The summer’s heat was bearing down, but it was the solitude rather than the shadows that drove May here. Though she’d grown very practiced at it, being alone today was crushing. The absence of it all: of noise, home, family…
Elias’s voice startled her, but the alarm quickly faded into relief. It was as if the duke had heard her heart call out and merely followed its beat to find her.
With him, everything was so easy.
“I now see I may have judged the man prematurely.”
“Do you, really?” She couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice. Surprise, and affection. He’d taken her words to heart. Changed his opinion because of her advice, and spoke of it without reservation, as if every man in power was so easily candid about their mistakes. That man… how was he even real?
“Oh, yes. I don’t know what I was thinking comparing him toher.”
“Her?”
Elias stared out into the trees. “The woman I was once betrothed to.”
Her.His love—the liar.
“What happened?” May’s voice shrank to a whisper. It was one thing hearing it from Lord Frenwick or Lady Hannah, and another from him.
“I trusted wrongly. I would have paid for it, too, if not for my father. She was a charmer, you see. Quick, beautiful, and so easy to love. And I did—really, I did. But I never knew the real her.
“I do wonder sometimes… Would I have been in the dark still, had Father not intervened and set everything aflame? Or could I have been happy living a lie?” He paused. “Forgive me. I am in a contemplative mood today, it seems. Truth is, my father did me a favor.”
May was not sure she wished to know, but she asked anyway. “What did he do, exactly?”
Elias laughed without mirth. “Oh, you’ll find this familiar. He found someone handsome to play the part of a richer man. Richer than me, if you can imagine that, and one without a healthy father to keep the purse strings well tied. She flitted to him all too soon. It was the perfect setup. I walked in on them together—opened the door, and there they were, too entwined to tell limb from limb. All I recall now is my father watching as I stumbled from the room. He did not even attempt talking to me—he just set it all up and showed up to watch, as if it were just another night at the opera.”
“Oh, Elias…”
“I suppose he wanted to get his point across so that I never forgot what was at stake. Naturally, he succeeded. It is funny how much I used to hate him. Now I’ve gone and done the exact same thing, all to spare my sister that very pain.” Elias casually crossed his legs, but even this well-practiced gesture could not conceal the bitterness in his voice. “Of course, unlike me, my father actually knew a fake when he saw one.”
A fake. May dug her fingers into her dress, as if doing so could distract her from the needle sinking deeper into her heart. This was not the time to confess her own lies. Not when he needed to know that his open heart was his strength, not a weakness. “Your trust is worth so much, Elias. I am sorry your father did not see that.”
“He left me much but not trust. Just a crumbling legacy, and no wisdom to protect it. I made it work, of course. I rebuilt his dreams, strengthened their very foundations. And then I finally understood what he was trying to do, why he was so desperate to educate me.” Elias suddenly looked so tired. “Everyone wants something from me, May... It never ends.”
May took his hand into her palm. She knew it was the truth. Power, to her, was an enviable thing. But to Elias, whom everyone sought to use at every turn for their ends, it was a terrible burden he could not set down. But he could protect his sister from it.
“Your intentions were good. It makes a difference, does it not? How much you love Hannah?”
He answered without answering. “I should have told you this as soon as our business arrangement turned… more pleasurable. But I certainly must say it now: you are no longer required to draw Spencer out.”
May’s lungs ceased to work. So, their arrangement was off?
“You asked for proof…” Proof she could not provide.
“I consider that condition fulfilled.”
She had not failed? Convincing him of Lord Spencer’s sincere intentions had counted, after all? The weight of the idea, the consequences… they sank in ever so slowly.
This spelled the end of her duties. No more conspiratorial smiles or sleepless nights. No more acting the lady by his side. No more pretending as if she could be his. Whether she explained herself or quietly disappeared—her time was up.Theirtime was up.
Her eyes stung.
Elias reached into his inner pocket to take out a purse. He was intent on paying her, right this moment. The realization sent her heart thudding. She would have the rest of the money right away. She’d have the funds to walk into that cursed pawnshop today to claim what was hers all along. To finally get her mother back.
It was happening too fast—but as the duke split the leather wallet open to produce a small envelope, May couldn’t help but accept it.
It was addressed to Lady May Graceworth.
