“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, squeezing his hand. “A sudden loss like that must have been extremely difficult.”
“It was,” he said, his tone monotonous as he still looked before him instead of at her. “It was here in London. He went riding by himself and never came home. No one saw it. But when he was found, his neck was broken. They said it must have been an accident.”
Must have been. But no one could know for certain.
He realized it was likely the first time he had shared something so deeply personal with her — or with anyone, for that matter. Suddenly, he had entrusted her with something that no one else held, and he had no idea just how to feel about it.
She had shifted closer to him without him even realizing it.
“And your brother?” she said in a voice that was steady, sure, although her eyes held space for his emotion.
“He was in a tavern fight,” he said bitterly. “Died when someone brought out a weapon. He never should have been there. He wasn’t the type of man. He?—”
He ran his hand over his face, unable to say the rest of it.
“It’s all right,” she said, soothing him. “There was nothing you could do.”
How wrong she was. She needed to know, to understand that he was not the upright, respectful man she thought he was. That there was a reason he pushed away the man he’d used to be, that any feelings she held for him were misguided.
“It was my fault,” he said. He had come this far. Might as well tell the full truth. “He came to the tavern for me. I had too much to drink, and someone came to the house to tell them I needed help. I don’t know the particulars. I’m ashamed to say I don’t remember them, but there was a misunderstanding and he— then I?—”
“I’m sorry,” she said softly, her hands coming to his cheeks, and in them, he found solace that he had never known before. “It never should have happened, Asher, but you must stop blaming yourself. You didn’t kill him. You don’t know the full story of what happened.”
“I know enough,” he said bitterly.
“That’s why you stick to such rigid order now,” she said, understanding dawning in her eyes. “You are trying to prevent anything from going wrong again.”
“Of course,” he said with a nod.
“Unfortunately, that’s not how life works,” she said with a small, rueful smile. “Things happen that are out of our control. All we can do is try to put the pieces together as best we can.”
“Do you think any of this — my father’s death, my brother’s death, the committee, the diamond theft — do you think it’s connected?”
Part of him clung to that, wanting to think that, perhaps, there was more to it all, that it wasn’t all some odd twist of fate that the people connected to him ended up in terrible circumstances.
“I cannot say for sure — at least, not yet — but I also don’t think that it is allunconnected,” she said. “I think we need to learn more about this committee and the Earl of Norwood.”
“How?”
“Eastclere was obviously involved,” she said. “We could start by asking him.”
“Do you think that is wise?”
“I don’t know yet,” she said. “He wasn’t exactly forthcoming earlier. But perhaps we went about it the wrong way. Eastclere is Verity’s cousin. She might have better luck speaking to Eastclere on our behalf.”
“That could be helpful, as long as she doesn’t put herself in any danger,” Asher finally decided.
“Agreed, of course,” she said.
“I’ll spend the rest of the morning looking through anything else my father left behind,” Asher said. “Then we can speak to Lady Verity or Eastclere and try to get to the bottom of this once and for all. What we do know is that someone stole the diamond, and someone is trying to make it look like it was our fault. The question is, are they two related mysteries, or has someone taken advantage of a situation?”
“Have we heard anything more from Pine?”
“Nothing except that he has tracked down the printer who provided the paper both notes were written on. Unfortunately, the paper was simple, sold in the store to a random customer. There is no trace to who might have bought it.”
“Which is not helpful. We know that multiple parties wanted this diamond,” she said. “How could adiamondpossibly be involved with a parliamentary committee?”
“Just one more mystery,” he said, holding his hand out toward her. “But we will solve it together.”
