London.

Was he still locked in a dungeon in Brighton?

In all likelihood, yes.

The fact that he wasn’t in town to defend his honor, and that nothing had been heard from him in a while, also fueled the wagging tongues.

“Have you heard anything from him?” Allie asked.

“Who? Calvington? No, and I’d better not.” He’d be well and truly ruined if he ever approached her again.

Her friend whacked her on the arm. “Not that blackguard. Him. The handsome you know who?”

Lilly’s heart clenched painfully. “And why would I have heard from him?”

Allie gave a light snort and said in a hushed whisper. “Don’t think I don’t know that Calvington’s article had a strong scent of truth! And judging by the fact that your brother has turned into a grump overnight, he must suspect the truth as well.”

Why could she not have unperceptive friends? “Fine, you have me.” She glanced around the shop. “But there is no need for him to contact me. We’ve broken all ties.”

“Well, that’s good.”

Of course Allie would think that. Quintessential lady and all. Her and Dagger’s worlds were too different for anyone to approve.

“I saw, you know.”