“Absolutely not,” I said, crossing my arms. Being alone with him was the last thing I wanted. “You have already inconvenienced me and my host enough. Say what you must, and make it your last, for my patience is running thin, Mr. Lennox. I cannot be seen with you.”
“You do not mean that. This, between us, is merely a lover’s spat.”
“Is that what you are telling everyone? Is that why everyone in Brighton is already speculating over what happened?”
“I said I would prove myself to you—prove that I haveyour best interests at heart. That I think only of you, only of your happiness. And I have.”
I scoffed and shook my head. “You cannot possibly—”
“There are others who have deceived you,” he spoke over me in an almost desperate rush of emotion. He stepped closer, his words spilling out in an unfiltered flood. “Others who have kept secrets from you. I swear to you, Anna, now and forevermore, that my engagement to Miss Clarence was purely transactional and mutually broken. Accept me now, and you and I shall start on even footing. Both knowing where the other stands, with no more secrets between us. I swear it.”
“That is quite enough,” Graham said with a dangerous edge to his voice. He’d gone entirely rigid, and I realized I’d never seen him truly angry before this moment. “Miss Lane has asked you to leave, and if you do not do so at once, we shall have a problem, you and I.”
“Sheath your sword, Everett. I need only a moment more.”
The man spoke in riddles, and I had no patience left. “Tell me at once, Mr. Lennox. Plainly. What are you saying? What secrets?”
He focused on me, one hand outstretched between us. “I crossed paths with your father in Bath.”
The silence that followed prickled against my skin. My father had been in Bath, yes. Mr. Lennox seeing him there would not be unusual. What, then, caused him to stare so solemnly at me?
“Very well.” I said, curt. “And soon he’ll be in Brighton, come to claim me. What of it?”
Mr. Lennox leaned in, watching me with a ferventinterest that sent a cold chill down my spine. “He took tea with Ms. Peale in the Pump Room the very morning I left for Brighton.”
I took a step back, gaze trailing to the rocky brown shore beneath my feet as my mind raced in circles. Bath, yes, that was where my father had returned for business.Business. With Ms. Peale? I did not know a Ms. Peale.
Furthermore, why would Papa engage in business matters with a woman?
“Ms. Peale,” I tried the name, but still, nothing. Who the devil was she?
Mr. Lennox shook his head, then scoffed in evident disgust. “He has not even mentioned her to you?”
“Lennox, this is not your story to tell. Leave.” Graham stepped between us, gritting his teeth. “Now.”
But Mr. Lennox sidestepped him. “They were inseparable all morning.”
My entire body went cold, save for a burning in my neck and cheeks. My father ... and a woman?
Graham started to move between us, but I lifted a hand to stop him. He waited a step away, watching.
Mr. Lennox nodded, his eyes never leaving mine. “Indeed, I have never seen your father so encouraged. Makes a man quite jealous, to be honest.”
Graham was watching me, frowning at Mr. Lennox, denying nothing. He’d known where my father was going. And clearly, he’d known why.
My heart dropped to my toes.
I rounded on Mr. Lennox. “Are you quite certain this wasmyfather?”
Mr. Lennox leaned in, his musky cologne overtaking mysenses. “I should not be the only one willing to tell you the truth, and yet here I am. I may not be a perfect man, but I am loyal to a fault. And I always will be.
“I did not want to say anything until I knew for certain, so I immediately sought out anyone who could support my theory. I now have it on good authority from someone close to your father that this past week was not his first rendezvous with Ms. Peale. I came for you as soon as I could.”
My throat tightened, and I coughed to combat the pain filling my chest. The idea was preposterous. Ridiculous. Papa would never keep such an enormous secret from me.
My knees turned wobbly, my eyes pricking with emotion I did not know how to control. I needed to get away. I needed to think, to make sense of what Mr. Lennox had just said. But the more I thought, the fuzzier my mind became. Papa had a ... a Ms. Peale.
I stepped past Mr. Lennox, toward the emptiness of the shoreline as my breaths came in shallow wisps. Where could I go? Where could I run?
