“Nobody’s!”
Elise looked him up and down. “Do you know, I almost believe you? Hawley did say that your naivety was astonishing.”
“I’m not naive,” Zeb said. “I simply don’t choose to think the worst of people all the time.”
“In this house?” Elise said with light astonishment. “Good heavens. But notwithstanding your optimism,Ican see the likely outcomes very well. So I will decline your kind offer to run away with you and thereby free Bram and remove an obstacle from Hawley’s path. I don’t see any advantage for myself in that.”
“You could stop caring what either of them think.”
That startled her, Zeb could see. He pressed on. “Hawley isn’t worth a snap of your fingers. Bram is clearly not much of a husband. They are greedy, tawdry men and you could stop having them in your life. You could behappy.”
“I don’t think Wyckhams are terribly good at happiness,” she said with a twist to her mouth. “That has certainly not been my experience.”
“Well, I am,” Zeb said. “Or, I have been, and I’m going to be again. And the reason is, I walked away from all this rather than sitting around thinking about how much people wronged me and trying to hurt them back.”
Her lips parted, then snapped tight. “Perhaps you are more forgiving than me. And rather more easily walked over.”
“Maybe. But I’m happier.”
They looked at one another. This was by far the longest conversation he’d ever had with Elise; in fact, it was probably their only exchange that could really be called a conversation. She must be desperately lonely to have talked to him.
“Please,” he said impulsively. “I don’t like this house, I don’t like Wynn, I don’t like any of it. Come away from it with me. Leave all this behind. I promise I’m not trying to seduce you.”
She gave him the look of a woman who didn’t need to be told that, and then she smiled. It was a real smile, one that looked almost rueful, almost affectionate, and it took his breath away. Zeb had always found her glacial beauty mildly intimidating, but he could imagine falling hopelessly in love with that smile.
Bram had probably fallen in love with it too, before he wipedit off her face.
“Well,” Elise said as he gazed speechlessly. “I will think about it. Thank you, Zeb. You intend to leave tomorrow?”
“I want to.”
She gave a decisive nod. “Talk to me in the morning.”
She shut the door. Zeb stood in the corridor, lost for words.
Seventeen
Wynn did not appear at lunch. Hawley and Bram were both there, looking frankly shocking, as if neither had slept much. Bram was pouchy and exhausted; Hawley appeared to be grossly hungover. Zeb wondered about making conversation, ran through his options—By the way I asked your wife to come to London with meor possiblyWhy are you the most selfish, greedy man alive?—and decided not to bother.
He and Gideon had moved his things to another room, for discretion, and let Jessamine know there was a small problem with insects. Zeb retired there now and was sitting on the bed, running the rosary through his fingers, when he heard a knock. He sprang to the door, hoping for Gideon, and saw the dowdy maid, bearing his evening clothes, cleaned and pressed.
“Thank you so much,” he said, stepping well back as she came in to put them in the wardrobe. “I’m very sorry for givingyou the trouble, and changing rooms like this.”
“Sir.”
He wondered if he should go and stand by the window again, but he saw the lines between her eyebrows, the little hints of tension, and the words sprang to his lips. “Is everything all right?”
“How do you mean?”
“Is anyone bothering you?”
She stilled. “Why do you say that? What do you want, sir?”
“I’m not trying to intrude,” Zeb said hastily. “You can tell me to mind my own business and I will do just that. But if, for example, someone ought to tell any of the family to keep his hands to himself, I would be happy to step in. If that would help.”
“Why?” she asked, a rap of a question. “Why would you?”
“Because you look awfully unhappy. I’ve actually just been sacked myself, from a rotten job with a dreadful bully who shouted at me all the time, and I have quite strong feelings about making people miserable at work.” She was looking at him oddly. He was probably babbling. “I don’t want to put you in a difficult position, so ignore me if you prefer. I just thought I should ask if you were all right.”
