AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sylvia nodded and stepped toward him. “I suppose he had a point. But still, it must have been awful. My brother went to Rugby. Before that we were friends. We used to go on long tramps around the countryside. He taught me to fish and build a fire. But after he went to that school…” She shook her head, sadness in her eyes. “It turned him into someone I didn’t recognize.”
Rafe kept his face carefully blank. She had revealed so little about herself, he didn’t want to scare her off with his interest. “I’m sorry for that. You are no longer close?”
Sylvia let out a snort. “No. And we disagree on nearly everything.”
“Sounds like me and my brother. What does he do?”
“Something in banking. Supposedly.” Sylvia rolled her eyes. “I’m certain he has gambling debts, but he’ll never admit it. He had to let our family home last year, after my father died. He offered to send me to Australia, but I refused. That was how I—” She hesitated and cast him a wary glance. “How I met Lady Arlington. Through an employment agency in London.”
Rafe swallowed hard and continued to keep calm despite the anger growing inside him. That fiend. Apparently this Bernard fellow wouldn’t be the only man Rafe needed to track down.
“Was your father ill for very long?”
Sylvia hugged the jacket closer. “About a year. After everything that happened with Bernard, I went home to care for him. My brother was not willing to give up his career in the city, or pay for a nurse, so there wasn’t anyone else.”
“That was still good of you.”
She shrugged. “A daughter’s duty, I suppose. We came to an agreement. In exchange for caring for Father, I could live in the house for as long as I wanted. But, afterward, he said he simply couldn’t. He needed the rent money.”
“And you were at his mercy, because he inherited everything.”
Her brief, disappointed nod caused a sharp pain to flare in his chest.
“I have a small inheritance from my mother, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough to buy the house from him.”
“No wonder your position is so important to you.”
And why any association with him short of marriage could absolutely ruin her, and Sylvia had already said she had no desire to wed. It seemed incredibly important that she remain entirely her own woman.
“It’s all I have now,” she murmured, meeting his eyes.
He moved closer and took her hands. “Good God, you’re freezing.” He began to rub them between his own. “I want you to know that nothing that has happened between us will jeopardize you in any way. I simply won’t allow it.”
There. That sounded like something a nob would say. It wasn’t as if he could reveal his methods.
Sylvia gave him an indulgent smile. “I’m sure your discretion is enough.”
She was placating him and still hiding whatever business had driven her into the woods. Either she didn’t trust him or didn’t think he could help her. But Rafe was determined to show her otherwise. Without revealing his true identity, of course.
Hypocrite.
Rafe ignored the voice in his head. He couldn’t just stand by and let her get hurt. Not when he could do something about it. And Rafe refused to be another name on the list of men who had disappointed her. But there was no doubt this complicated things. And if she was somehow connected to the threats made against Wardale…
No.
He brushed away the half-formed thought. This was something else. Something personal to her. He knew well enough all the varied secrets a person could keep. Based on what she had already told him, it was most likely related to money. Perhaps he could find a way to help her secretly, as he highly doubted she would accept any he offered. Proud little Sparrow.
He tugged her closer, still trying to warm her hands with his own. Rafe turned them over and rubbed his thumb along the ink stain that marked one finger.
“Oh, don’t look at my hands. They’re awful.” Sylvia tried to pull away, but he held fast.
“They most certainly are not.”
She shook her head. “They’re not the hands of a lady.”
“The body they are attached to suggests otherwise.”
Her brow puckered in frustration. “Ladies don’twork.”
