She leapt up. “But you refused? What kind of treasure could be worth more than my sister’s life?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know anything about a treasure, Thomasina. If I did, I would have given it to him by now. I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what he’s talking about since the day I returned from Beckfoot. To find it.”

She stared at him. “Beckfoot…wait, did you meet with this man?”

The color drained from his cheeks. His lips pressed together and for a moment she saw how much he wanted to turn away from her and her question. But he didn’t.

“Yes,” he said softly. “He called me to a meeting the day after she ran.”

“Was my sister with him?” she gasped.

“I would have taken her by any means necessary if she were,” he assured her. “You may believe many things about me, Thomasina, and some of them are true. But if I could have discovered your sister, I would have died to save her from whatever trouble she and my late brother have gotten her into.”

She considered that a moment. She was angry with him for lying, but when she looked past that sharp emotion, she did know that he wasn’t the kind of man to hurt someone else. Not an innocent.

“But you let this Ellis person escape,” she said softly.

“There was little choice in the matter,” he said, scrubbing a hand over his face. She saw his exhaustion there. His heartache. His sense of failure. He’d been carrying all of it alone. By choice, but still alone. “Reynolds stayed behind in Beckfoot, trying to determine more about Maitland. That’s when he discovered that Anne had boarded a small vessel with another man.”

“The other Maitland.”

“Rook,” Jasper said with a shake of his head.

“What kind of name is Rook?” she whispered.

“Probably a name he…he carries from the street.”

She couldn’t help the low moan. “The nickname of a villain. A piece on the chessboard that is secondary in importance only to the queen. What kind of man could he be?”

Jasper held her stare. “I’m sorry, I don’t know. There’s so little information about him. They share a name, but I don’t know their connection in truth. Rook seems to have been involved in Ellis’s schemes but little is said about him. I don’t know where he is, where Ellis is, where your sister is. If I did, I would go there and bring her home to you, no matter the cost. But I don’t. And I’m trying.” He let out his breath in a long, shaky sigh. “I should have told you all of this from the beginning.”

“Why didn’t you?” she asked.

He ran a hand through his hair. “At first, I wasn’t sure I could trust you. Then I didn’t want to hurt you. And then I selfishly didn’t want you to judge me.”

She bent her head. Those reasons didn’t satisfy her, but she understood them. This man, this proud man, wasn’t accustomed to depending on anyone else. Certainly, he couldn’t have pictured doing so with her.