“Stop it!”
“He didn’t just stab her, he gutted her like an animal without remorse. It washerblood they found. She nearly and truly died on that dock.”
Everyone inhaled sharply, including Belle. Shocked gazes swung over to her and she clutched her stomach, feeling as though her old wound had been ripped open again.
He reached for her, but she took a step back from him. “That was not your secret to tell.”
Guilt flashed across his face, but he only clenched his jaw.
“Is that true?” Jo whispered, horror reflected in her eyes.
Belle looked away. “It was a long time ago and I survived. That is all I will say on the matter.”
“Belle—”
“I do not wish to talk about it Jo, ever,” she looked over to Westfield, “again.”
Derek nodded. “Understood. Westfield is right, however, we will bait him another way. You have suffered enough.”
Belle stiffened. “I can do this.”
“We do not doubt that, my lady,” James said in a somber tone. “But when something that traumatic happens to you, something inside you, it changes. It haunts you. Sometimes even taunts you. But it never truly leaves you. We will not have you relive that again.”
Belle stared daggers at all of her friends. Blast them and the damn pity reflected in their eyes. She did not contradict James, for he was right, but she’d accepted what happened to her a long time ago.
“If I may,” St. Aldwyn drawled from beside his wife. “While you are all filling oceans with tears, I may actually have an idea.”
“Damien!” Jo admonished him. “I know you have a heart, however deeply disguised, so use it.”
“Please do not keep us in suspense,” Westfield said, sparing a quick sheepish glance Belle’s way.
Belle snorted. As if St. Aldwyn’s likely horrible idea will actually make her forgethisbetrayal.
“The envelope was destroyed, correct?” St. Aldwyn asked Belle.
She paused.
“De Roux does not know that,” he continued. “We can lure him out with the prospect of its contents.”
Oh, dear.
“That may not be such a bad idea.” Approval rang in Derek’s voice.
James narrowed his eyes on Belle. “Youdiddestroy the envelope, did you not, Lady Belle?”
Confound it!
All eyes flickered to her again and she shook her head. “Not exactly,” she hedged, unable to lie this time.
“What the hell does that mean?” James snapped, causing Simon to stiffen and Damien’s gaze to sharpen.
“It means that I did not personally destroy it.”
Derek’s gaze dropped to where her hands fidgeted with the folds of her skirt.
“Do you still have it?” Jo asked.
“No.”
