“Are you really marrying him?” Jonathan replied.
“That is none of your concern.”
Jonathan returned, standing a few paces away. “He did this to my face, you know. He is exactly like his father.” When Leah did not respond, he continued at a clip. “His father was a swindler and a cretin, preying upon the weak and desperate. When I was eight-and-ten, needing money for my poor mother’s health, he gave me a loan. I thought he was being kind, but the interest crippled me. The only reason I survived is because he died, and my debts were… forgotten or lost, I do not know which.”
A great fist clenched around Leah’s stomach, remembering the story Abigail had told her. And though Nathaniel had hurt her without meaning to, though she was trying to distance herself from him, she knew what she believed and what she did not—Nathaniel was nothing like his father.
“He will turn on you,” Jonathan urged. “Even his mother is terrified of him.”
Leah whirled around, her patience gossamer thin. “Lies come so easily to you, do they not? They just drip from your tongue like honey.” She glowered up at him. “His mother adores him. His brother adores him.Iadore him. His father was as cruel to him as he was to everyone else, so take your untruths elsewhere; they are not wanted here. Whatever mistakes you have made in your life, Jonathan, they are your own responsibility to bear. Blaming others will not drag you out of the messes you have created. Now, for the very last time, return to your wife and do your very best to cherish her because I imagineshethinks she has made a very grave mistake at present.”
Jonathan rushed forward, seizing her hand again. “Heed me, Leah, before it is too late.”
“Unhand me, Jonathan, before it is too late,” she shot back, wrenching her hand from his as discreetly as she could. People were beginning to stare. “I have a powerful scream.”
Jonathan immediately released her, bowing his head as he moved away but not before whispering, “Do not say I did not warn you.”
Catching her breath, her chest ablaze with fury and upset, she turned back toward the shadowed gardens as the very first snowflake began to fall. It landed upon her cheek like an icy tear, melted by the heat of her anger, and ran down her face undisturbed.
I should have waited for you,she knew, closing her eyes and wishing desperately that things were not what they were. Wishing her feelings for Nathaniel could melt and vanish just as quickly as a snowflake.
“Leah?” a soft, worried voice danced on the wind, snapping her eyes open.
For a moment, she thought she had imagined it. But ahead of her, emerging from the darkness, walking through the quietly falling blossoms of snow, was Nathaniel. And she realized, all too late, that Jonathan had not just left her with parting words; he had left his cloak upon the wall, too.
In a flustered panic, she abandoned the cloak, pretended she had not seen Nathaniel, and raced away as fast as her feet could carry her.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
Arare sort of madness overwhelmed Nathaniel as he scoured the manor, peeking behind every door, looking behind every drape, searching high and low for Leah. Yet, it was as if she had vanished into thin air. No one had seen her. Either that, or no one wanted him to find her.
Finding himself disoriented in the gloom of a staff corridor, at his wit’s end, his mind spooled backward to the first time he had encountered Leah. He had been running from the prospect of courtship and commitment and responsibility. Now, he was running around like a headless chicken,towarda young lady who had somehow snuck into his heart while he was not paying attention.
Do not return to him.Do not even consider it, he begged inwardly, sprinting up a winding staircase to the upper floor of the manor. Please, do not be tricked into love again.
He had not intended to overhear the conversation between Leah and Jonathan. It had happened quite by accident, for he had not long arrived, and needing some air before he entered the fray of the ball, he had taken himself for a walk through the gardens instead. He had seen her through the fronds of some tall fir trees, and had been mustering the courage to approach her when Jonathan had beaten him to it.
“Vile wretch,” Nathaniel hissed, breathless as he took the steps two at a time.
However, he had not heard everything that had been said between the pair. Just snippets that left him feeling cold inside. He had heard something like an offer of forgiveness from Leah, had seen Jonathan put his cloak on her shoulders to keep her warm, had seen them holding hands, and had heard the words “I adore…” as the former betrotheds stood close to one another. Closer than he was able to bear.
I chased her back into his arms.He was convinced of it, a prickly sensation nipping all the way down his spine as he thought of her confession, of how she had loved Jonathan once. He knew, all too well, that if someone could love someone once, they could love them again. He had seen it with his mother, who had come back to his father, no matter what the awful man had done. Indeed, the worse the behavior, the more the wounded party seemed to need to be loved by them again.
But the most damning part was the way she had run from him. He knew she had seen him, yet she fled… and only the guilty fled.
Stumbling out of a doorway on the upper floor, Nathaniel’s head whipped left and right, searching for any signs of Leah. His heart leaped, seeing another door open at the end of a long corridor. A cool breeze drifted toward him, seemingly beckoning him toward the doorway as if to say,she is here.
Glancing around to ensure no servants were watching, he ran for the door and slipped through it, finding himself in a somewhat empty room, filled with disused furniture and large objects shrouded in dustsheets. It was eerie, in truth, but he quickly drew his attention to the open French doors ahead of him. Beyond, a lone figure stood on a balcony, gazing out at the snow that tumbled slowly from the heavens.
“Leah?”
Her body stiffened. “You should not be here. I have no chaperone.”
“Why did you run from me?” he asked, stepping out onto the balcony.
She would not turn to face him, the snow clinging like petals to her hair. “When did I run from you? I did not know you had arrived.”
“Are we now deceiving each other as well as society?” He desperately wanted to touch her, to take hold of her hand, but he did not want to frighten her. Not if she already thought him a brute.
