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“Please don’t apologize,” he began as a hot flush crept up his neck. “I shouldn’t have intruded. I was waiting for Tobias when I heard the music.” He then gave a short bow that must have looked as awkward as it felt. “You are incredibly talented.”
It wasn’t so much a compliment as the bare truth.
Even still, she dipped her head in a show of unexpected modesty that made his heart clench. “Thank you.” Then she met his eyes and scooted over on the bench. “Well then. May I put you to work?” She patted the place beside her.
Henry inhaled sharply and struck the unbidden memory from his mind. He could not remember any more.Wouldnot.
Lady Arlington looked up at the sound, and their eyes locked for a moment. Henry turned away first, but it still felt like she had caught him in the act. The act of remembering. Was it the same for her? He had wondered so many times. Surely she could not recall that afternoon in the same torturous detail, but did she remember playing while he sat beside her on that narrow piano bench? Or the way her hand had trembled ever so slightly as she smoothed the sheet music and explained when to turn the page?
She was full of confidence, certainly, but that slight tell of nerves had both charmed and intimidated him. This beautiful young woman could have any man she wanted. And yet there she was, indulging in the attentions of a lowly naval officer. It was a waste of both of their times: He had come to London to marry into the wealth his family needed, and she was supposed to bag a title. By the end of the season she had gotten one, while Henry…Henry had somehow ended up with even less than he began with. But for those few short weeks in the spring of 1891, Henry had hoped that perhaps things would turn out differently. That perhaps love really could conquer all.
“You wanted to know about the man?”
Lady Arlington’s question cut through the silent carriage and drew Henry back from the past.
He nodded. “Please.”
Lady Arlington cleared her throat. The unease Henry thought he saw in her eyes disappeared so quickly he must have imagined it. “Last Friday I left my office around seven thirty. Later than usual. It was a nice evening, so I decided to walk home—”
“FromBattersea?”
“Yes,” she said, frowning at his incredulousness. “When I am in my office all day, I enjoy the exercise. It helps clear my head.”
Much good that will do when you’ve been robbed and left bleeding in an alley.
But he kept that particular thought to himself and merely gestured for her to continue.
Lady Arlington glanced out the window as Mayfair slowly passed by. “I didn’t realize anyone was following me until I was almost home. He was taller than average and heavily built, with dark hair and a squashed nose. It was easy enough to determine that his presence on my street wasn’t a coincidence.” Lady Arlington met his eyes then, still as calm as ever. “Though I suppose that was rather the point, wasn’t it? I was meant to notice him. And be frightened.”
Henry felt himself lean forward. “What did you do?”
“I stood on the pavement and faced him,” she said with a shrug, as if the answer was obvious. “Then I asked if he was lost.”
A laugh escaped his throat. “You didn’t.”
Lady Arlington’s lips curved in a sly smile that was dangerously appealing. “I played dumb. That seemed the safest choice, as most men expect it of me.” Henry begged to differ, but he kept his mouth shut as she continued. “That caught him by surprise, I think, for he took a few steps forward, then stopped and eyed my house. By then my footman had opened the door, and he left without a word.”
Henry sat back as he reviewed everything she had just told him. “And you haven’t seen him again?” She shook her head. “You would recognize him, though?”
“I believe so.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
Her genial expression vanished at his scolding tone. “And say what? That I saw a suspicious man on my street?”
“Yes.” Henry was emphatic. “That’sexactlywhat you should have said, especially considering the letters you had been receiving.”
Lady Arlington crossed her arms and shot him a mulish look. “Do you know how many times I have tried to get them to investigate the working conditions of my competitors? Or related my employees’ absolutelyvilestories about the abuses they or their friends or family have endured in any number of factories across this city? Even I have lost count, as my concerns were either dismissed outright or never followed through. They don’t care, Captain. So do forgive me if I wasn’t in a rush to be condescended to by yetanotherpoliceman.”
“But this is different,” Henry protested. “It isn’t something you’ve heard secondhand. You experienced this personally.”
She rolled her eyes. “Do you thinkIam the sort of woman men like that approve of? As far as the police are concerned, I’ve no business running my factories in the first place. I’m inviting harassment.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Oh, but I do,” she said through gritted teeth. “If I just stayed at home with my needlepoint, or if I found myself another husband and got with child, this would all go away. Problemsolved.” Her usually impassive expression melted away as color filled her cheeks and her blue eyes glittered. “They aren’t interested in helping me, Captain. They are interested in maintaining the status quo, and I threaten that. God only knows what my rivals are paying them to look the other way while they continually break the paltry laws currently in existence.”
Henry had never seen her in such a state, railing against the institutions that abused so many.
