“You cannot keep secrets from me, Letitia,” he said softly, and the sound of him using her given name went through her like a jolt.
“I wasn’t keeping it asecret,” she protested. “I just didn’t think to?—”
“Not the stories, Letty,” he interrupted, and if hearing her Christian name had been a shock, it was nothing compared to how she felt upon hearing her diminutive, the name only thoseclosest to her ever used. He must have heard Sarah say it, and it felt like a caress coming from his lips.
But any warmth that had blossomed in her at the sound of it turned to ice when he spoke again.
“What other secrets are you keeping?”
Her head whipped around so quickly that she felt a jerk of pain in her neck. His dark gray eyes were like thunderclouds, as intense as a summer storm. It seemed frighteningly possible that he could see right through her, that he could read every single one of her thoughts.
She had burned Dugley’s letter on the same day that it had arrived. Even though she had not seen any signs of anyone snooping in her room, she knew that nothing was truly private in a household with so many staff moving in and out of the rooms. Besides, she had not wanted any trace of that man, not even his handwriting, in her new life.
She could not bear that. She could not bear Ezra knowing—could not bear him thinking?—
“Letty,” he said quietly when her silence stretched on far too long. “You know, you can tell me anything.”
She could not, though. She really, really could not. Not without ruiningeverything.
“Letty, are you out here? I can’t find that frock of Iris’ that needs mend—Oh.Oh, excuse me, Your Grace, I didn’t know you were here.”
Sarah stumbled into the clearing, and Letitia had never been more relieved to see her friend in her entire life.
“I was just leaving, Sarah,” Ezra said politely, rising to his feet with leonine grace and dusting off invisible grime from his immaculate clothing. “Goodness knows I dare not stand in the way of mending Iris’ frocks, not with the rate that she seems to rip them. I will speak with you later, Miss Knightley.”
Ha! Not if she had anything to say about it. She was about to become the most invisible little ghost the world had ever seen.
And maybe he could read her as easily as she could read him, because he bent to pick his hat up from the picnic blanket.
“This isn’t over,” he whispered, quietly enough that Sarah wouldn’t be able to hear him.
And then he popped his hat back on his head and went back toward the house, a visible pep in his step.
“What in the world wasthatabout?” Sarah demanded.
Letty just flopped back on the blanket with a groan.
* * *
Ezra wasn’t a fool. He knew that the sweet-faced little governess had no intention of sharing her secrets. And she’d proven shockingly adept at avoiding him.
So he waited until everyone had gone to bed, until the house was quiet except for the nighttime staff.
And then he went and knocked on her door.
She must have worried it was Iris or Sarah, because Letitia opened the door almost immediately after he knocked, with an open, expectant look on her face. That look disappeared the moment she registered his presence.
“No,” she said flatly.
“Come on, Letitia,” he cajoled. “You don’t want to have this conversation out in the hallway where everyone can hear it, can you?”
For a moment, she looked as though she was about to tell him to go to hell—and while he would have found that just as amusing as all her little outbursts of temper, he truly needed to know what she was hiding from him.
He chose not to delve too deeply into wonderingwhyhe needed to know it. Whatever she was keeping from him, it hadnot affected her work. Nobody could deny that Iris had made enormous strides in the few short weeks since Letty had arrived. And he didn’t truly believe it was anything likely to bring danger to his household. So, really, it was none of his business.
Except heneededto know.
“I don’t want to have this conversationat all,” she retorted, but she stepped aside, allowing him entrance. “A true gentleman would respect that, you realize.”
