Page 42 of A Lady's Heart Deceived
Piers had always had a soft spot for his sister-in-law, never more than right at that minute. Elizabeth had just cleared away one of the largest obstacles that might have stood in the way of Maggie agreeing to stay on in Coventry.
“Thank you,” said Maggie.
Elizabeth followed her son out the room, leaving Piers and Maggie alone. They may have spent the day together, but this was the first time they had actually been somewhere private. Somewhere they could talk. He badly needed to know how Maggie was really feeling. For her to lower her guard and trust him. And for him to share the things he was keeping from her.
But here inside the house felt like the wrong place for this sort of conversation. “Would you care to take a walk in the garden? I would like for us to sit and talk,” he offered.
She shook her head. “I am still so uncomfortable after all that food. Perhaps we could take a stroll up the hill to the church? I found a lovely, sunny spot there yesterday.”
This was an even better suggestion, to his way of thinking. It would take them away from the house and prying ears and eyes.
It was a short walk from the house, through the nearby Bayley Lane, up to St. Michael’s. When they reached the grounds of the church, Maggie pointed to a wooden garden bench that sat in the middle of a grassy area. To one side of it was the open cemetery, with its aged and tilted headstones. Not exactly the spot for a romantic chat, but it would have to do.
She took a seat at one end of the bench, and Piers politely sat at the other.
“We are in a public place, so I don’t think you have to keep four feet between us,” she said, patting the seat next to her. “Come and sit here.”
“Are you sure?”
He was treading carefully, worried that any false step on his part might see her collapse into a heap of tears. Maggie was being all too self-confident and calm, and it set Piers’s nerves on edge.
Shifting, he came to sit beside her, ready to offer assistance at the first sign of Maggie’s bubbly façade finally cracking.
“Thank you for today. I really appreciated your support. I know I could have faced him on my own, but it was nice to have a friend with me.”
Piers noted the deliberate use of the wordhimrather than Robert. Maggie was already trying to forget the blackguard who had hurt her.
Good.
But it also brought his own behavior of the previous night into sharp focus. He, too, had not behaved honorably. Guilt sat heavily in Piers’s heart. Maggie was owed another apology and an explanation.
“I don’t think I am worthy of the term friend. Last night, I took advantage of you when you were vulnerable. That makes me no better than him. And I went along with the pie shop expedition when perhaps it would have been better that I brought you home.”
She fell silent, and Piers sensed she was composing her response. Searching for the right words. He could understand why. It would be awkward to call him to task over that kiss especially knowing that they were going to have to travel back to London together at some point.
Maggie stared at the ground. While her fingers were lightly curved over the edge of the wooden bench, there was a definite stiffness to her posture.
She let out a heavy sigh and, lifting her head, turned to meet his gaze. “If we are being honest with one another, Piers, I was as much to blame for that kiss as you. I not only wanted it, but I craved it more than a respectable woman should. And considering the fact that you are betrothed, it makes me a terrible human being as well as an utter hypocrite,” she said.
“That’s not true.”
“No? Robert used me for his own devices, and I have done the same to you.”
Tell her. Get it out in the open.
“I don’t have a fiancée, Maggie. Lady Dinah Gibney and I are no longer betrothed.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Had she heard him correctly? He wasn’t engaged. Maggie tightened the grip of her fingers so hard on the seat that her knuckles turned white. “What did you say?”
Piers slowly nodded. “I said, I am not engaged. Lady Dinah and I broke off our betrothal early in the summer. We agreed to keep things quiet until the time was right to make it public. The day that we arrived in Coventry, I was made aware that Lady Dinah has found someone else. I was planning to write to her and ask that she wait until after Christmas to make the news of our break official. It would save us both having to answer awkward questions during the festivities.”
So, he hadn’t been a cheating swine when he kissed her. But it still didn’t explain why he and his former fiancée were keeping the end of their long engagement a tightly held secret.
Her head was still spinning after this morning. Maggie wasn’t sure if she could deal with another dramatic event.
It would take some time before she would be able to reconcile the depth of Robert’s indifference to her. His softly whispered words of love hadn’t stopped him from condemning her to abject misery.
