Page 100 of The Earl She Once Saved

“The girl who wished to travel disappeared,” she said. “There was no room left for her.”

Rafe stepped closer. She felt the movement without looking.

“I do not believe that.”

“You did not know her.”

“I did.”

Verity’s eyes lifted, and she saw candlelight, blood, and a young man holding her hand because he believed he was dying.

“You knew her for a short time.”

“But I remembered her for years.”

Her breath caught upon hearing it again. Rafe looked at her as though he had not intended to say it, yet would not withdraw it now that he had.

“She is still here,” he said.

Verity could not speak. Behind them, laughter rose from the tables. She turned toward it because remaining beneath his gaze had become impossible.

Ezra sat beneath the elm with flowers still twisted around his cane. Win stood beside him, holding a plate. He said something that made her frown. She set the plate before him more firmly than necessary.

Ezra looked up at her. His whole face softened. Verity recognized the look because she had begun to fear seeing its echo elsewhere.

“Ezra loves her,” she said.

Rafe followed her gaze. “Yes.”

“You knew?”

“Since the second day.”

She looked at him. “It took you that long?”

“I considered that swift.”

“The entire household knew after the stairs.”

“He objected to her assistance most vigorously.”

“From what I have come to know about him, he objects when anyone assists him,” Verity pointed out amusedly. “Win is the only person he actually permits to do it.”

Rafe considered this. “Then I am truly the last to know.”

Verity laughed. The sound escaped before she could call it back. Rafe turned toward her. Something in his face made the laughter fade, not from shame, but from the sudden intimacy of being watched with pleasure.

She laughed with children. She laughed for Sergeant, because joy was a kindness animals understood. She laughed at Ezra. She had not laughed with someone in years, not with the helpless ease of sharing a thought before it required guarding.

She looked back at Ezra and Win.

“Which of them will speak first?”

“Ezra.” He sounded certain.

“You are loyal to him.”

“He faced artillery fire. Win cannot be worse.”