Hugh nodded, but he didn’t seem terribly concerned about this detail. “I assume that was just when he found out, if that’s even what he was bothered about. If it was, he must have diedbefore he could take action. A true poor turn for your little girl’s mother, if so.”
Ezra was desperate to know more about something that had been bothering his uncle right before the fatal fire, but he needed to focus on Iris for now. Persephone spoke next.
“Can I ask…? Why do you need to know, Ezra? I mean, are there implications beyond curiosity? Legal ones, I mean.”
“Unlikely,” Ezra said. “She’s a girl, for one, and certainly not legitimate. She doesn’t have a claim to the estate, though I am not going to throw her out, obviously. But she deserves to know.”
Persephone nodded, then hesitated.
“It’s admirable that you plan to keep her, Ezra,” she said carefully. “But you are a bachelor. If you would prefer, we could…”
It took Ezra a moment to realize that she was offering to take in Iris. The instinctive rejection that swelled within him was so forceful it almost felt like rage. He carefully tamped down the feeling, as he knew that the offer had been made with a generous spirit.
“No, thank you,” he said tersely. “She is adjusting. She has a dog now. She seems happy. I don’t want to disrupt that.”
She asked to call me ‘uncle,’he thought. And someone had brought Iris to his door. That was where she belonged.
“Of course,” Persephone said. There was something knowing in her expression that Ezra did not like in the least. “If we can help, though, please. Don’t hesitate to ask for it, Ezra. We are family, after all, and we know what it’s like to raise little girls.”
“I appreciate that,” Ezra said, trying not to show how much he wanted to bristle over her claiming them asfamily. “But we are doing well.”
“That’swhy you hired the governess!” Hugh said suddenly. “I guess you win that wager, Percy.”
“The two of you werewageringon me?” Ezra asked, incredulous.
Neither of them looked even the least bit sorry.
“It’s good that Miss Knightley gets to continue working with the family,” Hugh commented. There they were again with thisfamilybusiness. “I could not understand why she wouldn’t want to travel with Xander and Helen, when she supposedly got on well with the children. They were offering to pay her rather handsomely to go with them to Belgium for the year.”
Ezra had vaguely known these circumstances. Letitia had told him as much when he’d first interviewed her for the role of governess. But all that had taken place before he’d seen how sheinteracted with Iris, which was to say, before he’d found a reason to act upon the strange draw that he’d felt toward her. And truly, he had not much caredwhyshe’d left Helen’s employ, only that this meant she was now available to join his.
But now, he knew her. He knew that she was pragmatic, even if she occasionally got swept away by her temper or her passions. He knew that she cared for Sarah immensely—that she had been paying for her friend to live in London for the full year that Letty herself had been in the countryside with Xander and his brood. More than that, he knew Sarah now, too, and knew that her disability didn’t stop her from being perfectly independent. She didn’t need Letty’s proximity to survive in that little flat, just the money.
So why had a sensible woman abandoned a position sheknewwas good—good money, honorable employers, children she liked—just because she didn’t want to spend one measly year in the country where she had spent the bulk of her life?
This question nagged irritatingly at his mind.
It tugged and tugged, like ill-fitting clothing, as he gave in to Persephone’s cajoling and danced with her. It prickled at him as he bid his cousin and his wife farewell. It continued to bother him throughout the entire carriage ride home.
He simply could not stop thinking about it. Because it seemed that little Miss Letitia Knightley had more secrets than he’d ever paused to suspect.
And he would not be able to rest until he knew it all.
Until he knew the whole truth of her.
CHAPTER 13
By the time a week had passed since she’d taken her pleasure atop her employer’s lap (which was difficult to think about) then left him hard and wanting (worse to think about) and received a letter from the last man she ever wanted to hear again, Letitia’s nerves were so frayed that she was worried that a strong puff of wind might send her directly into hysterics.
Naturally, this was the point when Ezra stopped having the good sense to avoid her.
“Good morning, Iris,” he said warmly as he came out into the sun-kissed garden where the little girl was gamboling merrily with Hermes. It was hard to say which of them had taken more cheery tumbles into the grass, and Iris’ frock was an utter disaster of stains. “And to you, Miss Knightley.”
“Your Grace,” she replied politely, trying and failing to remain cool and collected as she sat on a picnic blanket. It was not themost dignified of positions in which to meet a man with whom one had?—
She pushed the thought away with a vicious mental shove.
“Uncle Ezra!” Iris cried, twirling in a circle.
