Beatrice let out of a huff.“Precious little satisfies Malcolm.”
“Except for in this case, he is correct,” he whispered.“I am not just a Good Samaritan.”
“No,” she answered.“But you are doing a good deal more than many men would for their mistresses.”
“For the woman I love,” he corrected, wanting the matter to be clear between them.
She smiled at him.“Is that so?”
“You know it is true.”
She had stopped outside of a door.
“Here is your chamber.”
She led him inside to a very handsome chamber.
“It adjoins your mother’s?”
She laughed and shook her head.“No.Mine.”
“Yours?”
“I took it over years ago.She didn’t want it anymore.The memories, I think.”
He nodded, paralyzed between contradictory emotions.He was chilled by Beatrice’s explanation of her mother’s motivations, but also very glad to hear that her doorway was only on the other side of his.
“You needn’t sleep in this chamber.”
“Won’t the servants notice?”
She shrugged, as she gestured for him to follow her through to her chamber.
“They would never tell my mother such a thing.And if they did, she would assume there was an innocent explanation.The only person who would seize upon such a thing as evidence is already the one person who cannot be convinced to the contrary.”
“Malcolm, you mean?”
She nodded.“At this point, nothing could persuade him that our attachment is not illicit.But we cannot all live up to Malcolm’s high principles.”
They had now entered her chamber, which had a warmth her father’s handsome but barren room lacked.
It had more of the gimcracks and trinkets that he associated with feminine chambers than he would have accepted, but also, he saw, more books, pen nibs, and papers than he was accustomed to seeing, even though they were neatly organized.
“We can sleep here,” she said, beginning to ready herself for bed.
“Your brother, Malcolm, what does he do on the estate?”
“He manages the stables.And oversees the farm.”
“Under your direction?”
“Yes.Which he never resents.He is a very good brother.Especially given my father’s conduct to him.”
“Who was his mother?”
Beatrice sighed.“It is not a nice story.”
He opened his mouth to tell her that she need not relay it, but then she kept speaking.“She was the local solicitor’s daughter.From a very respectable family.And he ruined her, as he did all the others.She was ostracized before she died giving birth to Malcolm, when the village realized that she was with child.Her parents never turned her out, however, and raised Malcolm, even though it affected his grandfather’s business.”
