Lady Fairleigh hesitated, then nodded and left them. Nathaniel watched Emily approach with both confusion and impatience. Of Margaret’s two sisters, she was the one he knew least. Where Poppy moved through the world with open warmth, Emily possessed a quieter watchfulness that often made people underestimate her.
She stopped a few feet from him.
“I heard what happened,” she said plainly.
Nathaniel did not bother pretending otherwise.
“Then you know why I am here.”
“I know what Margaret believes she saw.”
“And you?” he asked.
Emily studied him carefully, as though weighing every detail of his expression. To his surprise, she did not look angry.
“She told Mama everything this morning,” Emily said. “About the ball. About the library.”
Nathaniel waited. After a moment she nodded slowly.
“If you claim that you are innocent, I will believe you.”
The words caught him off guard. Emily crossed her arms lightly.
“Arabella has always enjoyed creating situations that make other people look foolish. Margaret does not see that yet.”
Nathaniel exhaled quietly for the first time since arriving. Emily tilted her head toward the staircase.
“I will bring her,” she said.
Then she turned and disappeared up the stairs.
She returned sooner than Nathaniel expected. He had been standing near the window, watching the pale morning light gather slowly over the gardens. The quiet of the house felt heavier now that the first rush of urgency had passed. Margaret was somewhere above him, only a few rooms away, and yet the distance between them felt far greater than the miles he had ridden.
Footsteps sounded on the staircase. Nathaniel turned. Margaret descended slowly, one hand resting lightly against the banister.She had changed from the gown she must have arrived in earlier that morning; now she wore a simple day dress, her hair loosely gathered back. There were shadows beneath her eyes that had not been there the last time he saw her.
Emily paused halfway down the stairs, watching them both for a moment before quietly stepping aside. Margaret stopped at the bottom step. For several seconds neither of them spoke. The silence was not hostile, but it was not comfortable either. It held the weight of everything that had happened between them.
“What you saw last night was not how it seemed,” he said helplessly.
Margaret did not move. Her hands were clasped loosely in front of her, her expression composed but distant.
“She pulled me into that room under the pretense that my sister needed me,” Nathaniel continued. “I had already refused her once that evening. I made it very clear that whatever existed between us in the past was finished.”
His voice remained steady, controlled, but there was no effort to disguise the bluntness of his words.
“When she realized I would not change my mind, she tried something else,” he explained as his jaw tightened slightly at the memory. “She grabbed my sleeve and warned me that my marriage was already precarious in the eyes of society. Then she looked past me toward the door.”
Margaret’s gaze flickered briefly at that, but she said nothing. Nathaniel met her eyes directly.
“She jumped forward and kissed my neck because she knew you were there.”
The words hung in the air between them.
“I did not return it,” he said. “I did not invite it, and I ended it the moment I understood what she had done.”
Margaret listened without interrupting. Her face remained calm, though the tension in her posture had not eased. Nathaniel continued, his voice lowering slightly.
“I will not allow another woman to stain your name, and I will not allow anyone to wound you again in my presence.”
