She wasn’t about to tell him that she had been following Julian Coffey or that she now remembered seeing Andrew Barchester in front of her in the basement. She had followed him, she thought, but beyond that, her mind was still a blank.
“I think this has gone on long enough. What is going on, Megan? Who are you and why are you masquerading in our home as a tutor?”
Megan opened her eyes wide, saying, “What are you talking about?”
“Come now, Miss—I don’t know what your real name is, but I would hazard a guess it isn’t Henderson. So I shall just call you Megan. I think we have moved beyond protestations of innocence, haven’t we? It is clear you are up to something—stealing the key to the collection room out of my father’s desk, sneaking into my room when you are supposed to be too ill to come down to supper…. I cannot flatter myself that your purpose was to seduce me, since you assumed I would be in the dining room with everyone else.”
Megan set her jaw. She had no explanation she was willing to offer for either of the incidents, so she decided it would be best to say nothing.
“You and I both know that you are no teacher. The twins are aware of it, as well, even though they both pleaded with me not to reveal that fact to our mother. But you know less Greek than they do, and your Latin is a trifle rusty. As for science and mathematics…” He shrugged eloquently.
Again Megan said nothing. As a reporter, she had long ago learned that people were usually better off to remain silent. It was their inability to keep from justifying their actions or making up lies to cover what had really happened that led them into saying much more than they ever wanted to.
When she did not answer, Theo grimaced and swung out of his chair, pacing about the room. He turned back to her and shot out, “Who is the Irishman you went to see on your day off?”
Megan’s eyes widened in astonishment. “What? How did you—” Then, as it settled in on her how he must have found out that she had gone to see her father and Deirdre, anger spurted up in her. “You followed me? How dare you?”
She jumped to her feet, fists clenched, letting the bundle of ice fall unheeded from her wound. “You have no right to follow me. I am an employee here, not a slave! What I do on my day off is my business, not yours.”
Megan remembered the eerie feeling that she was being watched. She had seen no one when she turned around, but, then, she had not really known what she was looking for. Still, surely she would have noticed if Theo was lurking somewhere behind her. “No, of course, it wasn’t you. You wouldn’t dirty your hands with work like that. Doubtless you hired someone.”
There was no guilt on his face, only a faint amusement, and that spiked Megan’s anger even higher.
“You find this funny?” she snapped. “You dare to laugh at me?”
“My dear Megan, what I find humorous is your self-righteous indignation at my having someone follow you. It sits a little oddly on a thief. Did you seriously think that I would sit back and do nothing to protect my family? That I was so besotted by you that I would let you hurt—”
“Your family!” Megan exclaimed. “I would never endanger your family! Are you mad?”
“No, I don’t believe that you would yourself physically harm the twins or my mother and father. No doubt you mean only to take things from them, things that you feel they can live without—indeed, will scarcely notice are gone. In that respect, you are right—material things being stolen will not cut deeply with them, although my father is exceedingly attached to his collection. However, surely you could not believe that your betrayal of their trust would not hurt. Constantine and Alexander admire you. So does my mother, who thinks you are forging forward in the fight for women’s rights. Kyria and Olivia have—”
“I know! I know how much they have done for me. I don’t want to hurt them.”
Theo was pleased to see the real regret and sorrow that lay in Megan’s eyes. He had worried that he was somehow mistaken in her, that she was only playing a part, the feelings he had seen in her merely acting, not reality.
However, he could not hold back now, could not let her slide away. He had to make her tell him the truth.
“Just because you intend them no physical harm does not mean that your cohorts feel the same. I don’t know who they are or what they intend, but obviously someone who is involved with you has no compunction about hurting people.”
“What?” Megan looked at him, confused. “What are you talking about?”
He gestured toward her head. “Someone obviously tried to harm you tonight. And someone else was following you the other day, someone besides my man.”
Megan stared at him, suddenly speechless. She could barely take in the meaning of his words. “What? There was another man following me?”
“Yes. Tom Quick—he is the man I hired to follow you—told me that he saw another man trailing you, as well. Who was it, Megan? One of your associates who doesn’t trust you? A rival? Or perhaps someone whom you have deceived in the past and who is seeking revenge?”
“What? You’re mad. He was mistaken.”
“I think not. Tom is clever, and very loyal to this family. He would not lie to me, and I doubt he made any mistake. Someone wants to harm you, Megan. That’s clear enough from what happened tonight. What is to stop him from trying again—or doing worse? If you have no care for yourself, you might think of the boys. What if the twins are with you the next time he decides to attack you? I cannot be with you every moment. No matter how close I’ve stayed to you for the last week, I could not prevent that attack on you tonight.”
“No! It’s not true. You are just trying to scare me away from here!” Megan responded. She wasn’t about to add that he was doing a very good job of it. “No one is trying to harm me. The only enemy I have is you!”
“Are you suggesting that it was I who knocked you on the head tonight?” Theo’s eyes flashed with a hard, bright fury, and his jaw set, color flaring on his razor-sharp cheekbones. “Do you honestly believe that I sneaked up behind you and cracked you on the head? Why would I do that?”
“To stop me—you’ve just been talking about stopping me. How you won’t let me hurt your family.”
“I must say, if you thought I was the one who hit you on the head tonight, you were remarkably foolish to ride home alone with me,” Theo retorted heatedly.
Megan opened her mouth, then closed it, aware that she had no response for that. She had thought about the very thing he mentioned, but she had dismissed it, rationalizing her actions by saying that he would do nothing with all his family knowing he had been alone with her. It occurred to her now that deep inside she had not really had any fear of Theo.