Read Online A Study in Darkness by Emma Jane Holloway - Free Book Online
Authors: Emma Jane Holloway
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after Evelina left London.
The only mercy was that she and Tobias had kept their growing affection relatively private. She didn’t think Alice had ever been aware of it, and there had been no public gossip to endure. But still, even now Evelina’s cheeks burned with emotion—though she could not name it precisely. Shame? Anger? Chagrin? The smoldering ash of desire? She would never recover from the wrench of that parting. To say the very least, it had not gone well. She had to blink away the memory before she could finish the page.
And now I can hear the gears turning in your clever mind—yes, I realize this isn’t the most pleasant subject for you—but there’s bound to be talk about the wedding since it’s been moved up to the fourth weekend in September, which means planning is going apace. But please don’t let that stop you from coming because Tobias won’t be joining us until the visit is almost over, and you can leave before then if you wish. The two of you need never cross paths, and I would be crushed if any discomfort between you kept our friendship from continuing as before
.
Weak with disbelief, Evelina dropped to her knees on the charred carpet, barely noticing the last few sentences. Pain shot up her leg when she landed on a shard of glass, but she ignored it. She stared at the page, reading it over again to be sure she wasn’t mistaken about the one word that stood out from the rest.
September?
That was next month. It was one thing to know that she’d lost Tobias, quite another to know that tragedy would be irrevocable so soon.
He loves me, not her
. After all that had happened between them, her certainty seemed illogical, but she knew Tobias—perhaps better than he understood himself. Evelina knew the way his face lit up when his heart was moved—when the man emerged from behind the contradictory and complex mask he’d built. Tobias did not love easily, and he’d never looked at Alice in that unguarded, joyous way he had when his heart was open. That look was how Evelina had known he’d loved her, and that his denial of that love had been an act.
With dawning horror, Evelina glared at the letter, trying to read it a third time but too agitated to make sense of the words. Was everything that had sustained her nothing but a lie?
The wedding had originally been set for next spring, and buried as she was in Devonshire, she’d heard nothing of this change of plan. Yet a September wedding tore her belief in their star-crossed love to shreds. Among the fashionable, engagements of a year or more were increasingly common. According to the sticklers, anything less cast doubt on the propriety of a marriage, and especially on the purity of the bride. Keating and Bancroft—both intensely conscious of public opinion—would carefully avoid anything that might give rise to comment. So what had happened?
There were only so many reasons a couple moved up a wedding date. And now it seemed that Tobias wasn’t such a reluctant bridegroom after all.
Damn him! Damn him, damn him!
London, August 24, 1888
SOUTH BADGER TANNERY
10:15 p.m. Friday
NICK HOOKED A KNIFE AROUND THE MAN ’ S THROAT BEFORE the fellow even knew he was there. The blade kissed the skin, denting it without drawing blood—though an unlucky twitch could alter that picture. The moonlight gave few details, but sight wasn’t everything. Nick felt the man’s surprised start and the jump of his pulse as his heart began to race. There was the rasp of breath, the hot slick of sweat despite the chill air. The tall, slender man at the sharp end of the knife was afraid and doing his best not to show it.
Sensing the advantage, Nick’s own body tensed with the primitive thrill of the hunt, but he forced reason to the fore. The moment was too dangerous for anything but cool calculation. Maybe that’s why the man didn’t die when his fingers crept toward the gun strapped at his side.
“Come now, none of that,” Nick
The only mercy was that she and Tobias had kept their growing affection relatively private. She didn’t think Alice had ever been aware of it, and there had been no public gossip to endure. But still, even now Evelina’s cheeks burned with emotion—though she could not name it precisely. Shame? Anger? Chagrin? The smoldering ash of desire? She would never recover from the wrench of that parting. To say the very least, it had not gone well. She had to blink away the memory before she could finish the page.
And now I can hear the gears turning in your clever mind—yes, I realize this isn’t the most pleasant subject for you—but there’s bound to be talk about the wedding since it’s been moved up to the fourth weekend in September, which means planning is going apace. But please don’t let that stop you from coming because Tobias won’t be joining us until the visit is almost over, and you can leave before then if you wish. The two of you need never cross paths, and I would be crushed if any discomfort between you kept our friendship from continuing as before
.
Weak with disbelief, Evelina dropped to her knees on the charred carpet, barely noticing the last few sentences. Pain shot up her leg when she landed on a shard of glass, but she ignored it. She stared at the page, reading it over again to be sure she wasn’t mistaken about the one word that stood out from the rest.
September?
That was next month. It was one thing to know that she’d lost Tobias, quite another to know that tragedy would be irrevocable so soon.
He loves me, not her
. After all that had happened between them, her certainty seemed illogical, but she knew Tobias—perhaps better than he understood himself. Evelina knew the way his face lit up when his heart was moved—when the man emerged from behind the contradictory and complex mask he’d built. Tobias did not love easily, and he’d never looked at Alice in that unguarded, joyous way he had when his heart was open. That look was how Evelina had known he’d loved her, and that his denial of that love had been an act.
With dawning horror, Evelina glared at the letter, trying to read it a third time but too agitated to make sense of the words. Was everything that had sustained her nothing but a lie?
The wedding had originally been set for next spring, and buried as she was in Devonshire, she’d heard nothing of this change of plan. Yet a September wedding tore her belief in their star-crossed love to shreds. Among the fashionable, engagements of a year or more were increasingly common. According to the sticklers, anything less cast doubt on the propriety of a marriage, and especially on the purity of the bride. Keating and Bancroft—both intensely conscious of public opinion—would carefully avoid anything that might give rise to comment. So what had happened?
There were only so many reasons a couple moved up a wedding date. And now it seemed that Tobias wasn’t such a reluctant bridegroom after all.
Damn him! Damn him, damn him!
London, August 24, 1888
SOUTH BADGER TANNERY
10:15 p.m. Friday
NICK HOOKED A KNIFE AROUND THE MAN ’ S THROAT BEFORE the fellow even knew he was there. The blade kissed the skin, denting it without drawing blood—though an unlucky twitch could alter that picture. The moonlight gave few details, but sight wasn’t everything. Nick felt the man’s surprised start and the jump of his pulse as his heart began to race. There was the rasp of breath, the hot slick of sweat despite the chill air. The tall, slender man at the sharp end of the knife was afraid and doing his best not to show it.
Sensing the advantage, Nick’s own body tensed with the primitive thrill of the hunt, but he forced reason to the fore. The moment was too dangerous for anything but cool calculation. Maybe that’s why the man didn’t die when his fingers crept toward the gun strapped at his side.
“Come now, none of that,” Nick
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