“Who is Granson?” she asked after she cleared her throat.
Leo started. “He is my father’s grandson and aide-de-camp. Why?”
“Whois he? Was he the man that appeared at the cottage last summer? The menacing stranger?” Her eyes finally met his, but he saw no warmth there. This must be how she was when she did business. Cool, polite, detached. Her bearing was confident but not aggressive. Like encountering a wall of smooth concrete.
“He was, yes.”
“The one asking for Lenny Morgan.”
“Yes.”
“Which was you, at one point.”
“Correct.” Leo felt like he was being interrogated. “What is this about?”
Prudence squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, she took another big sip of coffee with both hands. “Do you remember that morning at the cottage?”
“Of course I do. I remember every moment at that cottage.” Leo had never dreamed it could have been so good between them. When he’d bought it outright in his own name years ago as an investment, he’d never thought to use it as a vacation home for his... what was Prudence to him? Mistress sounded so wrong.
“Then you’ll remember your panic over Granson’s appearance there.”
“Yes. And at the time, based on what I knew of my father and his previous activities, it was warranted. I was unwilling to risk an encounter with my father while you were at my side.”
She cocked her head to the side, and her expression wasn’t a smile, nor was it exactly a grimace. Leo did not like what it meant. “If that fear was about me, why did you tell me that you would leave me there?”
“I certainly did not say that,” Leo protested. Did he say that? It didn’t seem like he would.
“You, in fact, did. I refused to leave without knowing more about what had you spooked, and instead of explaining or even looking at me directly, you told me in no uncertain terms that you were leaving and I could stay if I liked.”
“I was only trying to get you to come with me,” Leo protested. Now that she put it like that, he did remember saying it. But he hadn’t meant it. Not in so many words. It was an ultimatum employed to get her to do the right thing.
“Can you look at that scenario from my point of view? I’m an American in the English countryside, and the man with whom I’m having a scandalous affair threatens to leave me in the middle of nowhere when an unknown man who scares him shows up?”
Leo frowned. “But I wouldn’t have left you there.”
“But you said you would.”
“Yes, but I didn’tmeanit.”
Prudence sat back in her chair. He could see the muscle in her jaw ticking. “And now that very man who scared you lives in this house. The man who frightened you enough to abandon me slept under the same roof as both of us last night.”
“You were there when my father arrived,” Leo said. Prudence was twisting things around. Granson was helpful and mild. Really, he was a wonderful man, needing only a bit of directionnow that he was in London. “You saw how convoluted and messy everything was between us.”
Prudence looked away, and Leo could see tears shining in her eyes.
“Prudence, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you. Is that why you stopped reading my letters?”
A giant tear rolled down her cheek, and Leo realized then and there that he’d rather be punched in the face by Granson than witness this. Prudence nodded her head. So that had been his error: threatening to abandon her to a man that he’d convinced her was dangerous. Oh, that made him feel very bad. Very bad indeed.
“But I didn’t know. If you’d told me, I could have—”
“—Explained?” she interrupted. “I asked for that explanation, and you refused to give it. Not there in the cottage, not on the train. You made it very clear, Leo. I existed for fucking, not for talking.”
Her vulgarity made him draw back. He couldn’t even speak. That’s what she thought of him? Was that the American brazenness coming to bear in their conversation? “That is not—”
“I know you’d never say it aloud, Leo.” Prudence leveled him with a gaze that he’d never seen before on anyone. The malice there. “Because you’re too polite. But was that not our initial agreement? No relationship, just bedsport? Well, we did that.” She looked out the window.
Leo still couldn’t speak. The world had upended itself, and he hadn’t a clue what was happening.
