“You are joking.”
“I most certainly am not. I had to pour brandy down her throat to get her to come round again. The physician says it is a matter of months if not weeks. Half a year at most. I will be on my way again by Michaelmas, I will wager.”
I said nothing for a long moment. That was the trouble with Harry Spenlove, I reflected. He made everything seem thoroughly reasonable until you escaped the circle of his charm, and then it was like waking from a spell.
He moved half a step closer. “Veronica, please. She is the nearest thing I have to family. Do not make me leave her. Not now—forgive me. I do not like to beg, but if that is what you wish, I will.”
His voice broke a little, and unshed tears shone brightly in his eyes. He averted his head, clearly overcome by strong emotion.
“She is a deeply unlikeable old woman,” I pointed out. “How is it that you have become so attached to her?”
He grinned. “I was reared by a woman very much like her—my own Granny Spenlove. As mean as the devil and twice as cunning. But her prickliness made it all the more meaningful when she decided she liked you. And she liked me very much. I was her favorite. I had almost forgot what it is like to be cared for,” he finished, looking sharply away.
I tipped my head to meet his gaze and put a finger under his chin, lifting gently. “Harry, I am deeply impressed by what you have told me.”
He looked sincerely hopeful. “Are you, love?”
“Yes,” I said in a sober voice. “I am impressed that you can still lie with such conviction.”
He gaped and then pushed my hand aside. “What the devil do you mean?”
“You do not have a sentimental bone in your body. There is a greater chance of faeries dancing upon the moon than you telling the truth, but I must insist you attempt it. Tell me, sincerely this time, why do you wish to stay here? Does it have anything to do with the altercation in Bristol?”
He opened his mouth, then snapped his teeth shut, grinding them. “Very well. Yes. I managed to run afoul of a particularly nasty pair. I thought I had eluded them, but they caught up with me in Bristol. They decided to provide a little demonstration of their feelings about me in the way of bruises,” he said sullenly. “It was not an especially enjoyable interlude. I got free of them as soon as I could, but they knew where I lodged and I dared not stay. I knew they would immediately suspect I had gone to London to lose myself, so I headed west instead. It was only after I had boarded the train that I realized I was near to Hathaway Hall. Suddenly, the most elegant solution presented itself. I would simply take refuge here and enjoy her ladyship’s company.”
“And her trust,” I added.
“I have taken nothing from this family apart from borrowing a room that would otherwise go unused and eaten their food, the price of which I have more than earned as a confidant and companion of Lady Hathaway.” He suddenly seized my hand. “Veronica, I will swear upon whatever you like—whatever I hold sacred. I have told you the truth. I am in grave danger if I am forced to leave this place. But so long as I am here, I am safe. And Lady Hathaway is happy. Can you not simply let this particular sleeping dog lie in peace?” He had given up pleading. He simply held my hand close to his heart and waited.
“I suppose you could force me,” I said quietly.
His expression was sincerely affronted. “If you are referring to your companion, I assure you, I have no interest in raising the fellow’s ire. He is obviously besotted with you, but I should like to point out, he is considerably larger than I and you know how protective I am of my person.”
He took a step closer still. “Veronica,” he said in a low, coaxing voice, “please. Jonathan was a good fellow. His grandmother loved him dearly and she has been so very happy to have him back. Let me do this for her. And yes”—he paused, holding up a hand—“I know it will benefit me as well. I do not pretend to be nobler than I am. But to wrench that old dear’s dream from her would be cruel, and say what you like about me, I am never that.”
This much was true. Feckless, reckless, and utterly unreliable, but he had never been vicious. His failings were all the more painful for being delivered by someone who missed being a truly good man by so little. He wanted only a trifling bit of backbone, of moral courage, to be the man he ought to have been.
He went on. “No one ever need know that we have been acquainted. We can continue on with our polite fiction of having just met, and you and the enormous Mr. Templeton-Vane can finish your work and be on your way. What happens after will be just as I described it. I will allow Lady H to fawn and fondle as much as she pleases, and when her life draws to its natural close, I will be there, holding her hand, her devoted grandson to the very end.”
“And then what? Perhaps brother Charles will set you up with a tidy annuity before you leave. Is that what you hope? Payment for services rendered.”
“How cold you’ve become!” he said, his tone gently mocking. “But I suppose that crime may be laid at my feet. You must have grown up very quickly in the aftermath of the eruption.”
“Not that it seems to have concerned you.” I could have bitten my tongue as soon as the words escaped me. They were petulant and I had hoped it was beneath my dignity to care what he thought.
To my astonishment, something like remorse flickered in his eyes and he took my hand. “Veronica, you were always my greatest regret. Do not let me be yours.”
I snatched my hand back. “You assign yourself greater importance than you should. I do not regret you, Harry. I do not think of you.”
Likely sensing he had gone too far, he stepped back. “I understand. I hurt you deeply. And for that I am truly sorry.”
“You left me during a cataclysmic disaster. I might have died.”
“Of course you weren’t going to die!” He seemed genuinely shocked at the suggestion. “Veronica, you were, even then, the most resourceful person I have ever known. At twenty you could manage your affairs with as much aplomb as an army general planning a siege. It never once occurred to me that you mightn’t survive—and I was right. Look at you! More ravishing than you were then and entirely mistress of your own destiny. You have employment that suits you, a companion who clearly worships your very hem. You have health and beauty and a wit so sharp a man might cut himself and think the bleeding a privilege.”
I rolled my eyes at the transparency of the flattery, but he gave a good impression of a man speaking his mind. He put out his hand as if to seize mine again, then drew it back.
“I am at your mercy, sweet Veronica.”
“How very like you! To plead your case when you know I am as vulnerable as you,” I said bitterly. “You always did like to turn the tables. I suppose if I refuse, you will tell everyone the truth.”