Halting just outside the stable doors, Mina turned and crossed her arms with a narrowed look. This man thought he could give some empty compliments and all would be well? Did he think her so simple and trusting as to accept such a false apology?
To think that she’d been feeling a kinship with Mr. Finch!
The fellow held up his hands, approaching her with the care and timidity of one standing before a slathering beast. And heaven help her, Mina liked seeing the wariness in his eyes.
“I find that impossible to believe, Mr. Finch.”
Stopping just before her, he shifted from foot to foot and tugged at his greatcoat. “In all honesty, I do not recall what I said, but I can well imagine they were as heartless as you claim. I’ve discovered recently that my words are often harsh.”
Mina scoffed, sending tendrils of vapor into the air. “Your words were more than ‘harsh,’ sir. They were cruel, and though you hadn’t intended for me to hear them, it doesn’t change the fact that you think such horrid things about me.”
“But that is not true,” he said with a shake of his head, his expression tightening as he shifted once more. “What I said was due to my frustration with my closest friend, who—despite having the fortune and prospects to marry for more than convenience—was determined to snatch up some random young lady. And all because he was mooning over a horrid woman who didn’t deserve him. If he was going to marry for convenience, I wanted him to choose a good lady.”
Straightening, Mina dropped her arms and stared at him. “You didn’t care for Mrs. Banfield?”
Mr. Finch snorted and shook his head. “How could I? She didn’t care for Simon, except as a devotee willing to do whatever she requested. She was pretty enough, I suppose, but she was conniving, selfish, and bound to make any man she ensnared miserable.”
Mina blinked, for that was all she could manage. Mrs. Susannah Banfield was the sort of lady gentlemen adored, and with few exceptions, her beauty blinded them to her myriad of faults. Yet Mr. Finch felt the opposite.
Puffing out his cheeks, the gentleman let out a breath, his gaze dropping away from her to drift around the area as he shifted his weight once more.
“Simon may not have noticed you before, but I had heard and seen plenty to know you were the antithesis ofthatwoman. If Simon refused to marry for love—something I still think was foolhardy and ridiculous—at least he would have a wife he could respect. Someone with a good heart who could make him happy.”
Mina stilled, staring at the fellow as he continued avoiding her gaze and fidgeting. Her tongue tied itself in knots, remaining completely useless in the face of such a declaration. She couldn’t have been more surprised if Mr. Finch had declared his undying devotion to her. Thinking back to that evening, Mina couldn’t reconcile the words she’d heard with the explanation Mr. Finch had given her, yet neither did they contradict it.
True, they’d been harsh, but Mina had used similar bluntness when faced with Simon’s stubborn blindness. The man had a talent for obtuseness, and there were times when bald words were the only option. And even then, they didn’t always work.
“I apologize, Mina. Had I known you would overhear me, I wouldn’t have said…” Mr. Finch let out another puff. “I like to think I wouldn’t have said such things, but I was in a particularly foul mood that night, and I cannot say with any conviction that I would’ve softened my words. Simon was being so insufferably pigheaded.”
Placing her hands on her hips, Mina glanced up at the cloud-ridden sky, her thoughts cast back to those early days with Simon.
“My pride and vanity have been nursing this bruise for a long time, but I am grateful for your words that night,” she murmured.
And now it was Mr. Finch’s turn to gape at her.
“The truth is Simon had met me many times, and I hadn’t made an impression. It was his guilty conscience that drove him to seek me out and apologize for my overhearing you. And it was that conversation that drew us together and planted the seeds of friendship.”
Scrunching her nose, Mina winced and shook her head, dropping her gaze to the floor. “And whatever your faults, I have been unkind in my own right, and I apologize as well. Perhaps we might agree to forget the past and start anew?”
When she met his eyes again, Mr. Finch stood like a statue before her. His expression was muted, but his eyes shone with a desperate hope that made it impossible to hold onto any lingering resentment.
“It has been pointed out to me many times of late that I can be quite the dunderhead, and I am trying to do better,” he said. “But I cannot guarantee I won’t say something unintentionally, like laughing at your horse’s name. Which I haven’t apologized for yet. And I am sorry for it. I truly thought it was meant to be witty—”
Mina held up a hand before the fellow talked himself into another gaffe. “And I am far too sensitive at times. Like you, I am trying to be better at it. Perhaps we might both try harder.”
Dipping into a low bow, Mr. Finch swept off his hat and said with a smile that was equally joyful and relieved, “Madam, if I were a Catholic, I would nominate you to be the patron saint of gentlemen who mean well but are too dense for their own good.”
There was just the right hint of humor and earnestness so that Mina laughed out loud and motioned for him to join her as they strolled back to the house. Offering his arm to her, Mr. Finch guided her home with all the courtly air of a king.
“If nothing else, my good lady, I would adore you forever for freeing my dear friend from the clutches of that siren,” he said with a slanted look. His eyes warmed as he added, “And I am truly grateful to see you are genuinely happy together.”
She patted his arm with a smile before turning to his first statement. “I do not understand her appeal, Mr. Finch. She is wretched, yet men fall over themselves when she’s around.”
Mr. Finch chuckled. “I am at a loss to explain it.”
And with that, Mr. Finch launched into a lively discussion of all things wrong withthat woman, and Mina laughed silently to herself. They now had two subjects on which their opinions aligned: their love of music and their distaste for Susannah Banfield. That was a start.
Chapter 26
