Vow of Deception (The Ministry of Curiosities #9)(68)

Gillingham signaled for his footman. "See that Miss Holloway leaves immediately."

The footman opened the door for me but a word from Harriet, standing at the top of the staircase, had him closing it again. He looked to her for further instruction, not his master.

"Gilly, that's no way to treat our guest and my friend," Harriet scolded. "Come and sit with me, Charlie," she said sweetly, holding out her hand.

Gillingham sucked air between his teeth, but he did not contradict his wife. I picked up my skirts and, keeping a wary eye on him, joined her on the staircase. With one hand supporting her belly, she led me to a cozy sitting room and we sat together on the sofa. Her husband followed and shut the door upon her request. No servants joined us.

I suddenly regretted my haste in coming here alone. I should have asked Gus to escort me inside or waited for Seth to return home. The woman beside me may be heavy with child, but she was still a werewolf who'd thrown her allegiance in with Swinburn. I could not trust her.

"Are you aware that Lincoln was arrested?" I began.

She gasped. "Arrested!"

Gillingham had been standing by the door but he now sat on an armchair. "This is in response to the newspapers that linked his name to the ministry," he said.

"And the parliamentary select committee's investigation," I said. "Mr. Yallop wants to shut us down, and he knows that achieving that requires removing Lincoln."

"It will come to nothing." He thrust out his lower lip as if that were the end of the discussion.

I ignored him. Despite his position in society, he could affect nothing. It had taken me until now to realize it, but he was useless, his influence non-existent. I turned to Harriet.

"You must convince Swinburn to end his campaign against Lincoln," I urged her.

"Swinburn!" she said, blinking her wide blue eyes at me. "You think him behind this?"

"I know him to be behind it. You know it too."

"She knows no such thing!" Gillingham bellowed.

She put up her hand to silence him, but did not bother to look at him. "You are probably right, Charlie. But I have no influence with Swinburn." She laid a hand over mine.

I pulled away. "Don't play me for a fool. You've switched allegiance to him."

She cocked her head to the side. "I did play the role superbly, but I thought you knew it was just an act. You must! I am your friend, and a friend to the ministry. Oh, please say you believe me, Charlie. I'll be devastated to lose your friendship, particularly now."

"You stole my imp necklace! If it were all an act, why not ask me to give it to you? Why go to such lengths?"

"Would you have given it to me? Of course not. You would never have handed it over. Charlie, listen to me. Sir Ignatius would only believe I was on his side if I proved my loyalty to him. He asked me to bring him the orb with the imp inside it, so I did. Now he confides in me as much as he confides in Lord Ballantine, perhaps even more, since Ballantine and he fell out over the incident with Leonora and Prince Eddy. Truly, Charlie, I thought you came to realize it was all a ruse when I winked at you after you confronted me in his house. Did you not see the wink?"

"Did you not hear the anger in my voice?"

"I thought it all an act." She laughed nervously. "You're a wonderful actress, after all, having pretended to be a boy all those years. I thought you were pretending, and that it worked. He believed your performance, and mine." She pouted. "I thought we made an excellent team, and now you tell me you doubt my loyalty to you. Oh, Charlie, the loss of your friendship leaves me bereft. My heart is broken and will not be put together until you say you trust me again."

She was convincing, and yet the kernel of doubt was lodged too deeply and I could not pluck it out. "You are now the leader of the East End pack thanks to Swinburn's machinations."

"That was never my aim."

"He guessed you would be chosen. You and he concocted the plan to remove Gawler together."

"No!"

"How dare you accuse my wife of being complicit in murder!"

"You've become powerful since Gawler's death," I forged on. "Thanks to Swinburn and your newfound loyalty to him."

"Loyalty that I only set out to prove to him at your insistence."

"It was your idea to spy on him by getting close to him."

She blinked tear-filled eyes. "Charlie, don't say such things. It was never my intention to become leader of the East End pack. I only ever wanted to help the ministry bring him to justice." She clutched my hand between hers and held it against her chest. "Please tell me you believe me."

I swallowed. I knew I ought to tell her I believed her…yet I could not.

"I think you should leave, Miss Holloway," Gillingham said, rising. "You're upsetting my wife."

"Sit down, Gilly," Harriet snapped.

He sat.

"Listen, Charlie." Harriet shifted closer to me. "Let me prove my loyalty to you by offering up some information."

Is that how she'd approached Swinburn? "Go on."

"I know you think me just a silly girl, merely a pretty face with no thoughts of her own."

"No," I said most emphatically. "I don't think that."