“The truth is rather dark, but allow me to get to the core of it before I explain. It may be that once I have told you the consequences of what has taken place, you will no longer want to have as close an acquaintance with me as you have had before. What say you to that?”
Her eyes softened.
“Tell me,” she said again, her hand tightening lightly on his arm. “It may not be as severe as you think.”
Letting out a slow breath, Henry begged himself to trust his heart, and at that moment, chose to be completely transparent.
“You find yourself looking at a gentleman who can no longer say that he has a secure future ahead of him.” He caught the way that her eyes widened and shook his head. “I can assure you that it has come about through no fault of my own. I was tricked out of a considerable amount, and I am doing all I can at present to discover where it might have gone.”
He said nothing more, seeing that her eyes had rounded, and waiting for her to speak before he said anything else. There was much for him to explain, he knew, but this might be enough for him to say at present. If she had no wish to continue her acquaintance with him, knowing now that his future was not as she had believed it to be, then he could not blame her for that.
“You… You have been deceived.”
“In a particular way, yes.”
Her eyes were still wide, and there was no smile on her face now, and certainly nothing glistening in her eyes.
“Your fortune has been taken from you without your knowledge?”
“It has happened to six of us.” Beginning his explanation, he continued to meander slowly, noting to himself that she had not yet removed her hand from his arm. Did that give him a basis for hope? “We were all taken into one particular gambling den, and each of us woke the following day to realize that our fortunes were no longer as they had been. You cannot imagine my shock and my distress when I awakened and realized that it had not been as wonderful an evening as I had thought it to be.” Lady Emma blinked rapidly, then turned her head away. Henry braced himself, a little overwhelmed by just how much pain ran through him as he prepared for her to turn away from him for good. It would not be wise for a young lady of quality to remain with a gentleman such as he. There could be no future with him. There was no guarantee of security, and that is what every young lady required. “I understand that our acquaintance can no longer continue.” There was a slight dullness to his tone. “I will not go into detail about my circumstances, for it is not required, but –”
“You think I will turn from you because of something like this?” To his astonishment, Lady Emma’s voice rose, stopping the words flowing from his mouth and preventing him from speaking anything more as he gazed into her eyes, seeing color lining her cheeks as the flames began to throw their flickering color over them both. She had turned to face him so that her hand had fallen from his arm, and a glance at her hands told Henry she had curved them both into tight fists. “Do you really think that I am so fickle as to throw away something – and someone – which has become of such great importance to me, simply because there is some difficulty over your fortune?” Henry did not know what to say, so caught was he with astonishment over her vehement reaction. The flush in her cheeks and the glistening tears in her eyes told him that he had misjudged her, and his friends’ words came back to his mind immediately. It seemed that they were right; hehadmisjudged Lady Emma – and had injured her in the process. “I have pursued you. I have not left you alone. I have done everything I can to have you tell me the truth. Do you think that, now that I know of it, I would decide that you were not worth the trouble?”
Swallowing hard, he took a step forward. His hand went to her arm, and he trailed it down slowly until he found her fingers.
“Forgive me.”
The throatiness of his voice caught him off guard, and he cleared it quickly, but instead Lady Emma only smiled, just as a single tear dropped to her cheek.
“Forgive me for speaking so sharply. I am caught somewhere between relief and astonishment.”
Her head lowered for a moment, but Henry shook his head.
“You have no need to apologize. It is I who ought to do so, given that I was not only thoughtless but also stubborn enough to refuse to listen to my acquaintances when they told me that young ladies such as yourself are often in the habit of surprising gentlemen with their devotion. I should not have doubted them or you.”
Her head lifted as she dashed one hand across her eyes, her hand warming his.
“You must tell your friends that they were quite correct in this matter.”
“I do not think I dare do so. I have already been humiliated enough by my own lack of understanding and belief.”
This made Lady Emma laugh, and Henry found himself letting out such a long breath of relief that he did not quite know where to look, finding himself a little embarrassed at the depths of his feelings.
“You are surprised, are you not?”
Again, Lady Emma pressed his hand and he found himself looking into her eyes, nodding slowly. It was astonishing how well she understood him. It was as if she could see into his very soul before he could even articulate what it was that he felt.
“I am surprised by how much I have kept back from myself. At this moment, I am finally able to admit to all that I feel – and to realize how foolish I have been, to think that I could do without you. I realize now that I should not have kept everything back from you. I should not have kept silent. I am filled with such relief and even peace now that I have told you!”
“There is still more to say,” she answered him softly, searching his face as though she were afraid that he would not tell her the truth even now. “Pray, do not keep anything back from me. My eagerness to help you comes from what I feel - from what is in the depths of my heart.”
“I do not think that I could keep it back from you, even if I should wish to,” he told her, seeing her smile. “I am doing all that I can to regain my fortune, but there is no guarantee of success. That is why I thought it best to push myself away from you, believing that you deserved better than what I could offer.”
“Tell me what took place.”
Her voice soft, Lady Emma turned slightly so that they could begin walking again. Henry realized that he had no notion of where Lord Stoneleigh was at present, but that did not seem to matter. In the melee, in the crowds of people moving through the gardens, it was very unlikely that they would be spotted. It gave him the opportunity to speak clearly, openly, and honestly with Lady Emma and, as he smiled to himself, Henry admitted silently that it was the only thing he wished to do.
“My friends and I made our way to the East End of London,” he began. “We were guided there by another friend, Lord Gillespie. It was an opportunity to gamble in places other than our usual haunts, and to be honest, I thought that I would have a little more luck in the East End, given that the men who played might have less experience. I considered that the evening had been going very well… until I woke the following morning. I found myself lying with a single piece of paper near me and upon it was written that a large part of my fortune had been given to another. I thought it all in jest until I made my way to my solicitors and discovered the truth. The note, I believe, was written by the gentleman who stole from me.” His jaw flexed, a streak of anger pushing through his heart. “No doubt the fellow thought it would be rather mirthful for me to awaken to see such a note by my side. Initially, I thought that one of my friends had done such a thing, as a prank, but I considered it wise to make my way to my solicitors. It was there that my life fell into pieces.”
