“You survived. That was all your mother asked of you.”
His eyes remained on the fire. “Eugenia took me in afterward. But from that day, I promised myself—I would never allowsoftness to blind me again. I hunted the men responsible. Some were caught. Others vanished.”
April sat very still.
“The man you saw me question… he was one of them. I’ve been trying to confirm it for years.”
“Then I was wrong to judge you.”
“No. You were right to ask. I should have told you.”
“Then why did you not?”
A silence stretched between them that was both tender and heavy.
“I did not want a marriage of war, April,” he added after a moment, and she understood that the answer to her question was not forthcoming. “I married you because I thought… we might find friendship. Something… honest.”
Friendship,she echoed in her mind.Is that all you hoped for?
Still, she nodded. “Then let us begin again. If not as man and wife in truth, then at least as allies.”
He looked at her then really looked at her, and her cheeks warmed. “I have been watching what you’re doing with the manor.”
“You have?” she asked, tilting her head.
“Every detail. I noticed the change in the vases. And the wallpaper in the blue drawing room. Even the new curtain tassels in the stairwell.”
Her cheeks warmed. “Now, you’re merely showing off.”
“You should know by now, I do not waste words.”
She flushed deeper, caught off guard. And then he reached out, gently brushing a loose curl from her cheek. Her breath hitched.
He leaned in, the distance narrowing?—
But just as her heart caught in anticipation, he brushed his lips against her cheek. Warmth spread through her, but not before her senses were jolted by surprise.
His lips lingered on her cheek, and April leaned into him for a moment before he straightened.
“Good night, April.”
She swallowed and managed a nod, her heart racing. “Good night.”
As the door shut behind him, April sat still for a long while. A feeling bloomed in her chest—something fragile and aching.
Why does it hurt when you leave me?
Twenty-Six
April blinked against the morning light as Miss Evans approached her with a silver tray, a folded note resting atop it.
“From His Grace,” Miss Evans said. April took the note and read:
April,
Would you care to ride with me this morning?
—Theo
