The driver hissed something vile in his thick Scottish accent.
“Is there a tea shop?” Gray asked.
The man nodded.
“Drive us there.”
Mungo studied him for long seconds and then nodded again. Gray climbed inside.
“What are you doing? I wish to go home,” Ellen said when he sat in the seat across from her. She was crying, her eyes red, and cheeks stained with tears. The sight made him feel like going back into the flower market and finding his brother. He then wanted to bloody his nose and tell Lady Mary she was a very poor second best to Miss Ellen Nightingale in every way.
“Taking you out for tea. It seems you need a fortifying cup before you return to Crabbett Close and your family.”
She sniffed.
“If you return looking as pathetic as you currently do, you will be subjected to an inquisition, which I’m not sure you are up to,” Gray said.
“I am not pathetic.” There was no strength to her words. She wiped her gloved hand over her face, looking like a child. “But I have taken great pains since I left society never to see or interact with anyone from it.”
“But you have seen them, surely? You could not get about London without doing so?”
Her eyes lowered.
“How have you avoided them?”
“I walk the other way or hide if I see someone that will recognize me. My family goes out to places. I choose not to.”
Gray couldn’t believe that this woman, who he thought a bloody Amazon who backed down from nothing or no one, had allowed members of society to force her into hiding.
“That’s cowardly, Ellen. Which I never would have thought was a word I would use for you. You are worth ten of those people. People who mean little or nothing to you.”
“I’m not a coward!” Her pretty blue eyes fired to life and shot sparks at him. “How dare you suggest such a thing!”
“If you are not a coward and have done nothing wrong, why does it matter to you what anyone thinks of you? Why avoid people when you know that the fault for what happened was your father’s, not yours or your family’s?”
Gray moved to sit next to her as another tear rolled down her cheek. He wiped it away with the pad of his thumb.
“By doing what you have, you’ve allowed yourself to feel small in your own eyes and in the eyes of your family. You’ve allowed what happened to change you so much, Ellen, and for the better but not in this.”
She glared at him, and Gray liked that scowl far better than the defenseless victim she’d been minutes before. That look had touched him deeply.
“Don’t let those two empty-headed fools make you feel any less than the brave, fearless woman you are, Ellen Nightingale. You are strong. Don’t let them weaken you.”
Her eyes held his as the anger drained away. More tears fell.
“Thank you, your words humble me,” she whispered. “I-it took me so long to find my rage and not feel shame after what happened. I was numb. Creditors were calling, and people I’d always known were turning from me or shutting their doors on us. I decided I never wanted to see or speak to someone from that time again.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you and your family, Ellen. But none of it was your fault. And we both know that all members of society aren’t bad. Look at your friends, the Sinclairs.”
She sighed. “I never again wanted any part of that life and then today there they were. Your brother and Lady Mary. I was shocked and reacted accordingly.”
“Tell me you weren’t one of those silly, vapid women who fell all over themselves, so my brother acknowledged you?” he teased her.
“Actually, your brother made advances on me,” she said in a husky voice. “I was considered quite a diamond of the first water, I’ll have you know.”
“I can imagine you were.” Gray didn’t like the flash of jealousy he felt thinking of Christopher anywhere near this woman.
“Thank you, Gray.”
