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“It was a weakness of character on my part to engage in any relationship with an asset during an operation,” he said.

“If that’s the only reason—”

“It’s not,” he said, clipping her protests efficiently before she could tangle him in them. “I don’t want you.”

“You’re lying,” she breathed, hardly believing it. “You cannot tell me that you don’t want me and expect me to believe it when your actions prove otherwise.”

He was warring with something, and she wanted desperately to grab him and pull him over to her side. The side where they could come together again, reconciled. The side where there was a future. The side where her heart didn’t wind up crushed on the carriage floor.

“I can’t keep you safe,” he said.

“I don’t need you to keep me safe, Andrew.”

“Yes, you do!” he roared. “And yet you refused to listen. Trust me when I say that you are not safe with Wark and that there will be no question of you attending the ball with him so he can salivate after you.”

She jerked back. “That’s what this is really about.”

“What is?”

“You’re jealous.”

He huffed out a half laugh. “That’s absurd.”

“No, it’s not.” She was shouting now, her voice sharp over the rattle of the carriage wheels, but she didn’t care. “Every step of the way you’ve tried to block me. Why can’t you trust me to do this?”

It happened in an instant—a look of scorn that crossed his face before a cold, emotionless facade slid back into place—but still she caught it.

“Because you don’t trust me at all,” she said.

He just stared.

“Did you ever trust me? When you went off and sailed, did you ever believe that I would be there, waiting for you when you came home?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Then why . . . ?” But she knew in her heart of hearts. The marriage. Seeing her next to her new husband. They would never move on from any of it because Andrew couldn’t. A deep, bone-aching sadness suffused her. Silly, silly woman to think that he would ever forgive her. She was a bit of fun, a way to let off some steam, a distraction. Only she’d wanted to be more.

“Stop the carriage, please, Andrew,” she said. She couldn’t be in here with him any longer. Not now that she finally understood.

“No.”

“Stop it now,” she said.

When he didn’t move, she raised her fist to rap on the ceiling, but his hand shot out to stop her. She inhaled sharply. Even in the depths of an argument, the pleasure of his touch still shocked her.

“Promise me that you won’t attend the ball with Wark,” he said.

She wrenched out of his grip. “Shouldn’t you know better than anyone that my promises don’t mean anything?”

If her words affected him, he didn’t show it. He was impenetrable, and she hated it.

“I’m trying to protect you, Lavinia. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

“I never asked for your protection.”

This time it was Andrew who laughed. “You’ll have to reconcile yourself to it then, because you have it whether you want it or not. Just like you always have.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. If you meant to protect me, you never would’ve signed on to that first ship.”