“Yes, here in London,” Arie said.
“Is that where you are from?”
Arie had always maintained just a touch of accent, while his Greek complexion always caused confusion for those who had not travelled much outside of England.
“No,” Arie said. “I am not.”
And it was obvious he would say no more.
“Well, this has been… enlightening,” Jonathan said, beginning to rise, Calli quickly following suit.
Arie was well-versed in the etiquette of the noble class, but he maintained his seated posture for a moment longer, as though to purposefully irk Jonathan.
“Thank you for the ices,” Xander said, before dipping into a bow in front of the children, who giggled at him. Xander had always had a way with the young ones. “My lord, my lady.” Belatedly he turned. “Your Grace. And Calli, I hope to see you again very soon, sister.”
“Of course,” she said.
“We shall be away for a couple of days,” Jonathan said, and Calli turned to him with some surprise. “My mother has just returned from Bath, and we will go to the country to visit her for the weekend while Parliament is in recess before we return to London.”
“Oh, dear,” Mary said, her face suddenly frozen in an unnamed fear, “not Grandmother.”
“She’s not that bad,” Jonathan said with a sigh, but as he ran a hand through his hair, Calli had the impression that he was in agreement with the children.
“Calli, before we go, might we talk to you for a moment— alone?” Arie asked, and Calli hesitated before Jonathan gave her a small nod.
They bid their final farewells to Jonathan and the children before they walked outside, down the street a way so that they would be out of earshot if Jonathan came outdoors.
“Seems like you’ve got yourself into a nice, comfortable family position with the duke and the children, eh?” Arie said, eyeing her, and Calli placed a hand over her chest in defense as she looked up at him.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m no fool,” Arie bit out. “There is something between you and the nob. If you’ve gotten closer to him to further our work, that is all well and good, but if you have feelings for him, Calli…”
“There is nothing between us,” she lied, hoping to convince Arie.
Arie roved his eyes over her face, assessing her.
“Good. Because you need to be thinking with your head. I’ve always taught you that.”
She nodded.
“But the duke obviously has some designs on you. Why else would he invite your family for ices?”
“I—” Her mind went blank. “I don’t know.”
“Exactly.”
He and Xander exchanged a look.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Arie said, holding up a finger. “Make your excuses, but do not go with the duke and the children to the country. Remain in London. We will come and switch out the painting and you will be gone, along with the original, before he returns.”
Panic began to swirl within Calli’s stomach, before it began to claw its way up her throat. If she did what Arie said… she would never see Jonathan again.
“But what kind of excuse would I make?”
“Tell him that you are feeling ill, too ill for the trip. Then when he is gone, just leave a note saying that you had to return to your family or something of the like. Your name is not your name, so he will have no idea where to look for you — not that he is likely to do so.”
“Why — because I am so expendable?”
Arie looked at her with pity.
“You have many fine qualities, Calli. You are beautiful, you are intelligent, and you have obviously been good with his children. But there are more of you out there. He is a duke. It will not be hard to find someone to replace you.”
Calli had no idea whether he meant as his governess or in his heart, but somehow she had the feeling that it wouldn’t have mattered — Arie’s opinion would have been the same.
“I—” She felt sick, but she squared her shoulders as she looked up at them both. “I can’t do this.”
“You said that before,” Arie said, his mouth twisting into what she knew was supposed to be a smile but was, in fact, anything but, “and I told you what would happen if you didn’t go through with it. Do it my way, he never needs to know the truth about you. Force us to go your way, and I will end up with the painting while he will forever know your duplicity. Which do you prefer?”
“I’m your sister, Arie,” she pleaded, but that only served to harden his resolve.
“Yes. And as my sister, you should be loyal to me. Not a nob you only just met. We will see you in two days.”
Then they were gone, striding down the street, as Xander looked back at her with sympathy. All Calli could do was take a breath, turn around, and pray for a way out of this.
Chapter 21
Jonathan hadn’t been planning another country trip so soon, but when his mother had requested to see the grandchildren, he had actually decided that perhaps now was as good a time as any to get out of the city. He had enjoyed himself last time, as had the children and Calli.
Calli.
He let out a breath as he stared out his study window and into the night sky. What was he to do with her? He had thought she was everything he had ever wanted, and yet… there was something that was not quite right. Meeting her family had not satisfied him, had instead only raised more questions. Her brother had been less than reassuring, continually challenging him and obviously contemptuous of his title. Which was not at all Jonathan’s fault.
He whirled around when he heard a noise at the door to find Calli standing just within.
“Jonathan?” she asked, and he motioned her to take a step inside.
“You are awake late once again.”
“I know,” she said, her gaze flickering past him to the painting that hung on the wall, the one she had been so enamoured with she had apparently been compelled to paint it herself.
“I’m sorry about my brother,” she said, wringing her hands together. “Arie can be… difficult.”
Jonathan grunted. “I am still somewhat perplexed as to what brought you to work for me, or how, quite frankly, you first became a governess with your background. Most are from families with much more prestige.”
“I know. I…” her eyes flickered around the room before finally landing on him. “That was actually a bit of an accident.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, all of his senses suddenly on alert.
“I’m not… I’m not Miss Donahue.”
Jonathan’s entire body went rigid, the words forming on his tongue of their own accord.
“What are you talking about?”
“I was always here… to see this painting. I had heard of it, and wanted the opportunity to try my hand at it. So I came into your study to see it, and the children were here. You mistook me for the governess, and it sounded like an excellent opportunity, so I went along with it.”
Jonathan noted her shaking hands, her pleading eyes, but he couldn’t get over the words that had just tumbled from her mouth.
“So this… you… it’s all a lie?”
No, it couldn’t be. She was fabricating this, now. But why?
“Not entirely,” she said, her eyes looking up at him soulfully, but the more she spoke, the more Jonathan’s resolve hardened. “I did want to be a governess to Mary and Matthew. I enjoy being their governess. I appreciate the position in your household. But since we have become…”
“Lovers.”
Her eyes flared at the word.
“Yes. I needed to tell you the truth.”
“And your brothers, they went along with this little scheme of yours?”
“I told them this is what I wanted to do. They weren’t initially pleased, but, well…”
She scratched her head as though she didn’t know what else to say, and Jonathan just stared at her, knowing, somehow, that this was not the end of the
story. He could see the uneasiness in her eyes.
“What else?”
“What do you mean?”
“What else are you hiding from me?” He advanced upon her, uncaring that he seemed to be frightening her. Good. She deserved it.
“N-nothing.”
He towered over her, looking down at her, and she took a step back, setting her jaw determinately, and he had to admire her spirit as much as he hated the reason for it.
“I told you everything. Shared with you things that had happened to me that I never tell anyone. I trusted you.”
“I know that,” she said, lifting her gaze to stare him in the eye. “And I appreciate it. I am aware how hard that was for you.”
He snorted, crossing his arms over his chest.
“It is why I am sharing all with you now,” she said, holding her arms out to the side as though trying to display how open she was. “I want you to know who I really am. I am Calliope Murphy. My brother is Xander Murphy. We kept our parents’ last name. I may not have had much training to be a governess, but I love Mary and Matthew and I am so grateful for the time I have spent with them. And—” she swallowed, and Jonathan watched the bobbing of her throat. Her voice dropped. “I am falling for you.”
Jonathan stood there, unmoving.
“Are you going to say anything?” she finally asked, her eyes wide, watery, pleading.
“How am I supposed to know what to believe, when our entire relationship is based on a lie?” he asked, his words hard, but he found that he couldn’t allow himself to soften for her, not one inch.
“But it wasn’t,” she insisted. “Everything I have felt for you, for the children, it has all been true.”
“Except that you are not who you say you are. Tell me, are your brothers really your brothers?”
“In every way that I have explained,” she said. “Xander is my brother by blood, while Arie took us in when our parents passed.”
“And they truly work in artifacts and priceless objects?”
Her eyes shifted to the side. “Yes, in a sense.”
“What do you they actually do?”
She lifted her shoulders. “That is not my secret to share. It is theirs.”
“So you will not betray their confidence, but you will betray mine?”
“It’s not like that,” she insisted, but her nostrils flared as she fisted her fingers at her sides. “But you know what? I can only defend myself for so long. If you insist on being so wilfully vengeful, so be it. I don’t know how else to prove to you that I mean what I say.”
“Don’t try to turn this back around on me.”
“What do you want from me, Jonathan?”
He breathed in deeply as he stared at her, wishing she wasn’t so beautiful, that his pull toward her wasn’t so strong, that he didn’t want her as badly as he did.
“I want you to never have lied to me. I want you to have respected the trust I placed in you. I want you to have realized that I would never have allowed a fraud to care for my niece and nephew.”
“You cannot continue to dwell on the mistakes I’ve made without looking forward at what could be done.”
He looked down at her, his heart at war with his mind. Part of him wanted to reach out and gather her in his arms and tell her that he didn’t care what her name was or where she came from, that she was going to be his and he would give her a new name, one that she could hold onto forever.
But that was ludicrous. She would be a duchess, then. His duchess. And he didn’t even know who she truly was.
“I need to think about this.”
“I understand.” She shrank back away from him, and he had never felt more alone.
“I don’t think you should come to the country to meet my mother.”
She looked down as she hugged her arms around herself. “Very well.”
She dropped her arms, turning around and walking to the door. She stood there for a moment, one hand on the doorframe as she looked back at him, every inch the goddess she was, although a very sad one at the moment.
“Goodbye, Jonathan.”
As she continued down the hallway, he wondered why it felt like she was saying goodbye forever.
* * *
Calli stared morosely at the painting lying on the bed in front of her.
It was finished. It was perfect. And she had never felt so incomplete.
She sank down beside the bed, her head in her hands. Jonathan and children were gone, left for the country. While she remained, alone, just waiting for her brothers to come and complete her betrayal.
She had thought that she was doing the right thing by sharing at least a little bit of her true self with Jonathan. Instead, it had done the opposite, only furthering his deepening distrust in her.
Telling him the first bit of truth had been her attempt to see just whether or not he might ever be accepting of her if it turned out she was not who she said she was.
Whatever she thought might have been a potential match between them was completely gone now. The façade of their moments together had been just that — moments. There would be nothing more, and she had been a fool to ever consider that there could be.
He was a duke, for goodness sake.
She was nothing, no one.
No, that wasn’t quite true.
She was a fraud, from a family of thieves.
Now her brothers would be here tonight to steal from Jonathan, to take the painting that would be the final tie to be severed between them. Even if he never found out, she would always know.
Unless…
An idea came to her. One that was rather extreme, and would require her to act quickly. She looked at her painting, then at the packed bags beside it.
She would leave, yes, no matter what happened, for to stay would only lead to her own heartbreak.
But she could make things right.
She had to.
Chapter 22
“I don’t understand, Uncle, why isn’t Miss Donahue with us?
“She wasn’t feeling well.”
Jonathan was, perhaps, prolonging the inevitable, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell the children that they might have to soon say goodbye to their governess forever.
Especially when they seemed to love her so much.
Her, after so many other governesses had fallen short.
“She seemed quite well to me,” Matthew said, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared up at Jonathan with contempt he did not quite understand. “Did you say something mean to her?”
“Pardon me?” Jonathan said, lifting a brow in an expression he hoped would command more respect from his nephew.
“She looked so sad when we saw her this morning. Mary and I thought maybe you said something to make her unhappy.”
Jonathan drew in a breath, attempting to find patience. “I told you that she wasn’t feeling well. That must have been it.”
“Do you love her?”
Jonathan started from his seat across from the children in the carriage. “Do I what?”
Mary tilted her head to the side in a look of understanding far beyond her years. “I can tell that you love her. It’s fine to say that you do.”
Jonathan crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t love her.”
But… he just might. He recalled her words that she was falling for him. He hadn’t wanted to admit it, not even to himself, but he was beginning to feel the same way about her. But he couldn’t. Not when he didn’t know who she truly was.
“Children…” he said, wiping a hand across his brow, unsure of just how to make them understand. “Miss Donahue… she’s not who I thought she was.”
“What do you mean?” Matthew asked.
“She’s not actually a governess.”
That would have to be enough to mollify them.
Mary furrowed her brow. “You mean she is supposed to have a different job?”
“Something like that. She was just pretending.”
&nbs
p; “But why?”
But why couldn’t they just accept what he said as fact? Everyone else in his life did.
“She lied because she wanted the job.”
Mary and Matthew looked at one another as they seemed to ponder what he said. Mary spoke first, apparently on behalf of the two of them.
“But she is still our governess, and she is a good governess. So why can’t she stay anyway? It doesn’t matter that she wasn’t a governess before. She is now.”
Jonathan opened his mouth and took a breath to respond — until he realized that Mary, actually, had something of a point.
“It’s just that she is not who she said she was,” he repeated, trying not to let his frustration show. “Who I thought she was.”
“But she is still the same person,” Mary insisted. “She wasn’t acting — was she?”
No. No, she wasn’t.
She was still Calli. The Calli that he had gotten to know. The Calli who had broken through all of his barriers. The Calli that he wanted in his life.
Perhaps… perhaps he had been a bit harsh with her.
“You’re right,” he said, looking at Mary wide-eyed, and the child beamed at him. It was likely the first time he had ever said such a thing to her.
“We best go back and get her,” Matthew said, to which Jonathan slowly nodded as hope filled him anew. He still didn’t completely trust her… but did he have to say goodbye forever? Maybe she deserved one last chance.
He rapped on the roof of the carriage before sticking his head out the window.
“Johnson — turn around! We’ve forgotten something.”
* * *
Calli’s brothers came much sooner than she had been expecting.
“Miss Donahue?” Calli started when the housekeeper found her in Jonathan’s study — fortunately, finished putting her plan into action, although she could feel the perspiration sliding down her back from her exertions. It was not exactly a job for one woman, but she had mustered every ounce of strength she possessed in order to carry it out.
It had been worth it.
She had sat down on the chair in front of Jonathan’s desk, taking a minute to examine her work.
The Art of Stealing a Duke’s Heart: Thieves of Desire Book 1 Page 16