Page 190 of The Enslaved Duet

“Broken ones,” he corrected her, patting her hand on his arm before stepping back up into the house and pushing the door wide for us. “Come in, come in.”

Simon’s home was large, but the rooms were small, the hallways narrow, and both were filled with comfortable furniture. It was a home; vastly different from Wentworth’s previous residence—a small castle—back in England. Still, I recognized his joy in it as he touched his hand to the walls while he moved passed and through the photos lining the mantle place of the living room he led us into.

I was happy he had found happiness.

It was a strange revelation because I’d been a self-centered man, a callous one, most of my life. When you are taught that empathy is a weakness from a young age, what recourse do you have but to believe it?

Loving Cosima had made me considerably more empathetic, and I had to agree that it was, in a way, a great weakness. I didn’t want the innocent to suffer and the guilty to flourish, so I found I had to take a stand when these things happened.

The first time I’d really done so had been with Simon, whisking him out of the country so that the Order couldn’t finish him off. I’d tried to do the same for Daisy, but they got to her before the wedding, and there was nothing to be done.

A vase of daisies sat on the mantle beside a photo of a young ethnic woman with a demure smile. I instantly knew that was Daisy, and I felt a pang in my heart knowing he still memorialized her.

She deserved that.

“Did you move here to escape the Order after what happened?” Cosima was asking as we took a seat on a pink velvet couch that was clearly not the choice of Simon, a man whose style ran toward hunting chic.

Simon frowned at her. “Surely, you know it was Thornton who brought me over?” When I only pressed my lips together and Cosima’s eyes went wide as gold doubloons, he chuckled and shook his head. “Ever comfortable as the bad guy, hmm, Thornton?”

“I did castrate you,” I reminded me drily.

Cosima choked on a giggle, her hand flying to her mouth. “I’m sorry, Simon.”

He waved it away with a grin. “No, no, that was rather funny. You did, of course, but you also gave me a new life, and when push came to shove, you reunited me with the one person who could heal me when all was said and done.”

My wife’s eyebrows shot into her hairline. “Oh?”

“He’s referring to me, I believe,” Agatha Howard said as she swept into the room looking every inch the aristocrat even in faded denim and an old Led Zeppelin shirt.

She went straight to Simon and settled on the arm of his chair, which he instantly tugged her off of so she landed in his lap. They grinned at each other for a moment before she faced a bemused Cosima again.

“It’s good to see you again, Cosima.”

“Che cavalo,” she breathed. “Someone please explain what’s going on.”

Simon smiled. “Aggie and I were best friends growing up. I was a meek lad, not inclined for much but hunting and mathematics. I didn’t have many friends, save her, and she was much too good for me. I never thought to like her as anything more than my friend, but when I fell in love with Daisy…well, she was my rock. She was with both of us through everything, trying to find a way to make it safe for us to be together. Obviously, you know the tragic end to that story. What you don’t know, just as I didn’t, was that Agatha had been in love with me all that time. When Daisy died and I…was punished for loving her, I came to America on Thornton’s dollar and set up a new life. When the Order tried to force Aggie and Thorn together, they unwittingly paired the two people who could work toward their end andwantedto for what was done to their loved ones.”

Simon paused to press his nose into his lover’s hair. Agatha closed her eyes to relish his closeness and then continued his story. “When I confronted Alexander about not wanting to marry him, we made a pact to take down the Order. He didn’t trust me, at first, so I told him my story, how involved I had been with Simon and Daisy. Not only did he trust me after, but he also reunited us.”

“Does your family know?” Cosima asked, but her hand was in my lap locking through my fingers and her head was tipped to press against my shoulder. Her closeness was validation of my part in their romance, a sweet acknowledgment of how brave and right she felt I was in doing that.

I felt her gratitude soar through me like a shooting star.

“They know I’ve absconded with a hearty portion of my inheritance and some family heirlooms, but otherwise, no, they don’t know where I’ve settled.”

Cosima was silent for a moment, obviously digesting everything she’d been told. Finally, she tilted her face up to look at me, and whispered, “Not evil, not even close.”

I didn’t smile at her, but my eyes held the wealth of warmth I felt for her. I liked Simon and Agatha, but not enough to reveal how desperately entangled I was in my wife.

“Which brings us to now,” I said, finally ready to get down to business. “Have you heard anything I should be privy to?”

“Like what? You know I’m keeping an eye on Noel, as are you, but thus far, he’s been remarkably silent in his cage at Pearl Hall. Hell, he hasn’t even hired a new servant in years.”

“Did you know Giuseppe di Carlo is the newest member of the Order in the city?” I asked, searching their faces for betrayal. I trusted them as much as anyone outside of Cosima and Riddick, which was to say, not very much.

Aggie winced. “I did hear that. Alan Byers told me so the other day. Are you thinking to use him to ferret out information about the auctions?”

“Do you really think he’ll give it up?” Simon asked. “He’s a mafia boss, Thorn. I doubt he’ll give it up with a please and thank you from the likes of you.”