Page 40 of A Shadow Amongst the Roses

Eliza thanked him and returned to her ledger.

Only later did she realize how much the knowledge unsettled her.

She stood in the small sitting room once more, the ledger open but unread, the light beyond the windows thinning toward evening. Thomas had not mentioned the ride to her. That alone was unusual. He rarely withheld practical matters, particularly those that touched the estate’s pulse.

She told herself it was nothing. It was, after all, his work. Still, the silence lingered.

At supper, the long table was sparsely occupied, Eleanor absent with a headache. The chair at the head left conspicuously empty. Clara arrived last and took her seat across from Eliza, her expression composed, her eyes observant.

“I hear Mr. Grey will be away,” Clara said lightly.

“Yes.”

“For several days.”

“Yes.”

Clara studied her for a moment. “You didn’t know.”

Eliza met her gaze evenly. “I wasn’t consulted.”

“No,” Clara agreed. “You weren’t.”

There was no accusation in the words. But they carried implications.

“I assume the work requires it,” Eliza said.

“I’m sure it does,” Clara replied. “Though it’s curious timing.”

Eliza’s fingers tightened briefly around her fork. “Curious?”

Clara smiled faintly. “Only in that he’s usually careful not to absent himself when matters are unsettled.”

Eliza felt her pulse slow, as though her body had chosen stillness over reaction. “Are matters unsettled?”

“That depends,” Clara said gently, “on where one stands.”

Eliza said nothing more.

Later, when the house had quieted and the corridors dimmed, she went to the south passage, intending to find Thomas and speak to him plainly. She found instead an absence already set in motion.

The storage room stood half cleared. A few crates stacked neatly. His coat gone from its peg.

The realization did not strike at once. It settled, piece by piece, with the quiet certainty of something already decided.

He had chosen to go without explanation.

Not to escape her.

But to give her space.

That was what she understood and what unsettled her most.

Thomas Grey did not withdraw when pressed. He withdrew when he believed his presence might be a complication. When remaining might impose. When staying risked becoming something she had not asked for.

She stepped back into the corridor, the candlelight wavering as her thoughts turned inward with unwelcome clarity.

She had insisted on protecting him from display. She had refused to let him be used as proof.