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After Phineas left the room, Mr. Stewart took a step closer to her. “I feel as if I owe you an explanation,” he said, looking entirely unsure of himself.
“That would be most appreciated.”
He glanced over at the door before he lowered his voice. “I am a spy, and I was tasked with discovering if a trade union was being formed in Anmore.”
“You are a spy?”
“I am,” he replied. “Before that, I was a Bow Street Runner.”
“I thought you went to Cambridge?”
“I did,” he confirmed with a nod. “I attended Eton and Cambridge on a scholarship, but I dropped out of Cambridge after my father was murdered. I was forced to take care of my mother and sister.”
“I see.”
“I had grand plans of becoming a professor, but those vanished the moment my father died,” Mr. Stewart said. “I became a Bow Street Runner with the sole intention of tracking down my father’s killer.”
“And did you?”
“I did,” he replied.
“And now you are a spy?” she asked skeptically.
“I am.”
“May I ask why you didn’t go back to Cambridge after you caught your father’s murderer?”
“Why, indeed?” he asked. “I’m afraid I didn’t have the funds to do so.” He held his hands up. “This is me. I am poor, and I have no prospects.”
“But you were dressed so finely when you were here before.”
He sighed. “I was given those clothes to wear, since I couldn’t very well pass as a banker with my own clothes,” he explained. “The coach was loaned to me by my boss.”
“Who is your boss?”
“I’m afraid I can’t reveal that.”
“What can you reveal?”
Mr. Stewart took a step closer to her. “I shouldn’t have even told you that I am an agent of the Crown, but I want honesty between us.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I love you,” he declared.
Daphne pursed her lips together. “You can’t possibly think I would forgive you after everything that you have done.”
“No, I do not,” he replied.
“You used me for information.”
“I did.”
She placed her hand on her hip. “I could never trust you again.”
He nodded. “I imagined that would be the case.”
“Then why are you here?”
