Different circumstances and different perspectives.
Gideon shook out of his morose thoughts.
The building looked smaller than he remembered. But he had lived here as a child. Everything must have looked big and daunting back then. He had left this place at the age of fifteen along with the other boys his age.
Along with his best mate, John Bonham. The two of them had been best friends from their earliest days here and vowed to conquer London together.
Well, they had done all right for themselves.
Berry was standing on the front steps looking like a shimmering angel amid a circle of sunlight that brought out the vibrant gold of her hair and tinges of strawberry mingled within.
Gad, she was beautiful.
She had waited for him, perhaps wanting them to enter together. Not for her sake but for his. She must have thought her holding on to his arm would reassure him as he reentered a world he had longed to escape.
He laughed inwardly. This was such a Berry thing to do.
Her smile as he finally stepped out of his hackney and strode toward her was like a stunning burst of sunshine. “I just arrived here myself. You got here fast, Gideon. What happened with the hackney carriage lurking near Duchess Square?”
“The driver took off the moment I started toward him.”
She nibbled her fleshy lower lip. “Then we were right to be suspicious.”
“Yes, and my next stop will be to Mr. Barrow’s office on Bow Street to engage his services. At a minimum, I’ll request one investigator to follow Hawthorne and another to keep an eye on whoever comes in and out of Duchess Square.”
“I’ll let Lord Berwick know what you are doing when I see him tonight. This is a valid expense of the trust and you ought to be recompensed.”
“I’ll be at the museum soirée, too. And no, Berry, he is not to reimburse me. I do this for myself.”
She arched an eyebrow. “It sounds an awful lot like you are doing it for me.”
“I’m doing it formebecause I want to protectyou,” he said with a grin. “Come on, let’s go inside.”
She held him back a moment. “Gideon, there is something more.”
“What is it, Berry?”
She let out a soft breath. “There is something I wish to do formebecause I want to protectyou.”
Bollocks.
She was going to do a tender Berry thing for him, and with it steal his heart.
Well, she had no need to steal it. He had already lost it to her, hadn’t he? His feelings for her were becoming impossible to deny to himself, much as he wished he could.
“Would you let me look at your file?” she asked.
“Here? At the orphanage?” What was she trying to do? Grab his soul, too? “Forget it. Do not look at it.”
“Why not? I would keep whatever I learned in strictest confidence. Upon my honor. And there may be something in there, a clue as to—”
“You’ll find nothing about my origins. Do you think I have not looked? I was desperate to find someone, anyone who could tell me who I am or where I came from. It is too late now. I no longer wish to know. More important, whoever abandoned me does notdeserveto know anything about me. I do not need them coming around and leeching off me once they learn I have made good.”
“I see your point. I’m sorry I raised it, especially since it is so hurtful to you.”
“It’s fine. I don’t begrudge you because everything you do is out of kindness. Let’s meet the headmistress and then you can take me on a tour. I suppose you engage with the children whenever you are here. What exactly do you do with them?”
“I read stories to the little ones,” she said with a smile, obviously liking her role here. “I chat with the older ones. However, I doubt the older children will pay any attention tome now that you are here. They will be excited to meet you, St. Brigid’s greatest success story.”
