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“In this case, I am more a man of business than your husband.The diamonds have value.They are yours—”
“My father gifted them to me.”
“They are yours.You may need them at some point in your future.Your daughters may need them at some point in their futures.They can be stored safely and require no financial support to maintain.Sandhurst isn’t legally entitled to them.The answer seems very clear to me.”
“You could just say no and demand I present them to you.”
“I am saying no, and I demand you present them to me.And that you allow me to deal with Sandhurst from this day forward.I don’t want him to bother you.”
“How did you get the invitation to Crestview?”
“I have a business arrangement with Easterling.”
“Will you ever share some of the details of your ventures?I would like to know more so I can intelligently converse with you from time to time.”
“And I would like to know more about Sandhurst.Did he try to hurt you today?”
“Matthew, my trouble with Cyril extends far back into my life, since the day I married his brother.To varying degrees.Today was not an anomaly.”
“Wasn’t he in the military?He had the opportunity to bother you while you were married?”
“Not exactly.Cyril has always been different.And, of course, he was faultlessly polite when Edmond was near.”
“I’m not a gentleman, Rose, but I am gentleman enough to know that it is unacceptable to hit a woman.”
“He did not hit me.”
“Shove, push, abuse, assault...?Tell me when to stop.Did your husband know of Cyril’s proclivity?”
“May we talk of something else?”She heaved a sigh, in relief telling him the long-held secret, but also because he had a way of digging too deeply into subjects that maybe shouldn’t be spoken of...She brushed her fingers over her forehead again.
He tilted his head.“For now, but the conversation isn’t over.”He reached into his jacket and pulled out some paper.“You left these in the drawing room.Burn them.It is just this sort of thing that can hang over your head and be revealed when you least expect it to.”
She accepted them, ready to toss them in the nearest fire.
“Rose, a title means nothing if your friends will abandon you because you no longer have it.”
“And what would your friends do if you lost all your money?”
“That’s different.”He leaned forward, arms to knees then reached for her left hand, where her ring sat so beautifully.“Why did you run from the house, Rose?Did I not tell you the night I gave you this ring that I knew how to correct things?I know you can be honest, and I need you to be honest now.”
“Can you not reasonably guess?My life has changed drastically.People I thought I could depend upon...even my own decisions.Nothing is as I thought, and I am womanly enough to cry about it now and again.Please, Matthew, understand my temporary weakness was just that.Temporary.As soon as my side hurt so bad I could barely stand, I remembered I am with child, and I have children here whom I love and what did I think I was doing on an unknown street at night?I turned around and came home.I didn’t know everyone thought I was missing.I knew where I was.”
He smiled, wrinkles at his eyes.He didn’t smile much and was far too serious.Rose could see the man he described—the laborer, the working man, the business adventurer.But there was something else.A stately carriage.A clear determination.An intelligence far exceeding the class in which he claimed to belong.
Matthew Hardy, dressed to the nines, was going to be indistinguishable from Easterling’s other noble guests.
