Gideon did not intend on confirming how accurate her guess had been. Instead, he began to pick at his food and eat, suddenly realizing how ravenous he was after an entire day of work. “Enough of that, tell me about your day.”
Amelia seemed just as eager to steer clear of any conversation concerning the Masked Rogue. She picked up her spoon, then hesitated, before setting it down again, looking up at him with a trace of anxiety. “My day was rather peaceful, actually. This morning I decided to go for a stroll through the garden, and Jenny accompanied me for a brief detour into the nearby woods.”
“Ah, so you must have encountered the same terrors that I used to as a child. It is a shame my father is no longer with us to believe me now,” Gideon said playfully, coaxing a laugh from her. The sound was somewhat strained, however. She was acting odd.
“I did not. It was rather magical, in truth. But I did stumble upon something quite unexpected.”
Gideon, curious now, prompted, "And what might that be?"
Amelia did not answer right away. Her spoon lingered above the soup as she seemed to grapple with her thoughts.
Her hesitation brought Gideon to an uncomfortable epiphany.
Jasper…
How could he have forgotten? The one person he had been doing all of this for and he had forgotten him.
It hadn’t even occurred to him that Amelia could ever come across Jasper’s resting place. Now faced with the very real conversation, he was at a loss. How could he explain to her that his sickly brother had died at the hands of his father’s foolish negligence? That evil men had conned his father and sealed the fate of his brother? The Masked Rogue had been born that day without Gideon even realizing it at the time.
Amelia wouldn’t understand. She wouldn’t be able to see that he did this all for the forgotten son of a Duke who had been robbed of the chance to live a normal life.
Two sons robbed of that chance,he thought bitterly.
She gathered her courage before he had the chance to say anything. “I came across a gravestone that had the words ‘Jasper Terrell’ inscribed across it. Was he… someone important to you?”
"That is not your concern." His response was sharper than intended.
His cold words surprised them both. But Gideon ignored the fleeting hurt that flashed in her eyes. He didn’t want to talk about Jasper. Not today. Not ever.
“He bears the Terrell name,” Amelia persisted, undeterred. “Surely that means he is a close relative of yours?”
“I said, it is none of your concern, Amelia,” Gideon growled. “Leave the matter be. You should not have been snooping around the woods anyway.”
“I was not snooping,” she defended, her nose flaring. “How was I to know I might encounter such a thing?”
“You couldn’t have.” Gideon realized how unfair he was being but he couldn’t stop himself. It was just… the topic of his late brother was a minefield of emotions he hadn't yet learned to navigate. Lewis understood that. As did Thomas. “But when I ask you to drop a matter, you should just drop it.”
She scowled at him and he could tell that she was tempted to argue further. But then she released a breath, her shoulders falling, and murmured, “Very well.”
But it was too late. The damage was done. The pleasant mood he’d been in before had dissipated into thin air. His appetite was gone. He no longer wanted to talk. He only wanted to be alone.
“I need to excuse myself,” he declared abruptly, the chair scraping back on the hardwood floor as he got to his feet. “Please, enjoy the rest of your dinner.”
Gideon didn’t meet Amelia’s eyes as he rounded the table and made his way out of the room. He knew she was staring at him ashe made his exit but he didn’t dare to look back. He only cared to be in one place right now. That clearing in the woods where his brother lay.
CHAPTER 26
The journey to her bedchamber after dinner had been quiet and contemplative. Amelia readied herself for the night in a hushed routine, with neither she nor Jenny breaking the stillness with conversation as they stepped across each other in silence. And even as she climbed into bed, closed her eyes, and willed for sleep to come, Amelia lay there, with her thoughts lingering back to Gideon’s abrupt departure from the dinner table.
The mention of thisJasperhad certainly struck a chord. Clearly, he held some kind of significance for Gideon. But how?
That question alone was enough to drive her to the brink of madness. Amelia didn’t know how long she had laid there but it felt like hours went by as she tossed and turned, thinking back to the look on Gideon’s face as he shot down her question. It wasn’t like when she would mention theMasked Rogue—this time, there was a hint of melancholy in his eyes. She had upset him.
Would it be too bad to apologize to him now? At this rate, Amelia didn’t think the guilt pressing on her chest would lessen if she didn’t.
With a groan of frustration, she sat upright, her chestnut locks tumbling about her shoulders. Amelia ran her hand over her face, awash with a fine sheen of sweat from the warm night. She couldn’t possibly visit Gideon’s bedchamber right now. That would be bordering on lunacy, scandalous even, and there was no guarantee that he would want to see her. She should leave it be, sleep, and hope that there was less tension between them tomorrow. As she usually did.
“But why should it be scandalous if I am his wife?” she gritted.And he is my husband. Whether or not our marriage may have been forged in the traditional sense, surely there is something there.
