Page 138 of The Grand Duel

Did he not recognise me?

Does he even know?

“I—”

I think back, all the way to the first day in his office. The way he could barely look at me. The way he spoke to me as if he hated me, and then barely could at all. The way he ignored me for weeks.

I’m well aware that you work at The Nightingale, Lissie, and I’m well aware of what that entails. It’s not something that you need to hide from me. You have nothing to worry about.

My eyes fill with tears, and Christian reaches for me, pulling me into him, holding me. “It’s him, he knows,” I say into his chest.

My heart pounds, the thought of how he was with me that night. How he touched me that first night in the room. And then this morning. The way he touched me this morning. “It’s him.”

And he knew.

I pull back, knowing my tears will spill over if I don’t.

My lip trembles as I look at my friend. “I feel so stupid.”

His nostrils flare. “Don’t.”

“I need to go home.”

TWENTY-SIX

Lissie

Idon’t go home. Instead, I walk the half mile to Mayfair, heading directly to the man who has the answers to my questions.

I’m angry and in the worst frame of mind, but I can’t go home and stew on the possibility of Charles being the man I slept with at The Nightingale.

And yet I know it.

Christian confirmed it.

I know it was him without a shadow of a doubt. It’s that fact, the knowing, the obviousness of it all, that makes me feel even more stupid than the fact I trusted him.

When I arrive at his building, I walk to the main reception and ask them to call up.

“I’m sorry, he isn’t home. He asked to speak to you, though.” The man holds the phone out to me, and I stare at it, knowing Charles is waiting on the other end of the line.

I shake my head and step back. “No, that’s fine. Sorry to bother you.”

I leave the building, walking as fast as I can to the underground.

My phone starts ringing, and I stare down at it, his name lighting up the screen.

Knowing he’ll worry if I ignore it, I answer the call. “Hello.”

“Lissie, is everything okay? I had a call from James asking to let you in. You can go up if you need to. Where are you?”

I stare at the poster on the streetlamp in front of me, the entrance to the tube right beside me.

“Lis?”

I pull my coat tighter around me as my body aches at the sound of his voice.

“I’m here, Charles,” I say, my voice a broken whisper. “I’m heading home now.”