Mr. Brayton lit a candle and sat down. “Not sure if that’s a good thing.”
“I daresay neither is it a bad thing.” She shot him a look. “Since I’ve been witnessing all sorts of displays of affection.”
He arched a thick, bushy brow. “You’ve witnessed such displays recently?”
“In this very drawing room.”
“I see.”
“What exactly are your intentions with my aunt, Mr. Brayton?” Phaedra asked. “You must know she has been through a lot.”
“I’m aware,” he said slowly. “My intentions are to provide your aunt with whatever she desires.”
“Whatever she desires? What if she desires marriage?”
“Then she will have it.”
“What if she doesn’t?”
A pause. “Then she won’t have it.”
Phaedra smiled then. She liked this Mr. Brayton. “That is good, then. My aunt seems to trust you. If I may ask... when... at what point...”
“Did she trust me?” He smiled. “Always.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Let me rephrase,” he said. “Portia trusts me to be exactly who I am, and she accepts that.”
Trust him to be exactly who he is... and accept that.
“A rogue?”
He chuckled. “A rogue. Ruthless. Always getting what I want. I do not deny who I am, and neither does your aunt.”
“Interesting.” Her aunt sure knew how to pick a man. A true wolf.
“My point is that Portia is aware of who I am, and rather than condemn me, which she has every right to do, she embraces me, faults and all.”
She pursed her lips in thought. “No one is without faults.” She wasn’t without faults, neither was Deerhurst. The trick was acceptance.
That was what it all came down to then. She had to accept Deerhurst with his faults, just like he seemed to embrace hers—and she did have them.
The only reason Phaedra had claimed Deerhurst’s actions unforgivable was because her betrayal stemmed from being deceived from the start—the very essence of all the fortune hunting scoundrels that courted her. They were decked out in the very essence of deception.
But had Deerhurst deceived her?
No.
He had merely kept a secret. And the secrets Deerhurst kept were to protect the people he cared for, and it appeared he kept his secrets at great cost.
And here, right across from her, sat the very man who proved that despite her aunt being fearful and mistrusting because of what happened in her marriage, even she could take a leap of faith.
Deerhurst had been right. Her fears might not be unfounded, but they were holding her back from happiness. From love.
Fromhim.
In the end, for all he’d done and not done, Deerhurst had always protected her in his way. It was time someone protected him. His heart. His daughter. And his love. And Phaedra was the woman to do it. It was time forherto take a leap.
