AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It was what she was owed.”
“I think you owe her something as well. The truth.”
“She already knows I was a spy,” Rafe grumbled.
“I’m referring to the fact that you’ve spent the last few weeks pining for this woman, and she has absolutely no idea.”
“For God’s sake,” Rafe said tartly. “I do notpine.”
Henry did not do a very good job of suppressing a smile. “Well, you had me fooled.”
Rafe was silent for a long moment. Obviously, he couldn’t go on like this, for then Tully would leave him, and he would truly be lost. But the thought of facing Sylvia again filled him with an unfamiliar kind of longing. Both dreadful and desired.
“I don’t…I don’t know how to go about it.”
“Why, you have any number of options before you,” Henry marveled, ignoring his true meaning. “You can take a carriage, the underground, or even walk yourself on over to Lady Arlington’s.” Even in his state, Rafe didn’t miss the slight waver in the captain’s voice when he spoke the viscountess’s name. “It shouldn’t take that long from here,” he continued. “And it’s rather lovely out.”
Now it was Rafe who failed to suppress the smile tugging at his lips. “I liked you better when you were a horrid grump.”
“So did I.” Henry sighed a little. “But we can’t both of us be misanthropes. It throws off our dynamic.”
Rafe turned back to the folder. Henry had found more newspaper clippings detailing Sylvia’s arrest. Each one was more awful than the last. “They really went after her, didn’t they?”
Henry hummed his agreement. “I can’t imagine the humiliation she must have suffered. None of it was anywhere close to the truth, you know.”
“Yes,” Rafe agreed. “It appears that Bernard Hughes’s family invested a great deal of time and money in ruining a young lady from Oxfordshire.”
“They most certainly did. For the young lady from Oxfordshire was spouting a lot of dangerous ideas to their son.”
“And yet he gave her up so easily. So readily.”
Henry shrugged. “Not everyone wants to fight. Most of us choose to lumber along with the status quo, keeping our heads down, never questioning anything. Not her though.”
It was an admirable quality, but Rafe’s shoulders still tensed. “I know. But I’m the man women use for a little distraction. I’m not the one they pour their hearts out to…or evengivethem to.”
“That’s just for show,” Henry said. “It was part of your cover.”
“Perhaps. At first. But at some point it got away from me. I spent so much time beinghimthat I stopped being myself. Then I met Sylvia, who saw past all this.” He waved a hand at his face. “And liked it. Or so I thought. I hoped,” he added softly.
“Don’t second-guess yourself,” Henry said. “I know you had a quarrel in Scotland, but you have incredible instincts. Always have. Listen to them. Listen to what your heart is telling you.”
Rafe closed his eyes. The doubts that had been his constant companion these last weeks still echoed in his head, telling him that she was disgusted by him, that he had disappointed her unforgivably, that he deserved to be alone. But gradually each one fell silent. Until only one voice was left.
Go.
Go to her.
Say what’s in your heart. Just this once.
Rafe let the voice grow louder until it echoed just as strongly as the others had. When he finally opened his eyes, Henry was looking at him expectantly.
“Well?”
“You’d better go. I’ve somewhere to be, and I’m in desperate need of a shave.”
Henry grinned. “That’s just what I wanted to hear.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
