“—and then I realized I’d have to march into that house and demand she tell me precisely how long the affair had gone on and whether you preferred her company, but of course I had absolutelyno ideawhat one is meant to say when confronting a mistress, especially one I had never met?—”
“Hazel,” he tried again, a bit more insistently this time.
“—and I hadn’t even thought what I would do ifyouwere there as well because truly that would have been too awful for words and perhaps the most humiliating experience of my entire life and I’m still not entirely certain what I intended but?—”
“Hazel.”
She stopped. Her face was burning. She wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. “Yes?”
He stared at her incredulously, then, to her profound astonishment, the corner of his lips curved—and there it was, a lovely, albeit stunned smile.
“You thought you were going to a mistress’ house,” he asked with disbelief, “to fight her?”
Hazel pressed her hands to her cheeks. “I didn’t sayfightprecisely. I simply meant that I… well, I would have confronted her… fiercely… possibly, if needed.”
Greyson let out a sound that was richer than anything she had ever heard from him.
“You,” he said, wonder softening every syllable, “marched across London prepared to battle a woman who does not exist.”
Hazel pointed her fork at him, mortified. “Donotmock me. I was being practical.”
He blinked. “Practical?”
“Yes,” she insisted, though her voice cracked, “because if youhada mistress, it was far better for me to know immediately. And if she needed… speaking to, I was prepared.”
Greyson’s smile widened. “Hazel,” he said softly, “you are remarkable.”
Her breath caught. His tone did entirely unhelpful things to her insides.
She looked down hastily, staring at her plate as though it could save her. “Well,” she muttered, “I am very relieved she was not a mistress.”
Greyson leaned forward slightly. “As am I.”
Hazel felt the words settle deep inside her. And for one dizzy, impossible moment, she wondered whether the reason he was looking at her so intently… was not because she had made a fool of herself, but because he cared far more than a man in a mere marriage of convenience should.
Greyson watched Hazel closely. She was truly trying to appear unaffected by her own confession.
She lifted her chin a little higher, folded her napkin with unnecessary precision, and added almost breezily. “Well, it is not as though I minded terribly. The concern was only for my reputation, of course.”
But Greyson saw through it at once. He noticed the faint tremble in her fingers and the pink in her cheeks that had not faded since she’d begun her rambling confession.
Shehadminded. And the knowledge struck him deeper than intended.
“Hazel,” he said quietly, “I would never disgrace you like that.”
He thought she would fling herself into another monologue of trying to deflect the truth, but she did not. Instead, she smiled, looking unearthly beautiful.
“Well… it was merely a hypothetical concern,” she still insisted. “Naturally. I did not assume you… cared what I thought.”
He did not answer, for the simple reason that he cared far more than he ought to for a marriage of convenience.. But, before he could find the right words, Hazel spoke again. This time, she did it unexpectedly, bravely, and with a gentleness that made something inside him twist.
“What happened to her?” she blurted. “To your mother, I mean. To make her… the way she is now?”
Greyson went still. It had been ages since someone had asked that question, and so directly.
Hazel’s eyes widened, as though she realized too late the audacity of her question. “I apologize,” she said quickly. “I didnot mean to pry. If you would rather not respond, I completely under?—”
“No,” Greyson said.
