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Slowly, she looked up to him. “Ye think ye be any better than seiners? Well, I ’ate to tell ye, but they feel the same about ye.”

“And just ’ow do ye know what seiners be thinkin’?”

She bit her tongue. No good would come of her telling just how well she knew seiners.

“Miss ’Ollow?” His voice had changed from disbelief to suspicion.

Still, she remained silent. She’d fought so hard to keep this part of her past a secret from them all, fearing their judgements, their displeasure. And yet, in that moment, exhaustion overcame her. She was tired. Tired of the deception, tired of hiding moments from her past. After all, what did it matter now? She’d be gone soon, never to see the Honeysetts again. Perhaps if they truly despised her, it would be easier for her to leave them.

“Have ye ne’er wondered how I knew so much ’bout fishin’ and seinin’ companies before?” she asked.

Trevik narrowed his eyes. “I thought your father invested in drifters.”

“He did at first. But that’s only half of it.” She looked out to the sea. “My uncle be a seiner.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Trevik stared. He must not have heard Miss Hollow correctly.

“I…I don’t understand,” he stammered.

“My uncle owns a seinin’ company,” she repeated. “In St. Ives. That’s how I know ‘bout the laws and practices. The company my father invested in after the drifters? The man who led him astray? ’Twas Uncle.”

Trevik blew out a slow breath, trying to comprehend what her revelation entailed. A seiner. She was related to a seiner. One he knew?

“In St. Ives?” he asked.

She nodded.

He knew of no seiners there. When he’d first pulled her from the sea, he’d thought of Miss Hollow as a potential spy from a rival seining company. Had his worries been accurate, then? No, that wasn’t right. She despised her uncle and what seiners had done to her father. This hardly made any sense.

“Why did ye not tell me?” he asked, still processing her words.

“I was goin’ to on the return journey from Sennen, but after the way ye went on and on ’bout seiners and how ye disliked them, I thought it best not to say anythin’, fearin’ ye’d really regret bringin’ me back, even more than ye already did.” She huffed a mirthless laugh. “’Sides, I know the fear of seiners be even stronger than Tristwick’s fear o’ sea-maids. I was afraid o’ riskin’ Edern Cardy really runnin’ me out of town.”

Trevik tipped his head to the side with a raised brow. He couldn’t fault her for that. Still, the niece of a seiner, under his very roof for days without his knowledge.

Then another thought occurred. “The man ye were to marry…”

“Mr. Foss?”

He nodded. “’E be a seiner, too?”

“Yes. His father, more so. Uncle wanted to combine their companies to create a bigger seinin’ business with more boats and nets.”

“And your leavin’ made that impossible.”

“I s’pose.” She looked off to the side. “But Uncle always gets what he wishes. He’ll find some way to merge their companies. And Mr. Foss will go along with it if it suits him and his father.”

Trevik blew out a heavy breath. The thought of Mr. Foss before had rankled Trevik’s patience. Now, knowing he was a seiner, Trevik’s insides burned.

“Are ye very angry?”

Angry? No, he wasn’t angry. He was…he didn’t know what he was. Frustrated, embarrassed, confused. Envious.

Envious? He frowned. How could he be envious of a man Miss Hollow despised? Was it merely because he’d recalled the fact that she’d given Mr. Foss a single possibility of her considering a marriage between them—and she hadn’t given Trevik one?

“Ye have every right to be upset,” she continued. “I’m sure you’re wonderin’ what else I be hidin’, but I swear to ye, that be all.”