Chapter 15 #2
Colin nodded. “We met at a charity dinner.” A faint smile touched his lips despite everything. “We argued.”
Jane almost laughed. “That sounds familiar.”
“It was.” He managed the ghost of a chuckle. “He accused me of being pompous.”
Hector gave the slightest huff of amusement. “That sounds like Evan.”
Colin’s smile faded into something infinitely softer. “He always challenged me.”
Jane watched the transformation. For the first time since finding him, genuine warmth entered his face. Love transformed him.
It suddenly explained why he had never shown interest in marriage, despite constant pressure from society.
“You used Foxglove,” she said. “You used it as a pseudonym.”
His expression softened. “You found that? At the brothel?”
“Yes. The duke and I have been looking for you.”
“Heavens, sister. I never… I never wanted you to end up at such a place.”
“It doesn’t matter now. What matters is that you’re safe.”
Hector looked between them. “So the brothel…”
“Was never about the brothel.” Colin shook his head. “We needed places where respectable gentlemen could enter alone without attracting attention.”
Jane suddenly understood. “A gentleman visiting a brothel raises no questions.”
“Exactly. We rarely remained long. We met. We spoke. Sometimes we simply sat together.” His eyes glistened again. “It was one of the few places we could exist without pretending.”
Hector folded his arms. “And Strachan?”
The warmth vanished from Colin’s face. His shoulders tightened visibly. “Everything changed after the card game.”
Jane glanced toward Hector. “The dealer told us Evan won a great deal of money.”
Colin nodded. “It wasn’t the money.”
“What then?”
“He humiliated Strachan in front of everyone,” Colin said as he looked down at his hands again.
“Strachan had smiled after the game… But for several weeks afterward…” Colin hesitated.
“Evan became different. He watched everyone.” He rubbed unconsciously at the rope burns around his wrists.
“He changed our meeting places repeatedly. He insisted we never arrive together. He stopped walking alone.”
Jane remembered the manager’s words. Paranoid. Looking over his shoulder. The pieces slid together.
“He knew someone was following him.”
Colin nodded. Then Colin reached weakly into the torn lining of his coat. “I kept it.”
His fingers produced a folded scrap of paper, worn soft from repeated handling. “I read it every day.”
Jane accepted it gently. The handwriting was unfamiliar.
Foxglove,
Do not come to our next meeting. I’m going to disappear for a while. Strachan is watching too closely. Once he grows bored, I’ll come back. Don’t look for me. Don’t write. Live as though you despise me. Trust me.
No signature.
Jane looked up. “He was trying to protect you.”
Colin nodded. “I obeyed. I never answered. I never searched. I didn’t tell his brother. I thought if I did exactly as he asked… He’d be safe.”
“Then Strachan’s men came to your engagement party… You saw what happened. They took me away. Beat me up, and demanded to know where Evan was. I never spoke a word. You understand now that the kidnapping was so public because Strachan wanted Evan to know that he’d captured me.”
Hector’s voice was quiet. “He used you as bait.”
“Yes.” Colin shut his eyes. “He believed Evan would come for me.”
Jane looked toward the duke. His face had become unreadable. Only the tightness around his eyes betrayed what he was feeling.
Colin looked at him. “I’m sorry, Your Grace. I kept him from you.”
“You’ve nothing to apologize for,” Hector responded. “You were protecting him.”
Another silence fell. Colin looked from Jane to the duke. Emotion filled his exhausted eyes. Colin swallowed hard. “Thank you. For believing me, for saving me.”
Jane brushed away another tear from his cheek. “We’re family.”
His lips trembled. Then his expression changed. Fear returned. A deeper fear than before.
“Evan…” Colin looked desperately at the duke. “Strachan is still searching for him.”
Hector gave one grim nod. “We have to find him first.”
Jane exchanged a determined look with Hector. Their search wasn’t over. It had suddenly become far more urgent.
Jane had barely dared to breathe since they had pulled Colin from that chair.
Even now, with him seated on the ground of the abandoned warehouse, alive, but still trembling and half-conscious, she felt as though any sudden sound might shatter the moment.
Dust clung to the air, disturbed by their movement.
Colin finally seemed steady enough to stand. His breathing was still shallow, but now Jane suspected it was from his confession. She had so many more questions for him, as she suspected Hector did.
Jane kept one hand on his arm, grounding him as if he might dissolve if she let go. Hector stood a short distance away. Jane glanced at him, wondering what was in his head.
Colin sighed and started to stand.
Jane tightened her hold instinctively. “Careful,” she murmured, brushing hair back from his forehead. “Don’t try to move too quickly.”
He winced in pain. For a moment, confusion clouded his gaze again, as if the world refused to stay fixed in place. Then his eyes found hers. And something in his expression broke.
“I thought—” His throat worked. “I thought surely you would want nothing to do with me.”
“I will never abandon you.” Jane kept her tone steady, even as her chest tightened painfully. “You’re safe now. It’s over.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. I never meant for any of this to touch you. Either of you.”
Jane immediately reached for him, pulling him into her again. “You did nothing wrong,” she said firmly.
Colin shook his head against her shoulder, broken with relief and grief all at once. “You saved me,” he whispered. “Both of you.”
He pulled back slightly, looking between Jane and Hector. “Thank you,” he said, voice shaking. “Truly. But we have to find him.”
The words landed heavily. Jane’s breath caught. Colin’s gaze sharpened with renewed urgency through his exhaustion.
“I believe I might know where to find him,” Colin said, his voice thick with emotion. “There’s a place that we told no one about. A kind of safe space where we could hide out. Unless Strachan has got to him somehow, I think he might be there.”
A sound pierced the silence. Distant, but unmistakable. Footsteps. Jane stiffened. Hector’s hand moved instantly, subtly shifting between them, protective. Colin tensed.
The sound grew louder and closer. Jane’s heart dropped.
Whatever was coming was coming fast.