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Chapter 28
It was refreshing how one could be reunited with an old friend and fall back into the same comfortable ease in manner and conversation as they were wont to have. It was almost as if Giulia had been given a gift to travel back to a time when her evenings were filled with her father and Ames. Only presently, the conversation was strained with unspoken feelings.
She was glad to see Ames. But despite her delight at his appearance, they had more important things to discuss than how she went on in the lush, Devon countryside.
Giulia leaned back against the settee beside her friend, spearing him with a look so full of promise, she heard an audible swallow. “It might interest you to learn that I discovered, upon arriving at Halstead, that the letter I received from my uncle had been forged.”
Ames held her gaze, his firm jaw unmoving. She refused to speak until the man beside her did, and she watched him with no uncertain consideration until he finally opened his mouth.
A guilty look passed over his face. “I had no other choice, Jules. Your father asked me to write it.”
She drew in a quick breath. “But when? Why?”
“You were in the room, though you were asleep.” Ames smiled at the memory, his head tilting in compassion. “You were so exhausted sitting beside your father day and night. No one dared wake you whenever you managed to fall asleep.”
She had felt guilty, regardless. It had been clear that her father was not going to live long, and she had been determined to spend every single moment with him that she could. “Please, Ames,” she said softly. “Just tell me.”
“He was not afraid for your wellbeing, of course. He spoke to me briefly about his plans. His will was unalterable at that point and he knew everything was coming to me. I told him I would see to it that you were cared for.”
Cared for? Ames had not promised her father that he would marry Giulia? She had little time to absorb this information before he continued.
“He believed that if you arrived at Halstead alone, the earl would take you in. He told me a little of their history with your mother and asked that I not repeat it. But suffice it to say that Lord Hart’s qualms were with Patrick, and not you.” Ames reached across the sofa, picking up Giulia’s hand and lightly squeezing her fingers. “Your father wanted you to have a chance to know his family. This was the only way he could conceive to make it happen.”
“You must have known that I would realize when I arrived that the letter was forged.”
“Not precisely,” he said, shrugging. “I had hoped the earl would try and save an embarrassing situation by claiming the letter as his own.”
“This earl?” She cocked an eyebrow. “He would have sent me away instantly if I had not struck a bargain to nurse Nick in exchange for room and board. I was never a guest in the beginning. I was little more than a servant.”
“That cannot be.” Ames sat up, irritation dancing in his eyes. They’d pulled the settee beside the fire so Ames would dry quickly. He had shed his wet coat but remained damp, still. They would need to retire upstairs soon, or he could catch a chill.
“The earl had a valid reason to hate my father and wish me gone.” Giulia nearly burst with frustration. Things may have worked out for her benefit, but some small part of her needed Ames to know she had struggled. The very human part of her wanted at least a little sorrow from the man who had sent her on an adventure alone. Especially when he had been her partner for the last fifteen years. “And you, who promised to write to me, did not do so once. Not even after I wrote to warn you of this dratted jeweled key business.”
Ames dipped his head. “I planned to write,” he said, casting her a guilty smile. “I waited to hear that you’d arrived safely, and that the earl had welcomed you. When I did not hear from you, and you did not return to London, I figured that you were well off here.”
“But you were wrong.”
“You’ve not been well?” he asked.
Had she? In truth, the struggle to gain the earl’s favor had been unceasingly tiresome. But now…now she almost felt as though Lord Hart did not wish her gone whenever she stepped into a room. She had slowly, painstakingly built a bridge between them and felt it strengthening with each passing day.
To say nothing of Nick.
“I am sorry, Jules. I thought your father’s plan was good. We only meant it for the best.” The sorrow in Ames’s eyes touched her.
“It is all well now,” she said. She felt a strange barrier between them, and his shifting gaze was telling. “What is it you are not telling me?”
He glanced up. “I am doing rather well in London,” he said. “I’ve not had much time to do more than chairs, so far, but they are selling rather well. In fact, I’ve taken on a little help with the store front. Little things, you know. Cleaning and whatnot.”
“Oh?” she asked. Why did Ames seem so shifty?
“You know her, actually. The woman I hired.” His sheepish look gave him away. Had he fallen in love with this woman?
Giulia tried to search her heart for any feelings of jealousy or hurt, but instead she felt a small bud of joy on his behalf. Relief rushed through her, though she failed to credit why.
“Who is she?”
“Josephine,” he said.
