Page 24 of Scales and Sensibility
“Mr. Hawkins!” Elinor took a step back in surprise before she recollected herself. “What on earth are you doing here?”
“I know it’s shockingly improper.” Taking a careful step back from the doorway of her bedroom, he glanced around the deserted hallway with a wince. “I’m afraid I couldn’t help myself, though. You see, I tried to ask you an important question in the carriage, but Aubrey interrupted us, and I lost my nerve. Now I don’t know how else to ask in private. Mrs. De Lacey…”
“Yes?” Elinor felt her pulse beating swiftly against her throat. He couldn’t know the truth, she told herself. It was too impossible, too unlikely. But the way he was looking at her…it was as if he could read the secrets hiding behind her disguise.
He stepped closer to the doorway, his green gaze intent. “Mrs. De Lacey, I must ask you, in the strictest confidence: what truly happened to the young lady who left the inn last night? Elinor Tregarth?”
“What?” She let out her held breath in a whoosh of surprise and relief as she stepped forward to meet him, lowering her voice to a discreet whisper. “I beg your pardon? Mr. Hawkins, surely you heard me tell Sir John—”
“Yes,” he said. “I heard what you told him. But, ma’am…” He smiled ruefully as he looked her up and down, from the top of her head to the bottom of her cheap, unfashionable brown gown. “I understand that eccentricity can be fashionable, and I was impressed by how well you told your story…and yet, I’m afraid it didn’t quite convince me. Not when there was a much simpler explanation for your situation that made so much more sense.”
“Oh?” She braced one hand against the doorframe and raised her eyebrows. “I can hardly wait to hear it. Do tell me what wild story you’ve concocted.”
“Well…” Linking hands behind his back, he took a breath. “IfSir John is to be believed about his niece’s character, then there’s one rather obvious explanation. Miss Tregarth could have stolen your carriage, with all your clothing inside, and taken off into the night like the criminal her uncle calls her.”
“Fascinating.” Elinor fought to keep her voice level and her eyes on his. “Is that whatyouthink happened, then? You apparently met Miss Tregarth, Mr. Hawkins. Did she strike you as a wicked criminal and a fugitive from justice?”
“Did she—?” Letting out a stifled half-laugh, he turned away from her, his gaze fixed on the empty passageway and his expression frustratingly impossible to read.
“It doesn’t matter how she struck me,” he said at last. “There’s a rather more compelling fact in play. Why would you let a fugitive escape so easily? Why would you allow yourself to be robbed without a single word of complaint?”
“Perhaps I take all of my possessions lightly.” Elinor could hear a roaring at the back of her head; she had to force herself to relax her fingers around the wooden frame of the door. “Perhaps I have so many carriages and clothes to spare that I don’t mind losing a few here and there.”
“Or…” He turned back to face her. “Perhaps you’re the one who suggested it in the first place.”
“Suggested that I be robbed?” Elinor let out a laugh that creaked with strain. She shifted a few inches backwards, her arm falling to her side. “Mr. Hawkins, as entertaining as it may be to listen to these flights of fancy—”
“No, listen,” he said. “You can trust me!” He stepped forward, eating up the distance between them, and Elinor couldn’t bring herself to move away. “I met Elinor Tregarth. I understand. She needed help. Good God, she deserved far more help thanIcould give her—I only realised how much today, when I met her uncle and understood how much trouble she was in. If you did choose to help her—to give her your case of clothing and order your coachman to drive her to any safe harbour you knew—I will be infinitely grateful, ma’am. But...” He swallowed visibly. “Please, you must tell me, so that I can stop torturing myself about what’s become of her!”
Elinor blinked, twice. “You’ve been worrying about her?”
“Of course I have!” He spun away, grasping the doorframe with one big hand as if it were an anchor. “She hasn’t any money at all—not atall, did you realize? Our carriage knocked her into a ditch. She lost everything from her reticule—and I’d wager there wasn’t much in there to start with! She had no means of supporting herself in the world, no relatives to offer her any protection, not even a maid to stand with her against the dangers of the road—and if you think of all the rogues only waiting to prey upon helpless young women like her…!”
Elinor shook her head. “I don’t understand. You heard Sir John—”
“I heard exactly what he said,” Benedict Hawkins snarled. “And after talking to both Elinor Tregarth and her uncle, I know exactly which one to believe.” Turning back to her, he fixed her with a grim look. “Forgive me for speaking disrespectfully of any acquaintance of yours, Mrs. DeLacey, but can you honestly tell me thatyouwould trust Sir John’s word over that of any young lady?”
Elinor thought of one in particular. “It would depend upon the lady, I suppose.”
He dismissed that with a quick gesture. “Elinor Tregarth is painfully honest.”
“Ah.” Elinor swallowed uncomfortably and shifted another inch backwards.
“She has far more integrity than is good for her. Otherwise she would never have found herself in such a situation in the first place! If she stole that dragon, she had a reason for it.” He took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. “Mrs. De Lacey, please. I must know. Did you spirit her away in your carriage last night or did you not?”
Elinor opened her mouth. No words came out.
Elinor Tregarth is painfully honest.
She felt Sir Jessamyn watching them from the bed, his golden gaze intent.
If Mr. Hawkins truly meant everything that he had said…if he would actually believe her, or even take her side…
Wait.
“Tell me, Mr. Hawkins.” She brushed down her gown. It gave her an excuse to look away from his too-compelling eyes. “You’re very agitated for Miss Tregarth’s safety, but you don’t seem to have considered the other side to this story.”
“What other side? She’s alone, friendless—”
