But dignity didn't pay debts. Dignity didn't save estates. Dignity didn't stop her mother's hands from trembling when she thought no one was watching.
"You're very quiet," Sebastian said, breaking the silence.
"I'm thinking."
"About?"
"About how spectacularly I've just made everything worse." Harriet laughed, a hollow sound.
“Davies shall pursue his claim with every resource at his disposal. The business has exceeded the ledgers; it has become a personal battle. I have struck at his vanity, and a man of his character does not suffer such a blow in silence.”
"His pride will recover. It always does, with men like him."
"And my family? Will we recover?"
Sebastian was quiet for a moment. "I don't know," he admitted. "But I do know that you made the right choice."
"Did I? Sometimes I'm not sure there are right choices anymore. Just different varieties of wrong."
"Refusing to wed a man you don't love is never wrong."
"Easy to say when you're not the one facing ruin."
The words came out harsher than she'd intended. Sebastian flinched slightly, and Harriet felt a stab of guilt.
"I'm sorry," she said. "That was unfair. You've done nothing but help us, and I keep…" She stopped, shaking her head. "I keep taking my frustrations out on you."
"You're under considerable strain. I don't take it personally."
"You should. I've been horrible to you."
"You've been yourself. That's not the same thing."
Harriet turned to look at him, struck by something in his voice. He was watching her with that expression she couldn't quite read,the one that made her feel seen in ways she wasn't sure she wanted to be seen.
"Why do you keep helping us?" she asked. "The real reason. Not the one about Richard, not the one about duty. Why?"
Sebastian held her gaze for a long moment. Something shifted in his expression, like a crack in the careful mask he always wore.
"Because I cannot seem to do otherwise," he said quietly. "Because your family has been more of a home to me than my own ever was. Because…" He stopped, seeming to catch himself. "Because it's the right thing to do."
It wasn't the whole truth. Harriet could tell it wasn't the whole truth. But she didn't press, because she wasn't sure she was ready to hear whatever truth he was holding back.
"Thank you," she said instead. "I don't say it enough. But thank you."
Sebastian nodded once, then turned to look out his own window. The conversation, apparently, was over.
But something had shifted between them. Harriet could feel a new thread of understanding, fragile but real. Whatever else happened, they were in this together now.
For better or worse.
They arrived at Fordshire Park to find chaos.
Mrs. Briggs met them at the door, her face pale with worry. "Lady Harriet, thank goodness you're back. It's your mother…she's taken ill."
Harriet's heart stopped. "Ill? What do you mean, ill?"
"She collapsed this morning. The physician is with her now. He says it's exhaustion, that she's been pushing herself too hard, but…" Mrs. Briggs' voice wavered. "She's asking for you."
