Her fingers stilled. “So, you would send me north to be safe?”
“That was part of the reason, yes.”
“And then return yourself to face danger, alone?”
“That is my responsibility.”
“And I am your wife,” she reminded him quietly.
The word still unsettled him when she used it so plainly.
“You did not choose this risk,” he said.
“No,” she agreed. “But I accepted it.”
He frowned. “Those are not the same.”
“They are adjacent,” she replied. “And they matter equally in practice.”
James leaned back, dragging a hand through his hair. The argument was not proceeding as he had anticipated. He had expected resistance rooted in fear, or pride. Instead, she was dismantling his plan on logistical grounds, with an understanding of optics he could not dismiss.
“If you remain here,” he said, “you will be exposed.”
“As will you.”
He looked at her sharply but held his response.
“You are not subtle,” she continued, unapologetic now.
He almost laughed at that, though nothing about the moment was amusing.
The fire popped, and he stared into it, weighing what he had not yet admitted to himself.
“When the Season begins,” she added, gently but firmly, “your presence will be required in London regardless.”
“Yes.”
“As will mine, and we will be requested to host events.”
“Yes.”
“And when you do,” she said, “it would be… odd for your duchess not to be present.”
Odd was a charitable word.
He closed his eyes briefly. The image rose unbidden: Eleanor alone at Ashbourne, receiving letters that explained absence as necessity. Waiting. He did not like it. He liked even less that he could not immediately articulate why.
“You have thought about this,” he said.
“I have had time,” she replied. “And I have watched how our world responds to absence.”
The firelight caught in her hair. He realized, abruptly, that he had not asked the simplest question.
When she looked up again, her expression was cautious. “If you still wish to send me north, I will go.”
He believed her. That, too, troubled him.
“But I would prefer,” she continued, “to remain where I can be of use, and travel together in future.”
