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He should send her and Hazel away. Give them what money he had in his pocket and tell them to run far away from here. Go back to London. Go anywhere.

His cock strained against his hip. With a sigh, he went to his room, extracted his surging erection and fisted himself to completion for the second time that day.

Forget exotic perfumes and silk gowns on courtesans with artificially padded bosoms. The strongest aphrodisiac was a woman gazing at you with unflinching desire. No man could resist it. He certainly wasn’t strong enough to withstand Evaine’s bracingly fresh allure.

It would be different if she had to be seen with you in public, he told himself. Sticky fluid dried on his stomach. His manhood, temporarily mollified, receded to an acceptable size. Outside, the rain continued in a steady drumbeat. Soothing.

You should take her into town. See how Evaine reacts when other people have to look at the two of you together. Find out how she reacts to the rumors about you.

Wouldn’t be happening today. Restless, he rolled up and limped out of bed into the washroom across the hall. His bandage had come unwrapped, so he fixed that, washed the mess off his stomach, and pulled a woolen knitted jumper over his rather informal ensemble. Plain black trousers, cream linen shirt with a low rounded collar, unbuttoned at the throat. Laborer’s clothes. He hadn’t packed his best for a trip where he knew he’d be stomping around a dirty old shell of a mansion.

Downstairs, he found Hazel sitting at the table, looking on the verge of needing a nap, while Evaine bustled about making what appeared to be pies. The scent of cinnamon and sugar filled the air. He had no idea where she had found the spices.

“Good afternoon, Your Grace. I was just about to head upstairs to take a nap. My lungs have taken a turn for the worse today. If you will excuse me.” With effort, she pulled herself out of the chair and made her way to the passage leading to the main foyer. None of them had attempted to use the servant’s stairs. The women didn’t know about them, and he didn’t like cramped spaces much, so he hadn’t used them, either. The narrow passageways were from another era. Not built for a tall man like himself.

Old habit also kept him from intruding upon the servants’ domain. He wouldn’t spend so much time in this kitchen if it weren’t for the necessity of feeding himself at regular intervals. Now that his unexpected guests had set up camp in here, it was the most comfortable place in the entire house.

Metal squeaked. Evaine bent to place the pies inside the oven. Suddenly the kitchen felt very warm. He cast his gaze around the room to avoid staring at her shapely bottom.

“You’ve been cleaning,” he observed, noting the cobwebs missing from the corners of the windows and the distinct lack of dust on the cabinets.

“That’s Gran’s doing, mostly. She overdid it yesterday and is paying the price today.”

“Were her lungs always so weak?”

Evaine shook her head as she set about cleaning up the mess from her culinary endeavors. “After my grandfather died, she was forced to sell the house. We moved into a flat in London. That worked for a few years, by which point I had been accepted into Girton. Even with the scholarship I still had expenses. She paid them, which caused her to fall behind on paying the rent. She didn’t want to tell me that she couldn’t afford to heat her home and was on the verge of being evicted. She can be stubbornly optimistic that a solution will magically present itself.”

“Sounds like someone else I know,” he observed. Evaine scoffed, but she smiled, too.

“She caught a severe case of pneumonia the winter I was in school. I found out about it during exams. I spent the Christmas holiday nursing her back to health, but her lungs were still quite weak. I took the job with the auction house to try and earn enough money to support her, but it was never enough. I limped through the end of the year trying to hold it all together. My grades suffered. I lost the scholarship. Gran was distressed when I told her I was leaving school. I couldn’t see any other solution.”

Evaine said this all very matter-of-factly. The unnecessary force with which she cleaned the counter belied her outward calm.

“I knew we had to leave. The air in London wasn’t good for her lungs. It was around then that she began contacting anyone she could reach from her old life. Her family was quite wealthy once upon a time. Not, you know, aristocratic-level wealth, but my father did well enough.”

“What happened?”

“My parents passed away when I was young. When my grandfather died, there was no male heir to inherit the estate. He had planned to leave everything to my father, but since my parents were dead, it all went to a distant cousin instead. Gran lost everything because of inheritance laws that favor male progeny. That’s why I wanted to read law at Girton. To try and change a system that disenfranchises women.”

He’d definitely touched a nerve.

“Evaine, that’s—” he began to interject, but she didn’t want to hear it and cut him off.

“We were grateful when your aunt Phyllis offered us cheap rent on the cottage. Even though it took all of our money, we prepaid the rent and bought train tickets to Leeds.” She flung the rag into the sink and rinsed it. “Taking Gran back to London would kill her.”

“So take her somewhere else. The seaside, maybe.”

Evaine huffed. “With what money? Seaside towns tend to be very expensive with little in the way of employment. At least in London, I can find work.”

She was in a tough situation. They all were. No one under this roof could claim to have had an easy life. Maybe no one survived this world without gaining a few scars along the way.

His were more visible than most, but everyone carried them.

“I hesitate to delay our work further, but could we take a trip into town tomorrow?” She slapped her apron onto the counter. A metal buckle clicked against the stone surface.

“I suppose so. Why?”

“I need to buy more medicine for Gran. We went through it faster than I had anticipated.”