Page 29 of Mail-Order Viscountess

“She’s right.” The words came out before he could stop them. “Your stepmother was wrong.”

Kate’s ribs expanded against his arm, a slight hitch in the rhythm of her breath. “You don’t know me well enough to say that.”

“I know you dragged your sister across a continent to save her from a marriage she didn’t want. I know you walked into a situation you knew was dangerous because the alternative was worse. I know you haven’t complained once about being trapped in an ice cave with a man you don’t trust, even though you have every right to complain.” He tightened his arm around her, just slightly. “That’s not common. That’s extraordinary.”

The silence that followed felt different than the ones before—charged with something he couldn’t quite name. His body became acutely aware of every place they touched. Her back against his chest. Her hair brushing his chin. The warmth building between them that had nothing to do with survival.

CHAPTER 10

“Why are you really going to California?”

Thomas fought to keep from cringing at Kate’s question as he lay beside her on the cave floor. She’d just told him so many personal details. Let down her walls enough for him to peer into her thoughts and fears. He couldn’t brush off her question now.

But there were so many ways to answer. How much was he willing to tell? About the valet who’d died during his “heroic” rescue in Fort Benton—the man whose face still haunted his dreams? The knighthood that felt like a brand marking him as a fraud? The desperate need to start over somewhere no one knew his shame?

“Because I need to prove I can be more than what they expect.” The half-truth tasted bitter. “Because staying here means being the spare brother forever. Because⁠—”

Because running was easier than facing the truth about what he had done.

He didn’t say it. Couldn’t say it. But something in the way Kate shifted against him suggested she heard it anyway.

“Running doesn’t change who you are.” Her voice had gone soft, almost gentle. “It just changes the scenery.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“Maybe.” She was quiet a moment. “I thought bringing Clara here would fix everything. New place, new start, new life. But I’m still the same person I was in Columbia. Still afraid. Still trying to control everything because I don’t know how to trust anyone else.”

The confession hung between them, vulnerable and raw. She’d built so many walls, used sharp edges to keep people at a distance. And here, in the dark, with nothing but firelight and ice and the howling wind, she’d let him see behind them.

His pulse kicked against his ribs. The honesty in her words stripped away something he’d been holding onto, some pretense that this was just about survival. Just about waiting out a storm.

“I don’t know how to trust either.” His voice scraped. “My brothers—they love me. I know that. But they also see me as someone who needs managing. Someone who can’t be trusted to make his own choices.”

He shifted, searching for words for something he’d never said aloud. “I was knighted a few months ago. In Fort Benton, for saving the queen’s cousin. Everyone thinks I’m a hero. But I’m not. What no one talks about is that another man died because I made a stupid decision, and somehow, I’m the one who got rewarded for it.”

Kate turned in his arms—not pulling away, just shifting so she could see his face in the firelight. Her hazel eyes caught the orange glow, searching his features with an intensity that made his breath catch. In this light, her skin looked like porcelain. Flawless. Breathtaking.

“What happened?”

Her words pulled him from the distraction of her face. Back to the story he never should have begun.

He should deflect. Change the subject. Use that easy charm to smooth over the raw edges of truth. But something about the way she looked at him—like she actually wanted to know, not just to judge but to understand—made the words rise anyway.

“The queen’s cousin came to the Montana territory on a hunting expedition.” He forced the words past the tightness in his throat. “Our father asked that at least one of us go to honor the royal party. Represent the family.”

Kate’s brow furrowed. “Your father asked? Why…?”

The confusion in her voice made him realize what he’d assumed—that she knew about his family’s background. But why would she? The letters his brothers had written probably hadn’t mentioned titles or nobility. Just ranch life and faith and building a future in Montana.

“I—” He swallowed, suddenly aware of how this would sound. “My father is the Duke of Clarence. In England.”

Her eyes went wide, the firelight catching in them as her whole body went still against his. “Duke. As in⁠—”

“English nobility, yes.” Heat crept up his neck despite the cold. “We were sent to Montana as boys and have lived here ever since.” He pushed on before she could ask more questions. He and his brothers had spent years keeping that information quiet, building reputations based on their own merit rather than bloodlines that meant nothing in the Montana Territory.

But Kate wasn’t letting him move on that easily. “Sent to Montana as boys.” Her voice carried that quiet tenacity he was learning to recognize—the tone that meant she’d spotted a loose thread and intended to pull it. “Dukes don’t usually send their sons to the frontier. What happened?”

He should have kept his mouth shut. Should have deflected or changed the subject. But Kate’s hand found his where it rested against her waist. Her fingers curled around his, warm and steady.