Rory hesitated. “But I was okay.”
“I didn’t know that!” Arthur forced his voice back down to a heated whisper. “For all I knew, Gwen or Mansfield had you, and since it seems to have escaped your notice, I have become rather attached to your well-being.”
“Oh.” Rory hugged himself tighter, eyes big and vulnerable. “Is that your fancy way of saying I mucked everything up?”
It was Arthur’s accidental admission that he was altogether too attached to Rory, full stop, but what he said was, “It’s my fancy way of saying your jealousy is misplaced.”
“All right already.” A faint blush colored Rory’s cheeks. “I never slept with someone before. I didn’t know it’d feel like that to see you flirt.”
Ouch. Arthur hadn’t considered that. “I don’t mean anything by it,” he started, a little stiffly.
But Rory waved his hand. “I know, and I’m not trying to say you got to stop. Just cut me a break. Big six like you, bet you get jealous too.”
“I most certainly do not.” Even as Arthur said it, he realized it might be a bald-faced lie. He generally wasn’t one for jealousy, but if he ever saw another man make a pass at Rory, there might be blood.
“Yeah, well, good for you, ’cause I about lost my head.” Rory scuffed his foot on the ground. “’Specially when I put together that you already knew whatbaciamimeans.”
“But I like it,” Arthur said immediately. “I would be happy to hear it every day. Every hour. Andlight of my eyeswas new, and I—” He hesitated, but the fear that Rory might stop his sweet, heartfelt Italian made him admit, “and I like that one too.”
A startled smile lit Rory’s face like the sun. “Yeah?” His eyes were on Arthur, soft with affection, but then the smile faded and worry crept back in. “Listen, that fella with the knife had eyes for only you. We gotta—” He gasped, his eyes going wide and black as pools of ink.
“Rory!” Arthur lunged and caught him as he staggered.
“A painting on the floor—a safe open on the wall.” Rory was staring at Arthur without awareness or recognition, and his voice was too loud, drawing stares again. “Business in the smoking room now. She doesn’t like the way it feels when he opens the box.”
Christ.Arthur grabbed Rory’s hand in his own and pulled him as deep into the alcove as he could, hoping the suit of armor kept them from view.
“Rory,” he whispered hoarsely, “Teddy, come back.”
Rory gasped again, and then—
He was blinking at Arthur in confusion. “He—Mansfield—” Rory screwed his eyes shut, then said, “He closed the box.”
“Is that why your vision stopped?” said Arthur.
“I’m not sure.” Rory shook his head. “I saw Gwen, I saw Mansfield closing the box, but I think—I think I saw you too.”
Before Arthur could ask what that meant, Rory said, “Upstairs, to the south.” He rubbed his temple. “It was that study again—library, maybe, full of books and art. Mansfield said they were going to start in the smoking room, maybe they left.”
Behind the glass case, Arthur squeezed Rory’s hand. “And you, when and where are you?”
“With you.” Rory shrugged, his gaze on Arthur. “Not sure I care about the when or where anymore.”
“Oh, you shit,” Arthur said, with feeling. “Saying stuff like that when we’re in public.” He coughed. “Also I’m still going to need you to actually tell me the year.”
Rory didn’t mock him, just squeezed their joined hands. “It’s 1925. The year Zhang’s probably waiting on us.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Rory tagged behind Arthur as they moved through the mansion, past the gallery he had climbed into and to the servants’ staircase in the back. His eyes were peeled for Mansfield’s henchman, but all he saw was a necking couple and a sour-faced maid smoking a cigarette. “You know where we’re going?”
“Mr. Humphries was able to get me the blueprints,” Arthur whispered back, and Rory remembered the friendly man from the skyscraper’s construction site. “Safer than risking Zhang mapping the place out when Gwen’s eyes could be about.”
There was a powder room just before the servants’ staircase and they squeezed inside it. Arthur inched the window open and made hand signals at the ground below. A moment later, Zhang shimmered into view, hovering just over the floor with half his body inside the bathroom wall.
Rory made a face. “That looks really weird.”
“I’ll assume that means Zhang’s here.” Arthur cleared his throat. “Third-floor library, south end. Can you check if it’s empty? Only you mustn’t be seen by Gwen.”
