“He was too honest for anything else.”
Fenbridge nodded at that and then cleared his throat.
“You weren’t honest?” Tess asked into the taut silence that had settled over his study.
He narrowed one eye at her and his mouth twisted into a grimace. “I lied to myself as much as to your mother. I thought I could ignore duty, my father’s wishes, and a marriage contract signed when I was but a boy.”
“What happened?” Part of Tess didn’t truly want to know. It felt as if she was digging into her mother’s secrets, but her curious nature and the likeness to her own mistake made her desperate to know.
“I broke a young lady’s heart, and she married a much better man in the end.”
Tess pushed against the back of her chair, slumping because it felt a bit as if the wind had been knocked out of her. Fenbridge spoke the words so easily, acknowledged his own wrongdoing with such pained resignation, and she could easily imagine her mother’s heartache if she’d truly loved him.
“Why have you told me this?” Everything she’d believed about her parents shifted a bit now, but it made them more human when she and Tristan had idolized them both for so long.
Fenbridge considered a long while before giving her any reply. He reached for his cup, drinking deeply of his coffee before settling it back on his desktop with a thud.
“I wished you to know that the past need not hinder you, Miss Hawthorne. And perhaps I thought it instructive.”
“How so, my lord?”
He shrugged. “Great love may be found after heartbreak.”
Tess’s pulse began to race. She felt her cheeks grow warm.
This won’t be some grand love affair. No, great love wasn’t what she would have with Dominic Prince, even if part of her came alive in his arms. Even if little pieces of her heart now had his name on them.
She wouldn’t get lost in him. She’d promised herself.
Trying to offer a denial to Fenbridge, Tess merely shook her head and looked up to find him watching her with an odd little grin tipping the edge of his mouth up.
Behind him, through the garden window, rain continued to come down in a torrent. She should have gone to help Dominic and the others and saved herself from this far-too-revealing conversation.
Fenbridge turned back at the sound and assessed the downpour. “Not sure you’ll be able to dig today if this continues.”
“I should go and see the state of the dig site.”
Fenbridge stood and Tess got to her feet too.
Normally, a simple leave-taking sufficed. Today, Tess reached out instinctively to shake his hand.
He stared at her outstretched hand a moment as if confounded by the gesture, but then he took it in both of his.
“Until tomorrow morning, Miss Hawthorne.” He tipped a glance toward the window. “I can call my coachman to transport you. You’ll be soaked if you came on foot.”
Tess chuckled. “I am used to spring rains, my lord.”
“Have the maid give you a mackintosh at least.”
“Thank you,” Tess told him, and made her way to the front door.
As if the young woman had heard her master, a maid waited with a mackintosh overcoat at the ready.
“This will keep you dry, miss. Has a hood and all.”
“Much appreciated,” she told the young woman.
She hoped Tristan had thought to bring a few from home. Otherwise, their whole crew would be drenched by now.
