CHAPTER25
Valaria stared at Fanny, her shock and hurt and confusion sitting like a ball in her chest that made her heart ache so deeply.“Tear us apart?”
Fanny nodded.“I knew you were hesitant about His Grace,” she whispered, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks.“But it was also clear that things were escalating between you.That you wanted what he offered and if you took it…if you took it then there would be so much danger to us both.”
Valaria flinched.Fanny had been saying that same thing to her for weeks now.Trying to convince her to walk away from this man who loved her.“What was the purpose of blackmailing me, then?Especially after you knew Callum and I were engaged.”
“You’ve always been so guarded, especially about this.”Tears were streaming down Fanny’s cheeks now, her eyes bright with them and her hands trembling at her sides.“I thought that if you believed the secret would come out, that someone was threatening you with it, that you might push him away.End things with him so that he wouldn’t know what you did.What…whatwedid.”
Valaria heard Callum’s sharp intake of breath and he moved forward half a step.“You helped Valaria that night.”
Fanny ducked her head.“Yes,” she whispered.“In the end it will come out anyway.Her Grace will confess everything to you because of her heart.So it might as well be now.”
“Oh, Fanny,” Valaria breathed.
“Tell him,” Fanny said, sinking into the closest chair and covering her face with her hands.
Valaria turned toward him and shook her head.“Fanny followed us when Silas was dragging me to the stable,” she whispered.“At great risk to herself, she tried to intervene, to save me.It distracted Silas.He was about to strike her and that…that was when I hit him.Killed him.”
Fanny didn’t remove her head from her hands, so her voice was muffled as she said, “Together we covered up the crime, and vowed never to tell another living soul.”
“Until she told us,” Callum said.“Told me.”
“You’ll have me transported to protect her, I know,” Fanny sobbed.“People like me are always the ones that get trampled on by people like you.”
Valaria watched Callum, but there was no hint of any negative emotion on his face as he slowly moved to where Fanny sat.He pulled up a chair close to hers and gently reached out to lower her hands from where they caged her face.The maid looked at him, waiting for the punishment that men like him had doled out over the years.
But Valaria knewthisman.And she knew he would never do such a thing.She knew it with a strength that was almost as overpowering as the love that rose up in her in that moment where he stared at her servant, her friend, and showed the same kind of acceptance and gentleness that he had always shown her.
“You saved the woman I love,” he said gently.“You were brave in the face of something I can only imagine was terrifying.And I would never do anything to harm you, Fanny.Just as I would never do anything to harm Valaria.This secret…it will go to the grave with me.”
Fanny caught her breath and stared at him.Valaria saw the same doubt in her expression as she had felt in her own every time Callum offered kindness and gentleness to her.But she also saw…hope.“You would do that?”
“Of course,” Callum said.“I vow it on my own life.”
“And what of the others?”Fanny asked.“Your friends.Her friends?”
“They would never tell anyone,” Valaria said, and she knew it was true.Understood it herself for the first time.“They will protect us both and likely only be relieved that there is no true threat.”
Callum still held Fanny’s gaze evenly.“Thereisno true threat, is there, Fanny?”
“No,” the maid whispered.“I wouldneverharm the duchess.”
“I believe that is true.”Callum patted her hand.“So then there is nothing to fear.From you.From me.”
Fanny stared at him for a long moment and then glanced at Valaria.And it was clear her friend had come to see just a glimpse of what she knew this man to be.There was a softening to Fanny’s features.A relief.“I’m so sorry, Your Grace.”
“I understand,” Valaria said.“I understand your fear and that sometimes we do desperate things to protect ourselves and those we care for.But it’s over now.And we have nothing to fear ever again.”
Fanny let out a little sob and Valaria saw just how damaging the pressure of the last few months had been on her maid.How much weight Fanny had been holding.As much as she had been, herself.
She squeezed Fanny’s hand.“I forgive you, Fanny.And I hope you can forgive me for not providing you with more reassurance.”
Fanny nodded and wiped her tears.“Of course.”
Callum moved to Valaria’s side as she stepped away from Fanny.She felt the warmth of his hand at the small of her back.Comforting, powerful, and she leaned into it and into him.
“I’ll leave you two,” Fanny said as she smoothed her gown and wiped her face once more.
