“There’s definitely something about Lord Woodsford that people don’t want me to know,” Valeria said.
She was perched on her window seat, gazing out over the Manor grounds and doing her best to think, but it was proving rather difficult. So many strange and suspicious things had happened since the ball that had been given in her honor—but none of them seemed to add up.
“Explain to me again why you think so,” Charlotte suggested.
“We’ve been over it,” Valeria said.
“Yes,” Charlotte said. “But if you say it again, you might understand something new.”
“Very well,” Valeria said. “To begin with, there’s the fact that Lord Woodsford treated me so differently the last time we saw one another. It was almost as if we were strangers.”
“I’m still not sure about that,” Charlotte said.
“Charlotte, you werethere,” Valeria protested. “You saw the way things were between the two of us. You can’t seriously be telling me that you doubt how strange things were.”
“No,” Charlotte said. “Things were definitely strange. I’m only doubting thereasonfor the strangeness. I still say that it very likely had nothing to do with you at all.”
“I might believe that,” Valeria said, “if not for the man who came here today looking forinformationabout Lord Woodsford. About his finances. That was extremely odd.”
“Well, didn’t you say that Lord Woodsford had told you he had inherited debt from his father?” Charlotte said reasonably. “I’m sure his finances are extremely complicated.”
“Undoubtedly, but why would that mean someone would come to Aunt Alberta about him?” Valeria buried her face in her hands. “He was a debt collector. He had the look about him. They came to speak to Richard plenty of times. Always cruel and violent, they were. I used to hide in the closet when they came, I was so frightened of them.”
“You said the man you saw today wasn’t violent.”
“He wasn’t. But hewaspushy. He made Aunt Alberta angry. And then there’s the fact that Lord Woodsford wasn’t here. Who knows what would have happened if he had been. Things might very well have turned violent.”
“Do you really think so?” Charlotte asked anxiously.
“I don’t know what to think,” Valeria admitted. “I only know that what I saw today frightened me, Charlotte. Perhaps I’ve been too hasty in allowing myself to trust Lord Woodsford.”
“But you were so sure of him,” Charlotte said sadly. “You told me that you and he had so much in common.”
“I did,” Valeria agreed. “And when I said that, I believed it was true. Our pasts are so similar. We’ve both lost our parents. We both grew up with family members who treated us in a less than ideal way, making us doubt ourselves. We were both hesitant to get to know new people. And when we opened up to one another about the things that had happened in the past—it felt like I was telling my story to someone who had lived it alongside me. It felt like I had found my way back to an old friend after years of living apart.”
“And yet you’re ready to say you made a mistake in trusting him?” Charlotte asked. “You no longer believe that the things shared between you carry as much weight as you thought they did?”
“I’d forgotten,” Valeria said. “I didn’t think about it. But he has a lot in common with someone else, too, doesn’t he? If he shares my past—that means he also shares my brother’s.”
“Oh,” Charlotte breathed. “You’re saying he has more of your brother in him than he does of you?”
“It’s what I always feared,” Valeria said. “That I would find myself with a gentleman who was too much like Richard. I thought, when I got to know Lord Woodsford, that he was the opposite of that.” She sighed. “I was too quick to trust. Iwantedit to be true.”
“But Valeria…” Charlotte shook her head.
“Don’t tell me I’m wrong,” Valeria said. “A debt collector was looking for him.”
“But you knew he owed a debt,” Charlotte said reasonably. “Why does that change anything?”
“The fact that he’s being pursued means that he isn’t paying his debt,” Valeria said. “And when a gentleman can’t afford to pay his debts—that’s when bad things happen, Charlotte. That’s when men turn to crime, or to violence. I saw it happen with Richard. I won’t wait around to see it happen with Lord Woodsford.”
“Will you end the courtship, then?” Charlotte asked.
Valeria shivered. She could hardly believe she was contemplating it. She had been so overjoyed to be engaged in courtship with Lord Woodsford. She had believed herself to be falling in love with him. Now, after such a short time together, she was certain that she needed to end things.
It was the last thing she wanted. She wished she could just ignore what she had seen today. She wished she could ignore Lord Woodsford’s strange behavior the last time they had seen one another and go back, instead, to the way things had been between them at the ball.
But she didn’t think she could do it. The next time she saw him, this was all she would be able to think about.
