Then she stepped away and onto the path. “I tell you all this so you know we are even. Your story for mine. I owe you nothing else. And while I will not deny enjoying our… interlude the other day, it cannot happen again.”
He followed her out of the shade of the tree but not into the sun. It had disappeared behind rolling gray clouds. A shiver of a wind whipped through the garden. “Beatrice?—”
“No.” She rocked back a step, holding her hand out, palm flat, a wall. “I mean it, Mr. Clark. My body may”—she swallowed, trembled a bit—“desire your attentions, but I cannot forget your treatment of my cousin, your role in separating her from Mr. Fisher. She has been my sister since the day I woke up in her bed, her mother my only mother, her father my only protector. Any harm done to them is”—she shook her head—“entirely unacceptable, unforgivable.” She ran off, down the path and into the house, and perhaps out of his life forever.
Better that way, yes?
No, worse.
Because now he knew she did not care about his birth, didn’t care what her father thought, knew he had no say over who she wed or what she did with her life. She was the type of woman who could marry him, who would.
If she didn’t hate him.
And she’d made very clear, she did.
Nine
Beatrice almost made it into the house before it started raining. And she almost bumped into Selena when she stepped onto the path right in front of her. Neither of those things happened, though, so when the skies opened up, she had to blink drops out of her eyes to see her cousin clearly.
She looked startled, pale and shaken.
“What’s wrong, Lena?” Beatrice put a hand on her shoulder.
Selena grasped her wrist and hauled her inside, slamming the door closed. She paced the room, shaking her hands from wrist to fingertip. Finally, she stopped and looked at Beatrice.
“What’s wrong? Is Uncle ill? Have you had a letter?”
Selena shook her head. “You were with Mr. Clark just now. I heard… much of what was said. I…” She sank into a nearby chair. “This is all my fault.”
Beatrice pulled a chair over to sit next to her. “I’m terribly confused. Nothing about Mr. Clark is your fault.”
“I need you to tell me the truth. What were you doing out of sight with Mr. Clark beneath the trees? The day you fell in the lake. And then after you climbed up onto the shore. You disappeared. As did he.”
Beatrice swallowed the lump in her throat. “Nothing.” Everything. But not everything because she wanted more. Hated herself for wanting it. He had taught her the meaning of pleasure, and she could not forget it. And today he’d given her compassion, shown her his cracks and soft spots, even though she was the one he should most protect them from. “Nothing,” she whispered again.
“You’re lying!” Selena jumped up from the chair. “I… I saw him pinning you against the tree. I saw how you looked up at him, how you buried your face in his chest.”
“It means nothing!”
Selena shook her head. “I must tell you what I’ve hidden from you all these years.”
Wariness prickled down Beatrice’s spine. “Hidden? You’ve hidden nothing from me. We tell each other everything.”
Selena looked out the window, chewing her bottom lip. The worried tingle along Beatrice’s backbone turned into a full scream. Something was wrong. Selena had hidden something from her.
Her stomach flipping, she said, “Tell me.”
Finally, Selena released her lip, shoulders slumping. She wouldn’t look Beatrice in the eye. “Mr. Fisher went away because of something I did. Mr. Clark witnessed it. He demanded I be honest with Martin. I didn’t want to. I knew what would happen. But also… I… I knew I’d done wrong. So, I made Mr. Clark swear not to tell you what I’d done. And I told Martin. And… you know the rest.”
“What did you do? I do not understand. You’ve never done anything wrong! You’re a paragon!”
“No. I’m not. Beatrice, I kissed Daniel.”
Daniel.Daniel.
He was popping up everywhere.
The name buzzed in Beatrice’s head, louder and louder. Daniel the scoundrel. Daniel the reprobate. Daniel the bigamist. John and Richard’s brother. “D-did he force you?”
