Letty got to her feet slowly, and for a moment Griffin thought she might push him on the matter of Aaron. But finally, she nodded. “Yes. Neither of them is playing cards. They’re in the stables, actually—there’s a mare giving birth. But they say it’s going smoothly, so I’m certain one of them can discuss it with you.”
Griffin leaned forward to kiss her cheek. “I do appreciate your concern,” he said. “And I promise that I’m fine.”
He turned before she could answer, but he felt her stare on his back as he walked from the room, determined to leave not just to spare his own heart, but to protect her from a truth she should never have to face again.
Aaron leaned back as he watched the others play whist. He’d been asked to join a hand several times, but he knew he didn’t have the focus in him at present. His thoughts were too mired by images of Griffin. Not just his kiss or his body joining with Aaron’s, but of the pain on his face when Aaron had walked away from the love he offered.
He hated himself for doing it. And he could only hope that one day Griffin would understand there was no other answer.
A servant stepped into the room and looked around. When his gaze found Aaron, he moved forward. Leaning down, he said softly, “Mrs. Blackwood requests your company in the South Parlor.”
Aaron glanced up at him in confusion. He’d actually thought Letty was still at the game, but now that he looked around, he noticed she wasn’t anymore. So much for observation skills. One more reason he had to get Griffin out of his head.
“Thank you,” he said, rising to his feet and slipping past the others as they played.
He made his way through the halls to the parlor and stepped inside to find Letty standing by the fire, hands folded in front of stomach, waiting for him.
“Would you have tea with me?” she asked, motioning to the set that had been placed on the sideboard.
He wrinkled his brow. After the game of whist was over, it had been made clear that the group as a whole would go up to the main house for tea.
“Of course,” he said slowly, not fully understanding what Letty was doing, but unwilling to refuse her. They didn’t often get to spend time together anymore.
She smiled as she waved him to a seat on the settee and began to pour. “I love having you here, you know,” she said.
He forced a smile to his own face. “It’s always wonderful to see your family,” he said, and in that he didn’t have to lie. “After what you endured, you deserve everything good, Letty.”
She handed him a cup and sat down across from him. “All that seems a lifetime ago. And sometimes it seems like it happened just in the span of a blink of an eye.” She shook her head. “When I met Jack, I had all but given up on my happiness. Because of the…thesituationwith Noah, I thought I could never wed or else my virginity, despite being a widow, would reveal his secrets.”
“I’m sorry,” Aaron said, his voice cracking as he thought of those dark times. And of how he had betrayed her once more just a few days past.
She shook her head. “I’m not. Gracious, Aaron, at some point you must stop flagellating yourself for what happened with Noah. We all had good intentions, we all tried our best. The path we’re on now is a result of what happened back then. Without your relationship with Noah, without what happened to our marriage, I might never have met Jack, nor married him and had our children. My life would be infinitely emptier. And Jack might have died in the life he was leading and that would be a great loss to this world.”
Aaron nodded slowly. “I suppose I’d never considered it that way.”
“The only regret I have is that I’ve never seen you find the same happiness that I have. At first I knew it was because you loved Noah. Losing him was devastating. But as the years passed, I kept waiting and hoping that I would sense you had fallen in love again. When you didn’t, it was the only little blemish on my own happiness.”
Aaron gritted his teeth. “Well, as we talked about before, it’s more complicated for me.”
“Of course it is. I just don’t want you to make those complications even worse.”
“What does that mean?” Aaron asked, his hand tightening in his lap.
Before she could answer, Griffin strode into the parlor. He was talking as he walked, “You were right that Jack and War were happy to loan me a horse. Hell, Jack wants togiveme a horse, but you must convince him I’ll pay because his mounts are worth a pretty penny. But since it’s so late I won’t leave until tomorr—”
He cut himself off as he realized Letty wasn’t alone. Slowly Aaron got to his feet, trying to keep his pain at seeing Griffin from his face. It didn’t matter how many times he did, whenever he faced him, it was like being stabbed in the broken heart.
“I’m sorry,” Griffin said, his tone going cool and neutral. “When you asked me to join you, I assumed we would be alone. Mr. Condit.”
Aaron turned to Letty. “You asked your brother to join us?”
“I did. Griffin is going to leave us tomorrow morning and I wanted to talk to both of you before he did that.” She looked at her brother. “Griffin, shut the door, will you?”
Aaron stared at Griffin, who met his eyes. The same terror was in his expression as Aaron felt in his own. Did Letty know? Was it their long disappearance during the scavenger hunt that had given them away, or had Jack told her he’d found Aaron outside Griffin’s door? Or perhaps it was a look they’d exchanged.
Aaron’s heart was racing as Griffin leaned back and slowly did as his sister asked.
“Sit beside Aaron on the settee, will you?” she said softly, an order disguised as a question.
