“Listen.” He swallowed hard as his mouth grew suddenly dry. “While I was in the study, I did something.”
“What? If you broke that awful vase Mama keeps on the windowsill, I forgive you.”
He ought to be quick. “Lord Havisham asked me to search the study for some documents.”
She drew in a breath and unwrapped her arms from his neck. “What?”
“Let me finish.” He forced his voice down. “Your mother has been blackmailing Lord Havisham for months. While she was his mistress, she collected compromising material to use to blackmail him. Lord Havisham asked me to retrieve those documents to save his marriage and family.”
She clamped a hand over her mouth. “No.”
“I’m sorry. At first, I didn’t believe him, but when I saw those photographs, bills, and letters, I knew he told the truth, and I… I took those documents for him.”
“No, no, no. This is a disaster.” She wrung her hands, pacing.
Her eyes showed too much white, but she didn’t have the outraged reaction he’d foreseen. She didn’t deny the fact her mother was a blackmailer.
“Did you know about this?”
She stopped pacing and sank her teeth into her bottom lip. “That’s irrelevant.”
“I beg to differ. Did you know?”
Silence.
“You did.” He couldn’t completely remove the shock in his tone.
“She’s my mother. What am I supposed to do? I tried to convince her to stop, but she didn’t listen.” She drew in a shaky breath. “What did Lord Havisham give you to search the study?”
He closed the distance between them with one stride. “He promised to help me get a seat in the House of Lords because I want to create better shelters and relief, proper jobs for women like my mother. Unless I’m in Parliament and fight for change, nothing will happen, and my title will remain nothing but a pretty award.”
“So you started this journey towards a more equal and just society with a criminal act. You said you’d left your past behind. It doesn’t seem like you have.”
All the breath was punched out of him as if she’d hit him in the stomach. “It’s not like that.”
Or maybe it was. Once a thief, always a thief. Perhaps he was the wrong man to invoke change. He couldn’t change anything if he couldn’t change himself.
Also, Angeline knew what her mother did. That was another blow.
She wrapped her arms around herself. “Were the kisses and the kindness to me part of your plan to get close to me? Did you laugh at my expense because I was such a naïve woman?”
“No.” He put all his care for her into his voice. “I swear what happened between us is real, is visceral, is pure. I didn’t lie or use you. You have to believe that.”
A moment of charged silence thickened between them like an invisible barrier.
“Leave.” She lowered her gaze.
“I really like you, Angeline. You’re perfect. I didn’t lie about the way I feel. I couldn’t.”
“Please, leave.”
He put his hat back on and opened the door. “I didn’t wish to cause you harm, and I didn’t mean to lie to you. Lord Havisham is an adulterer, but your mother is blackmailing him, and you’re her accomplice.”
Her black eyes seemed to turn shiny with unshed tears while her cheeks paled. A shiver went through her. “I’ve never blackmailed anyone. But she’s my mother. She isn’t as evil as it seems.” Her voice sounded small.
“There’s more. I learnt your mother?—”
“Please leave. I need to be alone.”
Her tear-welled eyes were the last thing he saw before leaving.
