Page 111 of The Earl She Once Saved

Win set down the tray. Her gaze moved over Verity’s untouched supper, the fire burned nearly to ash and the gown she had not changed since returning from the village.

“What happened?”

“You know what has happened.”

“I know Lord Edgeworth is alive.”

Hearing Roland called by the title tightened something beneath Verity’s ribs.

“And Rafe knew.”

Win went still. “How long?”

“Since the letter came. He went to Ripon to meet him.”

“Did he say why?”

“To protect me.”

Win’s expression changed, not quite approval and not quite doubt.

Verity laughed once. The sound held no amusement. “He kept me ignorant of my own husband’s return, Win. He discussed my home and my future with Roland while I went about the estate knowing nothing.”

Win looked too stunned to speak.

“I trusted him.” The words escaped Verity before she could prevent them.

Silence filled the room. Verity stared at the dying fire. Once spoken, the admission seemed to leave her without protection.

“I was beginning to trust him,” she admitted more quietly. “Somewhere in these last weeks, I allowed him past every defense I had the sense to build. Now I do not know how to put them back.”

Win came nearer. “You need not put them all back tonight.”

“And tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow you may know more than you do now.”

“I knew enough once before.”

“Rafe is not Roland.”

“You cannot know that.”

“No,” Win agreed. “But neither can you know that he is.”

Verity turned. “He kept the truth from me. He acted without me.”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you defending him?”

“I am not.” Win’s voice remained gentle. “I am defending you from believing that whatever you feel for him must make you a fool.”

Heat rose into Verity’s face. “I feel nothing.”

Win looked at her. Verity’s hand went again to the pendant. The lie seemed pitiful with his mother’s jewel lying against her skin.

“I … do not know what I feel,” she admitted.