“And you’ve been away from honesty long enough,” Sebastian replied mildly.
Edward stiffened. “Don’t.” He turned fully toward the window. The hills beyond Bath lay green and unbothered, untouched by gossip or consequence. “Thetonforgets because it always does. I knew that going in.”
“And yet,” Sebastian said gently, “you’re irritable, brooding, and you removed yourself entirely.”
Edward’s jaw tightened. “I came home.”
“You fled,” Sebastian corrected. “Which is not the same thing.”
Edward didn’t answer.
Sebastian sighed. “Is it Beatrice?”
Edward shot him a look. “Don’t.”
“Oh, I absolutely will,” Sebastian insisted. “Because you haven’t stopped thinking about her since the day you married her, and we both know it.”
“That marriage was a mistake.”
“Perhaps,” Sebastian allowed. “But you don’t brood over mistakes like this. You brood over losses.”
Edward’s voice lowered. “You didn’t live with her.”
Sebastian smiled faintly. “No. But I’ve watched you livewithouther. And you’re doing it badly.”
Silence stretched.
“She doesn’t want me,” Edward finally said.
Sebastian tilted his head. “Did she say that?”
“No.”
“Did she act as though she despised you?”
Edward hesitated. “No.”
“Then what did she do, exactly?”
“She withdrew,” Edward muttered. “She became… distant. Polite. As though I were merely a piece of furniture she could no longer be bothered to move. To her, I will always be the man she once wrote about. The rake. The disappointment.”
Sebastian nodded slowly. “Ah.”
Edward scoffed. “Don’t start.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Sebastian said. “I was simply going to point out that withdrawing is not the same as indifference. Sometimes it’s self-preservation.”
Edward stepped away from the window, he leaned down, his hand curled around the edge of the desk. “I wasn’t going to beg her to feel something she clearly didn’t.”
Sebastian stood up. “And there it is.”
Edward frowned. “What?”
“You didn’t stay because you were afraid,” Sebastian said softly. “Not of her rejection, but of how much it would cost you if she didn’t reject you.”
Edward’s breath caught, sharp and unwelcome.
Sebastian clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to decide anything now, but don’t lie to yourself and call this peace.”
