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He pretended to be hard and unfeeling but he was remarkably solicitous of the sensibilities of others—even those who attempted to extort him.
“This could be a ruse, you know,” she said. “He could have fabricated the entire story. He could be in league with MissLachance to extort you and entrap your brother.”
“Possibly, but his words had the ring of truth. The emotion on his face when he spoke of his nephews, it was real.”
“I’m reserving judgment until we find Lord Rafe.”
His hand had settled squarely on her shoulder.
She shifted closer to him on the seat, suddenly aware of the enormous breadth of his thighs in his tight breeches.
“So where does this leave us?” Drew asked.
“With a code to decipher. I’m hoping that it will reveal where Lord Rafe has gone and the identity of the evil target he referred to in the study.”
“Then I follow him,” Drew said.
“Wefollow him.” She nestled closer to him. He was just so warm and she had a slight chill from sitting in the carriage. “Because you’ll never be rid of me. I’ll needle you until you allow me to go.”
“Because we’re linked,” he said, his arm circling her shoulders tighter.
Mina had pled a headache and gone to bed early. When the duchess retired, Mina had snuck out, making her way stealthily to the other house.
They’d been sitting in the study, working on deciphering the coded diary for hours and hours. Mina’s brain hurt. Her mind was a mishmash of numbers and letters. Her heart was even more mixed up.
Sitting side by side with Drew, working together on this puzzle, felt so very right. The closeness and camaraderie of it filled some hollow place inside her.
He looked so handsome, even when he was exhausted. His thick, dark hair stuck out at all angles and the stubble on his jaw had darkened into the beginning of a beard. He had purplish shadows under his eyes.
They’d been through every volume in the study. Books were piled everywhere.
She walked to the far wall of the room and back again. Sometimes movement helped her brain follow different paths.
“We’re missing something,” she said. “Something simple. Something easy. One more time, please try to think of a book that might have some significance for Rafe. Was there a story he loved as a child? A gift someone gave him? A school grammar he particularly hated?”
“Say that again,” said Drew, his expression intent.
“Which part?” She was so exhausted she couldn’t remember her own words.
“You said a school grammar he hated. Well, he hated them all. He hated them so much that he hid gruesome crime broadsides and gossip sheets inside of his schoolbooks and read them instead. He likes the penny fictions, or penny dreadfuls, as they call them. Sensational stories published and sold for a penny.”
“The key’s not a book,” said Mina, excitement jolting her awake. “It’s one of his penny fictions. Where does he keep them?”
“Beside his bed. He has a whole drawer filled with the things. Highwaymen, footpads, tales of intrigue, the bloodier the better. He likes gothic horrors. Vampires, witches, that sort of thing.”
They hurried upstairs and into Rafe’s bedchamber. Drew pulled open the drawer.
Mina rifled through the lurid pamphlets until she saw one that was so well worn the pages were nearly transparent. “ ‘Vanquished by the Vampire,’ ” she read aloud. “ ‘A Bloodthirsty Tale.’ ” The cover depicted a skeletal figure hovering over a supine woman with long, flowing black hair wearing a ruffled nightgown.
“That’s got to be the one,” said Drew. “Didn’t he use those same words? He said he was off to vanquish a bloodthirsty foe.”
“You’re right, he did!”
Mina spread the diary open on Rafe’s bedside table beside the penny pamphlet. “It will be simple now that we have the key. See here.” She tapped the diary page. “The cipher has the number three, the letterB, and the number four all grouped together. I think that means page three, column B, fourth word down. And if there’s another number in the grouping, it won’t be a word, but an individual letter of a word.”
She applied her theory. The word wasParis.
She inhaled sharply. “We’ve done it, Drew. We cracked the code!”
