Page 50 of The Pleasures of Passion
“Thank you, Pip. That will be all.”
Curse Niall to the devil. Pip washisservant, clearly.
As the lad disappeared out the gate and Niall faced her, her nervousness twisted into pique. “I should have known. I supposeyouwrote that note.”
“No.” Niall stalked toward her. “Fulkham wrote it at my behest.”
“Of course.” Bitterness sharpened her tone. “He doesn’t want to lose my help, so he sent his lackey to argue on his behalf.”
At the wordlackey, Niall gave a faint smile, which made her turn on her heel to head back to the gate. “Don’t go, Bree,” he called after her. “I’ve come to apologize.”
She slanted a suspicious glance back at him. “Because Lord Fulkham requires it.”
“No.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“There’s a lot of that going around.”
That he could be so flippant about their earlier argumentreallysparked her temper. Without another word, she marched for the gate.
“I’ve learned what caused the rift with your father!” he cried behind her.
As her heart dropped, she paused with her hand on the latch. “Have you?” she said shakily. Oh, Lord, what had he heard? Because if he’d heard the truth . . .
He came up beside her and turned her toward him. “Although I don’t know all the details, I learned enough to piece things together. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you married Reynold Trevor to keep your father and mother out of debt, didn’t you?”
His pitying expression was almost as awful as his earlier insults about her being an adventuress. Feeling suddenly small and defenseless, she crossed her arms over her chest. “I suppose Fulkham told you all about it. Lord only knows how he found out.”
“He’s a spymaster. He hears things . . . like the fact that you only agreed to marry the man after your father lost a great deal of money to Trevor’s father. So I could only think—”
“I know exactly what you think.” Her throat tightened until it felt raw. “That I was forced into it. That I’m some . . . some pathetic female who couldn’t see her way out of a marriage she didn’t want.” She lifted her chin. “But that’s not true. I went into it knowing exactly what I was getting into. So if you intend to stand there feeling sorry for me—”
“I wouldn’t,” he said, so fiercely that someone passing by on the street cast them a curious glance. With a low curse, he drew her deep into a secluded part of the garden. “But you should have told me.”
“Idid! At least, I tried to.” Her emotions had veered so wildly all day that she could no longer resist the tears burning her eyes. Brushing away the few that leaked out, she said, “I put it all in the l-letter that you’re sure I never wr-wrote—”
Tugging her into his arms, he held her close. “Shh, shh, sweeting. Forget everything I said in a temper. I’m an arse. I admit it.”
“Yes, you are,” she said, trying not to sniffle. Shehatedcrying in front of him, especially after this afternoon.
“Tell me about Trevor,” he said in a voice infinitely kind. “Please?”
It was the “please” that did her in. “What do you . . . want to know?” she muttered into his shirt.
He rubbed her back. “Fulkham said he courted you for weeks.” A fractured breath escaped him. “So . . . you did care about him?”
“Of course I cared about him. He was my husband. I had hischild.”
His arms went slack. “So you were in love with him.”
Oh, how she wanted to say that she had been. But even if he wouldn’t be truthful with her, she couldn’t lie to him. Not anymore. “I didn’t say that.”
Niall drew back to fix her with a hard look. “So you never loved him.”
“He . . . he was my friend. And he did loveme,poor man. He actually proposed marriage twice. The first time was a month after you left. I refused him as gently as I could. I was still hoping that once Mama had . . . passed on, I could be with you.” Her voice hardened. “I hadn’t yet heard the rumors about your fighting over a woman.”
“Theywererumors, Bree, nothing more,” he said hoarsely, dragging her close again. “As I told you years ago, the truth was . . .iscomplicated.”
