And Isabella knew, as their eyes locked on one another’s, that she couldn’t do the thing she had resolved to do. She couldn’t ask him where he was going. Not when he had been so clear with her about the fact that he didn’t want her to do that. Really, at the end of the day, even though the rules had changed a little bit from one day to the next, she knew that he had been kind to her. He had gone out of his way to try to make her comfortable. He had done almost everything she had asked of him since she had arrived here.
She wouldn’t ask this. Not now. She wouldn’t put him in a position of having to give her something he didn’t want to give or else having to tell her no.
Because the truth was, maybe she had been right in what she had said to Caroline. Maybe she would be able to get Arthur to open up to her today.
But he didn’t want to. He had told her again and again that he didn’t want to.
If he ever decided that it would suit him to let her know where he went every day, she would love to hear it. But she couldn’t try to manipulate an answer out of him. She simply didn’t want to know that way.
Arthur frowned. Maybe he had expected a question. Maybe he had thought she would ask again where he was going all day since she’d been willing to ask him not to go. But if that was what he expected, she would show him he was wrong.
She returned her attention to her bread, and for the time being, the family ate their breakfast in silence.
CHAPTER 19
“You said you had more information for me,” Arthur said, sitting across from Taylor in his study. “Tell me what you know.”
“You’re not going to like it very much, I’m afraid,” Taylor said. He was far from his usual jovial self today, Arthur noticed. He seemed as if something serious was weighing on his mind.
“Is that because you have no information for me?” Arthur asked. “If that was the case, I wish you would have sent me a letter so that I wouldn’t have had to come all the way over here.” He had grown used to these meetings in which Taylor seemed able to tell him nothing new about his search for his parents’ killer, but today was the first time he found himself regretting the fact that he had come to meet with his friend at all. He thought of the connection he had shared with Isabella—both last night and over breakfast this morning. What a waste of a day if there was nothing to discuss. He could have spent it with her.
But Taylor shook his head. “We have a great deal to discuss,” he said. “I have a new source, and I’ve learned some new things about the circumstances surrounding your parents’ deaths…at least, I’ve learned some things that might have played a role. But the information I have won’t be fun to hear. It will be painful, I think, and you might regret having asked me to find it out. I want to give you one more chance to walk away from this. You can still turn down the chance to find out what I learned, and you can go on as if you had never asked the question in the first place.”
“Is that what you would do?” Arthur asked his friend. “Would you walk away right now if you were in my shoes?”
“I don’t think I’m clever enough to walk away,” Taylor admitted. “My curiosity would get the best of me, and I imagine yours will too.”
Arthur nodded. “I’ve been looking into this for far too long,” he said. “Whatever it is you’ve discovered, I have to know. My parents were killed right before my eyes when I was a child, and I’ve never been able to put that behind me. I never will. Not unless I can find some sort of answers. Ihaveto know why this terrible thing was done to my family, even if it’s a hard truth to hear.”
“Very well,” Taylor said. “Have you ever heard of a lady by the name of Miriam Cropper?”
“I can’t say that I have.”
“The Countess of Reeves?”
“No, I know nothing of her. Nor have I heard of her husband.”
“That makes sense,” Taylor said. “The Earl died years ago, so they say. And as for the Countess…well, I suppose you wouldn’t have interacted with her because you rarely attend parties. Even if you had, she tends to spend her time with…a certain type of gentleman.”
“What do you mean? What type of gentleman?”
“Married gentlemen,” Taylor said frankly. “She wouldn’t have paid you any mind in the past because you weren’t married. Your father, on the other hand…” he trailed off.
Arthur made the connection. “Do you mean to say that my father had some sort of improper affair with this lady?”
“According to my source, yes, it seems he did.”
“But then…I don’t understand.” Arthur felt as if he was running to catch up with what he was being told. His instinct was to protest fiercely that his father would never have done such a thing. But if there was even a chance that it wasn’t true, he knew Taylor wouldn’t have brought it to him. Taylor would have waited to be sure.
“I’m sorry I have to tell you this,” Taylor said. “This is the thing I had a feeling you weren’t going to like. I thought it might tarnishyour memories of your father, but you’ve asked me to find out the truth for you.”
“My father had an affair with a lady who specifically targeted married gentlemen?”
“For him, it would likely have been a matter of simple attraction,” Taylor said. “Whatever else she is, she’s very beautiful. But for Lady Reeves, it was more complicated. My sources have informed me that she sought out married gentlemen specifically for affairs because of anger and resentment she felt toward the men in her own life—her father and her husband. They were both cruel and abusive toward her, or so people say.”
“And so…” Arthur shook his head, trying to make sense of the story. “You think this is why my father died? Because of this affair?”
“I don’t know exactly what happened,” Taylor replied. “I don’t know how this information connects with anything else we’re trying to find out. But I think it must be relevant that your father had this scandalous secret. It’s the first thing I’ve learned about him that I can imagine someone killing him for. I think I’m finally on the right track.”
