There had been nights when he had avoided sleep rather than risk waking with old fear in his throat.
The thought of Beatrice doing the same made his blood go cold.
But then another possibility struck him.
Something more immediate.
Had someone slipped past Blackwell and Longstaffe somehow? Frightened her? Had one of those thwarted gentlemen confronted her, intent upon revenge?
He looked over her shoulder, scanning the empty pavement, the corners, the iron railings, the shadowed line of sleeping houses.
Nothing.
No one.
Still, his heart was racing.
“Beatrice.”
“I just couldn’t sleep.” Her mouth pressed together. “My thoughts would not settle. They just got… louder. The longer I stayed in bed, the worse it became. So I just got up, and… I walked.”
Gideon went still.
He had been looking for a threat. Some danger he could close his hand around.
Instead, there was only Beatrice.
Sheepish but safe.
The sight of her should not have grounded him. And yet, for the first time since he had walked away from that last lesson, the world set itself back into place after days of being wrong.
“You walked,” he said.
“Yes.” She looked away. “I needed to move.”
For a moment, she studied the toe of her half boot. Then she lifted her gaze, not quite meeting his.
“I did not come looking for you.”
“Of course you didn’t.” Gideon held her gaze. “And yet, you are here.”
A lovely hint of rose touched her cheeks. “Yes.”
Then she drew a breath, small but visible. She hugged her arms in front of her. “Did I… Have I done something to make you angry with me?”
Angry with her? God, no.
“Of course not. Why would you think that?” But even as he asked her, he knew.
He’d handed the lessons over to Longstaffe. His visits to Beckman House with contrived reasons had halted.
And she had noticed.
Of course she had noticed.
Her chin lifted a fraction. “You agreed that the lessons were important. We made plans. And then, on the first day of the lessons, you were… cold… Different. And after that, you simply vanished.”
He had no answer that would not sound cowardly.
