AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course you’d find your way to him.”
Another buzz.
“It’s not that simple,” I told it, but I’d already given in. I huffed and leaned over Valentine, bracing one arm on the back of the chair. The beetle scurried aside, making way for my hand as I laid it over his heart. His warmth should have radiated into my touch, but he was already as cold as a corpse. He’dbea corpse soon.
I kept my hand on his heart and looked at his face, so close I could see the red splatters were indeed blood. He breathed softly through parted lips, lips I’d kissed once, so long ago. He’d most certainly die from the cold if I did nothing. Perhaps somewhere in that complicated head he had known to come here, to me. He couldn’t know why, just that the toy store’s lights blazed into the night and the fire always burned. Somewhere in his soul, he’d known that here, he’d be safe.
I had little choice if I was going to survive the noose.
A small shove was enough, a little mental push down my arm, through my hand, and into him. He jolted, and the hiccup in his heart vanished. The organ beat strongly again. It would soon warm him through.
“There,” I told the beetle. “Happy now?”
She buzzed.
I rolled my eyes, scooped up the beetle, and set her down on the mantel above the fire, alongside Valentine’s cup. “You too have a knack for finding trouble.”
She buzzed her wings before scurrying out of sight behind the framed photo of my father and me. I ran my fingers across the glass, over my father’s smiling face, sweeping a thin line through the dust.
He was gone, but nothing had changed.
The mechanism at play was hinged on more than one man. Someone was at its heart, a master cog that drove all others. And I suspected I knew who it was.
I snatched the photo from the mantel and tossed it into the fire. Glass rained, sparkling in the grate like stars, and the flames licked at the photograph’s edges, eager to devour the past.
If only that was all it took to forget.
ChapterTen
Valentine
Hush, Valentine.
I jolted awake, the voice still inside my head, and glanced around Jacapo’s toy store. Good lord, I’d passed out. The fire in the grate rippled over stacked logs, throwing out waves of welcome heat. If it hadn’t been for that and the blanket, the cold might have ruined me.
One of the store’s countless clocks chimed, its time likely wrong, but daylight outside suggested I’d slept the night away in the armchair. Now I had to face the mess I’d left behind.
Lord Rochefort had my belongings, my notes, my observations, everything. I’d have to go back and request for it all to be brought to the inn. The thought of seeing him again turned my stomach and brought saliva to my mouth.
I’d always thought, if I were attacked, I’d be strong enough to protect myself. But Rochefort’s charm and my own confusing desires had disarmed me. I hadn’t thought him capable of taking by force what he could not have, and certainly not with me. He’d been drunk, yes, but there was harmless groping and then there was whatever he’d tried to do to me. Rape. Had I not found the knife, he’d have taken me.
I touched the bruise on my forehead and winced. I had another on the back of my head from when he’d thrown me against the table.
I wasn’t getting paid, I knew that much. He’d pay what I was owed if I spread my legs for him, and that was out of the question. This meant the man in Massalia who was waiting for his payment to keep from talking would have to wait a little longer or go to the police. In which case, my career was over. I’d escape jail, probably. Everything I’d worked for—my studies, my agency—would all be gone. And why? Because a lord couldn’t have what he wanted.
“The storm has passed,” Devere said, appearing behind me. “You’re welcome to leave whenever you like, preferably at this precise moment.”
“Yes, of course.” I attempted to stroke my hair back and gather my wits, but as the blanket fell around my waist, I caught sight of my ruined clothes. “Do I look as terrible as I feel?”
“Yes.” Devere arched an eyebrow, and with his arms already crossed, he wore that better-than-thou expression I’d always loathed on him. “Perhaps you shouldn’t wander around the forest in the middle of a storm?”
“No… of course.” I couldn’t tell him the truth. I was a fool for not having seen Rochefort’s desires earlier, and there was the fact my word against the lord’s wouldn’t be weighted the same. If Devere told anyone how Rochefort had tried to seduce me, it would soon circulate. The lord would laugh it off, but my reputation wouldn’t survive. With that and the threat of blackmail already hanging over me, I couldn’t risk any of it becoming public knowledge. Plus, Devere hated me. He might deliberately circulate news of the attack.
He sighed. “I don’t know what trouble you found, and I do not want to know. You may use my facilities upstairs. Wash up, collect yourself, do whatever you need to do to make yourself the respectable gentleman you appear to have become while in Massalia, and when you leave, we will never speak of this again.”
I swallowed and nodded, fearing my voice might tremble if I thanked him.
“Good. The stairs are off the back corridor. I’ll be in the workshop. Do not disturb me.”
