“You should never have been subjected to something so brutal, Kate, but it cannot compare to the horror I felt thinking that you were alone in that dark alley.” He ran a hand down his face as though trying to wipe away the memory.
“I was not alone, precisely. Tess was there with me.”
Shock flashed across his face. The playfulness from earlier was gone. “Do you truly not know what danger you were in? What if that man had decided to hurt you?”
A strangled sound escaped him, though whether from pain or disbelief over her choices, she could not tell. James went rigid as his hand fisted the blanket. The rhythmic sound of the clock echoed in the silence.
“Please do not be angry with me. I did not mean to put myself, or Tess, in danger.”
“Angry with you?” The question seemed to unsteady him. “Kate, I am angry that you were in danger at all. I feel ill at the thought of you at that tavern, and worse knowing I may have led you there.” His voice trailed off, and the haunted expression on his face left no doubt he meant every word. “And yet I find myself grateful you were there to rescue me.”
She had expected James to be angry with her, not beholden. Had she misjudged him? Perhaps he was not the prideful, impenetrable earl she thought him to be. Worse, it was terribly inconvenient to discover that the man beneath the mask interested her far more than the boy she had remembered.
She tentatively laid her hand on his forearm, his muscles turning to iron at her touch. “I regret having caused you concern, Lord Brenton. It was not my intention.” She offered a soft smile. “However, I find myself vastly curious howyoucame to be at that tavern.”
Surprise crossed his face, but it was immediately extinguished, his features settling into an unreadable calm.He leaned back, severing their connection. “I was meeting someone, but the man didn’t show. What you witnessed was nothing more than an attempted robbery by a common footpad.”
His answer was too smooth, too practiced. The wall between them had risen again.
“Kate, that look.”
“What look?”
“The one that says you are about to go searching for mischief.”
A muffled laugh sounded from the corner where Tess sat.
Kate gave a wry smile. “I am merely . . . curious. That is all.”
“Yes, and I know what happens when your mind becomes curious. Please, Kate, do not go courting conspiracies. I plan to ask Bow Street to investigate and be done with the affair. Promise me you will leave it alone too.”
She would promise no such thing. He seemed determined to keep the truth from her. Did he truly have no interest in discovering what this all meant? “So you have no plans to investigate further? You cannot tell me you are content to let the matter rest.”
No answer came. He had asked her once to trust him. She had no right to resent him for holding secrets when she was doing the same, but the imbalance still stung.
Whatever he saw on her face made him lean forward again. “Kate, please promise me you will not pursue this.” He caught her hand. “Dash it all, I need to know you are safe.”
“Lord Brenton, I—” Kate’s words caught in her throat just as James began speaking. Whatever they might have said was lost to the sound of a knock. Hadley stood at the entrance, a stocky man with graying hair at his side.
“Lord Brenton, Doctor Brathwall is here to see you.”
It was time to leave. James had made it abundantly clear she would get no answers from him.
“I have overstayed my welcome,” she said, her voice clipped as she stood from the chair.
James attempted to stand until a stern glare from the physician made him lower back onto the sofa.
“I will leave you to your physician’s care, my lord.” She nodded to Tess, who rose to join her. Kate made her way toward the door, hurt and disappointment disguised as formality.
“Lady Katherine.”
She paused.
“May I call on you in a few days’ time?” James asked, his voice uncharacteristically rough. “When I have regained my strength?”
She turned back, surprised to see vulnerability breaking through the mask he always seemed to wear.
The weight of all the secrets they both so carefully guarded pressed between them, a divide wider than the years they had spent apart. Could they find a way to trust each other?
