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Lady Sophia smiled cruelly. “The young man’s certainly didn’t. His name was Gavin. Your husband.”

Ina took a stumbling step back. Grace. Grace was the woman from Gavin’s past. Grace must have been the one he’d written those letters to. Grace was the one he’d wanted.

“Gavin was willing to forsake his family and his prospects for her. Isn’t that funny that your husband once loved his sister-in-law so much he was willing to throw away everything for her? I believe he loves her still, if eyes can be trusted,” said Lady Sophia.

“I don’t believe you,” Ina murmured, half in a daze. “He told me about an old love, but he has no affection for her any longer.”

“Then why didn’t he prepare you before you came here? If he truly didn’t harbor feelings for Grace, it would’ve been nothing to him.”

“His one thought was to race here and take up his responsibilities,” Ina said.

“Gavin knows he’ll never be half the man Richard was, and having you by his side will only drag him down even further. You’re a stone around his neck. Unless you cut him free, he’ll drown,” said Lady Sophia.

Ina had to get out of this room. Out of this wretched house. There had to be somewhere she could go to rid herself of this toxic air that threatened to suffocate her.

But she wasn’t going to let the woman get the parting shot.

“You may think you can bully me and my husband, but one day you will go too far. One day you’ll see just how great a man he is, and you’ll understand what it is to cross those he loves.”

“He doesn’t love you,” Lady Sophia spat.

“Maybe not, but I can assure you that all he holds for you is the contempt you deserve.”

And with that, she stormed out of the room before Lady Sophia could see the tears glistening in her eyes.

Chapter Eighteen

INA STUMBLED BLINDLY into her room, desperate to shut her door against everything. She had her pride—and rather too much of it, if her aunt was to be believed—but that couldn’t protect her from the pain.

Grace was Gavin’s past love.

How could Grace not have loved him? He was a good man, decent to his core, charming and brilliant. He wasn’t perfect—the first week of their marriage was evidence of that—but neither was Ina. Yet things were no longer quite so rocky, and Ina had fooled herself into thinking she and Gavin might mean something more to each other one day.

One day? Now. A low ache pulled at her bruised heart. She couldn’t imagine her life without him, yet she wouldn’t have blamed him if what he really wanted was to share a life with the woman he’d loved now that she was free. It was too cruel, and she refused to make him suffer just because she’d come to understand the depths of her own passion.

So she sat on the padded window seat of her room, twisting her hands in her lap and wondering if she was strong enough to do what she knew she should do.

She was still there when the setting sun began to cast long shadows across the sitting room and a knock pulled her out of her thoughts. Her head jerked toward the door. Gavin.

He was standing in the doorway, one shoulder propped against the white-painted doorframe. He’d discarded his jacket and his shirtsleeves were rolled back from his wrists and pushed up to reveal his strong forearms. A crooked smile played over his face as her attention settled on him.

“Have you been standing there long?” she asked.

“A little while, but I like looking at you,” he said.

She gave a weak smile as he shrugged off the wall and came to her. She moved her stockinged feet over to make room for him on the bench, and he settled down next to her before pulling her feet into his lap. His hand circled her ankle but he didn’t make to move up her leg. Instead it simply rested there as though he derived pleasure from the mere connection with her. As though she grounded him.

Except that was all wrong. He was the one who grounded her. For years he’d been the constant in her life. Gavin was the one man who seemed to accept her exactly as she was, only things were different now. He’d sacrificed his own happiness and agreed to stand by her at the altar in order to save her reputation. But Ina didn’t want a savior. She wanted a husband who loved her.

The realization that she was keeping him from the woman he’d once wanted so badly he’d broken with his family twisted in her chest until she could hardly breathe.

“Do you know, your brow furrows just there when you’re worried about something?” The pad of his thumb smoothed over the spot.

“No one’s ever mentioned it before,” she said. No one’s ever cared enough to notice.

He smiled and traced his fingers down the side of her face and along her jaw. “That’s because most people don’t have the privilege of seeing you unguarded. When you’re alone and no one is watching, you’re different.”

She frowned again. “I am?”