Page 44 of A Shadow Amongst the Roses

“You’re back early.”

“Yes.”

“No trouble at the boundary?”

“No.”

The answer satisfied the man, who took the reins and went about his work. Thomas remained a moment longer, listening to the familiar sounds, the quiet order of a place that knew itself.

Then he turned toward the house.

*

Eliza was already awake.

She had not slept deeply, though she had not lain awake either. Instead, her thoughts had moved in slow, deliberate patterns, turning the previous day over until it revealed what it would.

She sat at the small desk in her sitting room when the maid announced him.

“Mr. Grey, my lady.”

Eliza’s hand stilled on the page.

“Yes,” she said. “Please.”

Thomas entered without haste, his posture composed, his expression careful. The light from the window caught the dust still clinging faintly to his boots, the creases at the sleeves of his coat where work had shaped him.

He stopped just inside the room.

“I’ve returned,” he said.

She rose at once, setting her papers aside. “I know.”

That surprised him. He studied her more closely.

“You knew.”

“I felt it,” she said, then corrected herself. “I suspected.”

A pause settled between them unforced.

“I shouldn’t have gone without speaking to you,” he said at last.

Eliza met his gaze steadily. “You didn’t owe me an explanation.”

“I did,” he replied quietly. “Not as authority. As honesty.”

The distinction mattered.

She crossed the room slowly, stopping a few steps away. “I should have told you about the meeting in advance.”

“Yes,” he said. “You should have.”

Another pause. Not brittle. Not defensive.

Truthful.

“I thought stepping away would give you room,” Thomas continued. “Instead, I left you standing alone.”