“And you never told him it was his oversight for which you took the blame?”
“No. He sacrificed so much by taking me in and making a respectable man of me that I couldn’t expose his mistake. Some burdens are worth bearing.”
“At the cost of your reputation?”
“Yes.” Bram rose, offering his hand to pull her to her feet as well.
She wrapped her fingers around his, all the while mulling on what sort of man would take the blame—still took it, in fact—for the sake of another. “Have you always been so noble, and I just did not recognize it?”
“Of course.” He shook out the blanket, then folded it into a bedroll. “Hopefully we can get an early start in the morn. It sounds like the wind is taming down a bit, leastwise there is less snow drifting through that crack in the door. How about you bed down?” He swept his hand toward the blanket. “I will manage the fire.”
“When will you sleep?”
“I am a college professor. I go without sleep during final exams every semester.”
She lowered to the scratchy wool, a thin barrier to the cold floor, but at least the fabric was mostly dry now. Closing her eyes, she willed sleep to come, but all she could think about was an innocent man bearing the censure for a crime he didn’t commit, and the old dear who didn’t have a clue such a mercy had been extended to him. And now that she thought on it, there were other things Bram’s uncle didn’t seem to be aware of either, like the constant misplacing of his satchel, his many losttools, or the time he’d come in for breakfast and was surprised to see eggs in a dish instead of dinner.
Eva pushed up on one elbow. “Bram?”
“Hmm?” He glanced over his shoulder from where he sat by the fire.
“About your uncle ... that pocketing of the signet ring was not the only time he has overlooked something, is it? I have noticed he is quite absent-minded.”
“Have you?”
“Is there something more serious going on with him?”
He gazed at her a moment longer, firelight playing over the far side of his face, the other half-hidden in shadows. Without a word, he picked up another piece of wood and swiveled back to the hearth.
Her heart squeezed. She’d had a great-aunt who slowly yet steadily lost her faculties, declining so much that one day she’d ended up lost in the woods ... only to be found after she’d breathed her last. Eva laid her head in the crook of her arm, deeply troubled.
Would to God such a thing might never happen to Bram’s uncle.
19
Sunlight sparkled like handfuls of diamonds cast across the snowy lawn. As Bram pulled the wagon to the front door of Inman Manor, Eva could hardly believe yesterday’s landscape had been so brutally harsh in the serenity of this fine morn. Though it was just as chilly. She held tightly to the blanket around her shoulders as Bram helped her down to the drive.
He didn’t pull away when her shoes crunched into the snow. Rather, he straightened her bedraggled bonnet atop her head. “I wager you have never been so glad to return home.”
“We did have quite an adventure, did we not?” She angled her head. “Then again, it seems I always do when I am with you.”
His easy laugh was as brilliant as the sunshine. “And after such a harrowing journey, I suggest you take it easy today.” His smile faded. “I would not have you suffering any illness from being so chilled.”
“Oh, I intend to—take a care, that is. Listen.” Cupping her hand to one ear, she leaned toward the house. “I believe I hear the call of a hot bath.”
He mimicked her gesture. “And I hear a steaming pot of tea saying, ‘Bram, drink me. Drink me now.’”
She couldn’t help but grin at his falsetto voice. “It would be a crime not to heed such calls. Until later, sir.”
He swung back up to the driver’s seat. “I will meet you in the workroom after dinner as usual.”
Thankfully the front stairs had been swept clean, but even so, Eva gripped the railing until she reached the door. Once inside, she pulled off the blanket and hung it on the coat tree while calling, “Poppet! I am home.”
As she fumbled with the ragged ribbons knotted beneath her chin, footsteps clacked down the corridor toward the hall. She pulled off her bonnet just as Dixon sailed around the corner.
“Oh, miss! I was so worried! Why, Sinclair was just about to organize a search party for you and Professor Webb.” The housekeeper frowned at the dirty blanket hanging like a collared cat. “I’ll have Mary see to your wraps straightaway. I am so thankful to see you remained in Cambridge overnight. How were the roads this morning?”
“Em...” Stalling, Eva hung up her bonnet. How deceitful would it be to allow everyone to think she and Bram had stayed at an inn in the city?
