“Why?” Just the one word again. Her reaction had told him she still felt as he did, which made him more determined to find the reason she had left him.
She looked down at her hands. He noted they were shaking and was fairly sure his would be the same.
“Please know that if I could, I would answer you, but I cannot. Therefore, I would ask you, as the gentleman I understand you to be, to not come near me again, and to not pursue the answer to your questions.”
“A very pretty speech, Miss Carlow, but I am not gentlemanly enough to leave this alone. You walked away from what we had, and I deserve to know why. No vague words about this having nothing to do with me and the love we once shared will satisfy me. Why are you back if not to catch a bigger fish than me, which, by the way, Valentine is not.”
She flinched.
“Answer my questions.” He stepped closer, grabbing her hand as she prepared to leave. “Tell me why you left.”
“Unhand me, Nathan!”
It wasn’t her reply that shocked him, but her tone. Beth had never spoken to him like that before. She’d always been sweet and accommodating. Passionate, yes, but never had she growled.
When he didn’t move, she kicked him, hard, in the shin. Yes, her evening shoes did not have the sturdy soles of his, but still he felt it. His grip on her eased, and she jerked her hand free. Then she was running away from him.
“What the hell just happened?” Nathan asked anyone listening, which just happened to be him alone.
Inhaling several deep breaths of cool night air, he waited for his body to calm down before following Beth, replaying everything that had just occurred between them as he walked.
Was she unwell? Was that part of why he’d found her as he had? Why had she said that her departure back then was nothing to do with him or their love? And even though he’d said she was lying to him, why now did he believe her? She still wanted him, that was no longer in doubt.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he slowly made his way back to his brother’s box. Everyone was seated as the second act was about to begin.
“Why do you look like someone stole your new pistol?” Michael whispered as he took the seat beside him.
Nathan waved his words away, his eyes going to the royal box where Beth was seated beside Valentine. It was as he watched the king’s adviser raise her hand to his lips that he remembered the conversation he’d overheard.
“I will do no more until you promise that this will be the end,”the woman had said. Beth, he was sure of it now. But whom had she spoken to, and why?“If you wish for your poor sick father to stay out of prison, or worse, then do what I direct you to,”a man had said.
What trouble was she in? Who was the man? Was Lord Carlow unwell? More questions he had no answers to.
There was absolutely nothing to smile about—clearly something was very wrong with Beth and her family—and yet he did smile, because she’d kicked him. She’d always seemed too innocent and too unaware of the dangers in the world for a young woman. She’d accepted everyone, and if someone had been nasty to her, she’d simply smiled and taken it. It was the reason he’d felt a need to watch over her, protect her from anyone who might upset her.
It seemed that too had changed. She’d yelled at him, then kicked him in the shins. He hated that circumstance had stripped her innocence but was happy she no longer took a step back when one forward was better.
“That is a licentious smile, brother. Care to share who put it there?” Michael whispered.
Nathan ignored him and kept his eyes on the stage for the remainder of the performance while his thoughts stayed with Beth. She was in trouble, he was sure of that now, and he would find out what. Only then would he explore what could be between them once more.
Chapter Eighteen
“Iwill take Walter for a walk, Fairfax,” Nathan said the following morning after he’d spent the hours since rising wandering aimlessly around the house.
“Very well, Mr. Deville. I shall inform anyone who rises where you have gone.”
“It’s unlikely they will leave their beds before midday. They’re a notoriously lazy household after an evening’s entertainments.”
Fairfax smiled but did not comment.
“Fairfax?”
“Mr. Deville.”
“Is there a woman in your life? I feel I should know this and yet don’t.”
The butler was dusting the hideous painting that Gabe had placed in the front entrance. The family had been debating its suitability for years.
