“No, sweetheart.”
He hesitated. “It’s just… I remind him of something sad, and that scares him.”
Lorraine felt her throat tighten. “I think that is very nearly it.”
Thomas wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
“I get scared too,” he admitted. “About liking people. Because if they go away, it hurts more.”
“I know.” She pressed a kiss to his forehead. “But that is the thing about loving people—it is always a risk. We must decide that the loving is worth the hurting. That having people in our lives is better than being safe and alone.”
Thomas was quiet for a moment.
“Is that what His Grace is doing?” he asked at last. “Trying to decide whether I’m worth the hurting?”
The question struck her silent.
Before she could answer, a floorboard creaked.
Lorraine turned instinctively. Through the narrow gap of the half-open door, she caught the movement of a dark coat, the line of a shoulder.
Dominic.
He had been standing there. Listening.
Their eyes met—only for a moment—but it was enough. His expression was raw, unguarded.
Then he was gone.
Thomas shifted in her arms. “Miss Weston? What is it?”
“Nothing, sweetheart.” She steadied her voice. “Nothing at all. Let us finish our lesson, and then you may go out with Jenny. I believe Cook has been at her baking.”
That was enough to turn his thoughts. They returned to the lesson—though Lorraine could not have said what she taught—and when Jenny came for him, she watched him go with a growing weight in her chest.
Dominic had heard everything.
She did not know what he would do with it.
She suspected she would soon find out.
***
The summons came that evening.
Lorraine was in her room, attempting to read, when a knock sounded. A housemaid stood outside with a note on a tray.
“From His Grace, miss. He asks that you attend him in the study.”
Lorraine took the note. The handwriting was unmistakable.
Miss Weston. My study. At your earliest convenience.
Not a request.
“Tell His Grace I will come directly.”
She changed her dress—dark, plain, proper—and arranged her hair with care. If this was to be her dismissal, she would meet it with composure.
