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So instead of promising him the world, he said, “Tell me who is bribing the Chancellor for shipping contracts. Tell me what I need to know.”
Giles opened his half-lidded eyes all the way and stared at Theo…with disappointment. The expression shot straight to Theo’s heart, withering it.
“I…I’m sorry,” Theo said, turning his head away from Giles’s sad look. “That was crass of me.” He glanced back to Giles and said, “It is only that I am desperate to discover who the conspirators are. My…my position with the Runners and my livelihood requires it.”
Giles’s eyes widened, and his body curled tighter around Theo’s. “Why should your life and livelihood revolve around conspirators resorting to tricks to gain shipping contracts?” he asked.
Theo thought about inventing an excuse, but after what he’d shared with Giles, he found he didn’t want to. He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, and when that gesture didn’t feel like enough, he flopped to his back.
“The Runners have been hired by the crown to track down the conspirators,” he said. “They are audacious to attempt to blackmail the someone as lofty as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. And Vansittart is not helping matters by refusing to divulge what the conspirators are using as blackmail. The conspirators themselves are clever enough to have evaded detection so far, though I have come close to discovering them of late. I am mere inches away from unraveling the entire tangle, but I have no names, nothing pointing back to the men responsible for the whole thing.”
“And you believe I would know who those men are?” Giles said. “You would believe I have entertained them in the past?”
Theo twisted to stare at Giles, hope and heartache warring in his chest. “Have you?”
Giles let out a breath and twined his fingers through the hair on Theo’s chest. “I have passed an hour here and there with a great many men in lofty positions,” he said, not meeting Theo’s eyes. “Men of power like to brag about their secrets and their conquests to those who they see as silly and vain.”
Those words wounded Theo. He wanted to crush anyone who saw Giles as less than the wicked angel he was.
Giles raised his eyes to meet Theo’s. “I am the possessor of a great many secrets,” he said, then let out a breath. “But I have heard nothing about Mr. Vansittart. He is not of our sort, and does not patronize gaming hells. Whatever the gentlemen you are after are holding over his head, it is not the sort of vice to which I am privy. I’ve more than enough information about half a dozen other Members of Parliament, and even a member of the cabinet, but not Vansittart.”
Theo looked bereft. “I had hoped….”
“I am sorry,” Giles said with a coy, guilty look. “If I had the information you needed, I would give it to you.”
“I am so close,” Theo said with a frustrated sigh, scrubbing his face again.
Giles laughed suddenly and shifted to spread his body over Theo’s again. “I like it when you say that,” he said, mischief sparkling in his eyes.
Theo blinked, then realized what he’d said. He laughed and circled his arms around Giles, pulling him down for a kiss. His entire life might had teetered at the edge of a precipice, but at least he had Giles in his arms now.
“Perhaps I can be of some other sort of help,” Giles said between kisses, though, by his words, Theo thought he was thinking far too much. “Perhaps there is another way to discover the identity of these conspirators and to—”
His words were cut off by a commotion of some sort in the hall. Theo tensed his arms protectively around Giles as the two of them stared at the closed door.
“He has rooms here, I swear,” a deep voice said nearby. “The mistress of the house confirmed it.”
“Then find which rooms are his,” a second voice growled. “I want Brunner dead. He’s too close to discovering the truth.”
Giles gasped audibly. Theo had half a mind to clap a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. His own skin prickled at the eerie coincidence that he had just finished explaining his troubles to Giles. If ever he needed proof that he truly was close to discovering the identity of the conspirators, the men in the hallway were it.
As quietly as he could, Theo nudged Giles out of bed. “Get dressed,” he whispered.
Without words, Giles nodded and lunged for his clothing.
Theo climbed out of bed and snatched up his own clothes. He was forced to take a moment to clean the mess from his chest and stomach, but that and dressing gave him time to listen to the noise in the hallway.
“Search every room,” the second man ordered. “We need to silence Brunner. One more step and it will be over for all of us.”
As much as Theo wanted to stay and listen to learn more, or to confront the men—he was certain he was strong enough to fight them if he needed to—his primary concern was getting Giles to safety. He finished dressing and turned to help Giles with the last of his clothes. Neither of them looked particularly presentable, but they could travel through the streets without drawing too much attention.
“The window,” Theo whispered, grabbing Giles’s shoulders and steering him toward the casement.
“We’re climbing out the window?” Giles asked, looking and sounding delighted.
Theo nodded. “You’ll see.”
He rushed to throw the window open, praying that the contingencies he’d put into place would serve him well and help him rescue Giles from more peril than the man deserved.
