“No,” Valeria said. “We can speak right here. What did you come to say?”
“Well—” Thomas looked rather taken aback. Duncan could tell he had expected a better reception than that.
I did try to warn him.
“I know you’ve decided to end our courtship,” he said, recovering himself somewhat. “But I wanted to come and say farewell, if nothing else. Getting to know you—it has been one of the most profoundly wonderful experiences of my life.”
A bit too much,Duncan thought.
But to his surprised, something in Valeria’s expression softened at his words.
“I feel the same way,” she said quietly.
“Do you?” he asked. “Do you truly?”
“I do,” she said.
“But then why—?”
“Lord Woodsford,” she said, “if things were different, I could have imagined our courtship continuing for a very long time. Perhaps leading to marriage. The feelings I have for you—I’ve never felt this way before. I can’t imagine that anyone has felt anything more powerful. But the problem is your circumstances.”
“My debt, you mean?”
She nodded. “I understand that it isn’t your fault,” she said. “But I also know what a man in such a position can be driven to do. I watched it happen to my own brother.”
“I’m nothing like him, Lady Valeria,” Thomas said, speaking with more urgency now. “If you know nothing else, you must at least know that. You’ve told me what he was like—how he treated you. I’m not the same. I never could be.”
“I know that,” Valeria said gently. “But…”
He watched her helplessly. She looked so distressed that Duncan began to wonder whether this had been a very good idea after all.
“You can’t know,” Valeria said at last. “You just can’t know. You can’t know what you’ll be willing to do, if things become more dire.”
“I can,” Thomas said. “I do.”
She just shook her head.
Duncan wondered which of them was right. Was it possible that being in debtwouldturn Thomas into someone none of them recognized? He didn’t think so—but he had been shocked to learn that Richard had gone down that dark path as well.
“Well,” Thomas said, “this is the reason I came. Not to beg you to reconsider—Duncan told me that your mind was made up-but because I wanted you to know the kind of man I am. You know that’s what I’ve always wanted.”
Valeria nodded, her eyes filling with tears. Something unspoken seemed to pass between the two of them, and Duncan knew he had missed out on something. Something they had discussed previously, perhaps.
“I want you to know that I’m a good man,” Thomas said. “I want you to know that—no matter what happens—I’ll never do anything that would cause you to be ashamed of me. If we never see one another again, I hope you’ll remember me in a positive light.”
“I will,” she said quietly. “I can promise that much.”
He nodded. “Then I’ll trouble you no more,” he said, and turned for the door.
Duncan caught Valeria’s eyes for a moment and raised his eyebrows, making sure she was all right.
She nodded, pulled out a handkerchief, and dabbed away her tears.
Duncan squeezed her shoulder. Then he turned and hurried after Thomas.
He caught his friend on the path outside the Manor. Thomas was walking along slowly, looking pensive, but not discouraged.
“How did you feel that went?” Duncan asked.
