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“Nothing,” she said and continued to eat in silence.

William studied her features closely. “You want to know something.”

Victoria let out a chuckle. “I want to know a lot of things.”

He leaned back in his chair, his brows furrowed. “About what?”

“About you,” she exclaimed. “I don’t know anything about you. Actually, that is not true, I know quite a lot of things about you from other people. But I would love to hear them from you.”

“What do you know from other people?” He seemed curious, delighted even by the fact that people were talking about him.

“Well, I know that you’re the best thief in London. But what I don’t know is how you came to be that way.”

He shrugged easily. “I am good at what I do.”

She smiled. “Yes, I remember. You made quite a demonstration at the Kensington ball. But that’s not what I mean. I mean, how did you start stealing and why? And how did you become so proficient at it?”

William let out a huff of air and took another piece of bread. He played with it for a moment, rotating it between his fingers before reaching for the jam and carefully applying it to his bread. “I was around six or seven,” he said, without looking up from his task, his brows furrowed in concentration. “I don’t remember exactly. I don’t remember many things from my childhood, but echoes of the past remain in the chambers of my mind. I lived with my mother back then. One day, she fell very ill. I don’t know what illness she had, I am not sure whether she knew it either. But I had to… I had to eat. And I had to take care of my mother. That’s when I first started stealing.”

Victoria’s mouth fell open and stayed that way. Whatever she’d expected to hear, that wasn’t it. He was six or seven years old! And he was stealing to feed his ill mother.

He chuckled as he rotated a piece of bread between his fingers. “Bread was a luxury. Any type of food was a luxury. So, when I finally gained money, I promised myself that I would never ever go without food again.”

That’s when Victoria’s mind traveled back a few weeks in time. She remembered the glint of pride in his eyes as he showed off his modest larder filled with different foods.

She had wondered about the gleam in his eyes and now she understood. He’d spent years worrying about where his next piece of bread would come from. And while stealing, he risked getting thrown into gaol, perhaps even hanging. So, he had to get good at what he did because his mother depended on him.

“What about your father?” she asked when she was able to collect her wits.

He frowned. “What about my father?”

“I thought… You said that he paid for your schooling. I heard that you inherited money from him. Didn’t you have his support then?”

William’s laughter was bitter and rough. He shook his head, placing the bread onto his little plate. She wished she hadn’t asked the question. It seemed to have ruined his appetite.

“My father never acknowledged my existence. Never. When my mother was ill, I went to ask him for help, but he threw me out.”

Victoria couldn’t stifle her gasp. “But you were a small child!”

William shrugged. “He didn’t care. I got my schooling money and my allowance only because I blackmailed him. It was later, when I was about twelve, and I had met Hades and other brigands. Together we had enough power to threaten the duke’s reputation. That was the only thing he cared about his entire life. So, he sent me off to France, as far away as he could afford. Gave me some allowance and demanded that I never return. And so I didn’t. Not until his death anyway.”

Victoria didn’t know how to react to what she’d just heard. All she could do was imagine a small, golden-haired boy, scouring the streets, stealing food so his ill mother wouldn’t go hungry. So she would get better.

But she didn’t get better. Because otherwise, William would never have gone to his father to ask for help, that much she knew.

He must have noticed something in her expression because he hastened to add, “Yes, he was the first man I ever blackmailed. Rather poetic if you ask me. I know you don’t condone it—”

“No,” Victoria said quickly. So quickly that he raised his head in surprise. “I mean, mostly, I don’t condone it. But not in this case. He owed it to you. He is the reason for your troubles. He deserved it.”

William let out a chuckle. “Really? Is a righteous princess condoning blackmail?”

She licked her lips. “He was your father. And as bad as my father was, he at least always provided for me. I can’t imagine—” She shook her head. “If your father wasn’t dead already, I would kill him myself.”

William let out a bark of laughter. “You can be fiercely protective sometimes, do you know that? And I love that it is directed at me. But I don’t think you would be able to kill anyone.”

“Why not?” She felt oddly offended.

“It takes another kind of person to kill in cold blood. In self-defense, perhaps. But the look in people’s eyes as the life fades out of them is… it’s not something one ever forgets. It’s not something one wears lightly upon one’s shoulders.”