Seeing Danger (Sinclair and Raven #2)(30)

Amen to that.

“Do you believe what happened today was deliberate, Dev?” James asked him.

“The more I think on it the more I believe so.”

“I wonder if it could be connected to those missing children in some way?”

“There are plenty of women helping children around London,” Dev said, “but yes, I wondered at the connection also.”

“Perhaps Lilly has been getting in the way of whoever is trying to abduct those children. She has the boy Toby out there poking his nose about, and she has been to the Watch House several times,” Essie said. “She also foiled that abduction attempt.”

“Someone would have had to know you were going to the Watch House to attempt to run Lilly down,” James said. “And if that is the case, then someone would need to be watching her.”

“You have a suspicious nature, husband,” Eden said.

“After what we have just endured, my love, are you surprised?”

Dev wasn't. The Duke had received several attempts on his life before they had found the culprit, a half-brother he did not know he had.

Around him conversations broke out while he sat silently contemplating what they had discussed. Lilly was a long-distant relation, and a Raven. It was enough to turn a man to drink.

“Pensive is not a word one usually associates with Sinclairs, although perhaps you can carry it off better than the rest of them.”

Dev watched James as he cradled his cup in one hand and bit into a large square of cake that he held in the other. He now stood beside Dev's chair, leaning on the windowsill. The Duke was a man who had lived with the burden of a cruel father, a man who knew his share of both physical and mental pain; he was also someone Dev would trust with his life and that of his family. He needed to talk about Lilly with someone who knew her, even if it had only been for a few years.

“I was wrong about your cousin, Raven.”

The Duke nodded. “I think she had most of us fooled, from what you have all told me.”

“Tell me what you know about her brother, James. I do not like the man, but surely he has not always been a wastrel?”

“No, he was a friend when they visited. But that all changed when his father died. He started drinking and gambling. He kept company with the wrong people, and soon he had become the man you see today.”

“I wonder at his relationship with his sister,” Dev said. “Surely he can know nothing of what she does?”

“I doubt he'd care anymore. From what I gather, his life is spent in gambling hells and with prostitutes.”

Dev had grown up with love. Yes, his father was not a nice man, but he had found that out later in his life. It always made him feel sad when James spoke of his childhood, but to hear that Lilly's brother did not love her as a big brother should made him angry.

“It might pay for you to become reacquainted with your cousin, Raven. It appears she could do with a relative she trusts.”

Dev held the Duke's gaze as the man studied him.

“You really are worried for her, aren't you, Sinclair, which suggests to me you also care?”

“Would it do me any good to deny it?”

“Not a bit,” the Duke said with a snort of laughter that fell from his lips as quickly as it had come. “I have not thought about Lilliana much over the years, as my own problems were enough to occupy me and because my father seemed hell-bent on keeping us apart, but if she is suffering in any way I would like to know.”

“I wonder why anyone would go to such lengths to disguise who they truly are.”

“I know that her grandmother left her money, but don't know the details of the entitlement. Perhaps in some way that is the reason? Something to do with reaching a certain age unmarried before receiving it?”

“You need to find out, Raven.”

“I shall try, Sinclair.” He smiled at Dev. “I can imagine how pleased you are she is related to me.”

“An understatement, I assure you,” Dev said. “Had it been anyone but Lilly, I would have walked the other way at a rapid pace.”

“But you can't,” the Duke said softly with his eyes on Eden. “Because something about her has settled inside you and nothing will dislodge it.”

“I can dislodge it anytime I wish,” Dev said quickly. Surely he wasn't that enamored with the woman yet? Surely what he felt for her was a mild affection based on the simple fact that he wanted to ravish her on the nearest available surface.... Dear God, he was in trouble.

“There is nowhere to run, Sinclair,” the Duke said to his back as Dev rose suddenly from the chair and headed for the door as if Satan himself dogged his footsteps.





CHAPTER ELEVEN


“Lord Danderfield is here this evening and he will ask you to dance, Lilliana. Of course, you will accept.”

I would rather eat lumpy porridge, Lilly thought, looking anywhere but at her brother.

The ballroom was filled with primped and pampered guests. Most she knew by sight if not acquaintance. She had been a part of this world for so long now that the scene before her no longer roused more than a sigh from Lilly. The colors and jewels, the decorations that each hostess took months ruminating over, just so they outdid last year and anyone else hosting an event this season, no longer thrilled her.