He didn’t wait to ask the butler anything further. All that mattered was that Leah was here. James raced upstairs. After searching through various rooms, he finally found her in the drawing room.
She was seated on the floor with her back to the wall, staring out the window. When James stepped into the room, she turned and glanced at him for a moment, then went back to looking out at the garden. The look of hopelessness on Leah’s face was heartbreaking. He prayed for the strength to find forgiveness.
“I was surprised to find you here. I thought you had gone,” he said.
“The doctor gave me laudanum last night, so I couldn’t have gone anywhere even if I’d wanted,” she replied.
Laudanum? “Why did you need a doctor?”
Leah held up her heavily bandaged right hand. James hurried to her side, all thoughts of confronting her over the fire put aside.
“I foolishly tried to take hold of the handle of the door at the height of the fire. My hand is badly burned,” she replied. She screwed her eyes closed. Tears began to pour down her face as she sobbed. “I expect you blame me for destroying theDerbyshire Twins. But you have to believe me, I don’t know what caused the fire. By the time I got to the garden shed, there was nothing that could be done to save them.”
“You did threaten to burn them,” he said softly.
Leah shook her head. “I was angry when I said that, but you can’t think I would ever really do such a thing. Your work means everything to you. And to me.”
James dropped to the floor next to Leah. Regret sat heavy on his shoulders. In the cold light of the morning, he questioned his rash decision not to come into the house the previous night. It shamed him to think he had immediately thought the worst of her.
“When I saw that the shed and all my work was gone, I thought you had abandoned me and returned to your parents. I’m sorry I was so quick to judge you,” he replied.
Hands came seeking; fingers locked together. For a time, they sat hand in hand in silence. James searched for the words to find a way forward.
“So that is why you didn’t come home last night? James, I would never leave you. I love you, which is why the loss of your paintings is so hard for me for bear. Knowing I have caused you such pain, unwillingly or not, is just tearing me up inside,” she said.
Leah didn’t know what had happened to cause the fire, but James still wanted to get to the truth. To stop it from ever happening to them again.
“What happened yesterday after I left for work?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I realized that I had been unfair in demanding you to move your paintings. I went out to the garden shed and it became apparent quite quickly that there was not enough room for you to work. I had been wrong in asking you to move your paintings. I folded and moved your oil rags into a box, and then picked up your sketchbooks before coming back inside. I spent the next few hours trying to figure out a way to rearrange the house so you could go back to painting in the drawing room, and . . .”
James let go of Leah’s hand and shot to his feet. He felt like he had been punched in the head. Facing her, he raked his fingers through his hair.
“You piled the linseed rags into a wooden box? In the garden shed. Oh, Leah, no!”
A look of puzzlement sat on her face. “I didn’t want them to be on the floor and in the way of the servants when they moved theTwinsback into the house,” she replied.
James took a deep breath. Leah had just handed him the answer as to what had likely caused the fire. “Linseed oil is highly combustible. The reason I lay the cloths out flat to dry is, so they do not ignite. By heaping them together, you created the perfect setting for them to spontaneously combust. While you were in the house sorting out rooms, the oil on the rags would have heated to a point where it finally ignited.”
She gasped. “Which means I did cause the fire!”
“Yes, but you were not to know. I should have warned you of the danger of linseed oil. We were just fortunate that it was only the garden shed and not the house. If anyone is to blame for the fire, it is me.”
Leah held out her hand. “James, please come and sit. We need to talk. There is something I want to ask you.”
He came back and resumed his seat next to her on the floor. His shoulders were sunk in defeat. Leah reached over and handed James his sketchbooks. He took them and sighed.
“I know this is cold comfort to you right now, my love, but you can rebuild. You have your sketches. If you have to go to Derbyshire now, then so be it. I will be waiting here for you when you return,” she said.
James flicked open the topmost sketchbook and began to turn the pages. Leah watched his face as the signs of hope slowly began to return. By the time he closed the book, a soft, tentative smile sat on his face.
“Thank god you saved the sketchbooks. Now, what was it you wanted to ask me?” he said.
“Are you happy in London?”
The question had been on the tip of her tongue for several days now. With her parents being set against hers and James’s marriage, and James working himself ragged in order to establish his career, Leah had begun to wonder if London was truly for them.
“I can’t say it has been a wonderful experience since we returned from Cornwall. At times I feel like it is you and I against the world. That’s why last night was such a blow to me; when I thought you had gone . . .” he replied.
