might have stolen about in the dead of night and piled up all that wood, but it’s far-fetched to assume so. It’s equally far-fetched to think she’d collude with the local boys, when she neither trusts nor likes the ones from the village.”
“Good points,” St. Just agreed—which was something. “But somebody means you or your property harm, Val, and she stands to gain if you vacate the premises.”
Val rose and put his empty glass on the sideboard. “She stands to gain more by letting me toil away for months and sink a fortune into that house. By law, she can then waltz in and enjoy all the fruits of my efforts until the day she dies, and I can neither charge her rent nor evict her. The worst I could do is move in with her.”
“This is true.” The idea that Val could spike his brother’s formidable guns was some relief, but St. Just wasn’t finished. “I don’t like it—having somebody to suspect is much easier—but you’re right. Ellen FitzEngle’s interests are not served by torching the house.”
“And we’re forgetting something else.” Val turned to face the other three. “Ellen is the one who is most clearly entitled to live in that house and collect the rents on the tenant farms. I have other places to live, other sources of income, but she likely does not. It could very well be that whoever is up to no good could care less about me; rather, it’s Ellen’s interest they seek to harm.”
Axel eyed the decanter narrowly. “Complicated, indeed.”
“And more complicated still.” Val sighed as he headed for the door. “What do I tell the lady, if anything? And when?”
He left, and silence spread behind him among the other three men.
“Emmie’s confinement waits for no husband,” St. Just said. “Val needs reinforcements, and Westhaven can’t leave his post.”
“I agree,” Axel said, “but Val won’t like it. He won’t like questions about his property or his affairs.”
“I don’t like bonfires laid in my brother’s very house,” St. Just countered. “Send off a few notes and see what reinforcements are available.”
Ellen had dodged tea, pleading fatigue, but she hadn’t been able to lie on her big, fluffy bed and drift away. She was tired, of course—she’d slept little and badly lately—but she was troubled too, and there, sitting so handsome and calm in the breezy shade of the trees, was the cause of her troubles.
No, she remonstrated herself, Valentine Windham had not caused her troubles, though he was certainly catalyzing them, and she needed to clear the air with him. He might be angry—he would certainly cease his attentions to her—but that was better than this growing deception between them. She changed direction and met his gaze, approaching his perch with as much resolve as the roiling in her stomach would allow.
Fear was an old, familiar enemy, and since Francis’s death, she’d never really been free of it. It ebbed and flowed, sometimes bad, sometimes worse, and now it had shifted, expanded to include fear for the man she was about to confront. Bad enough she had made such a conscienceless enemy, but at least she could protect this very decent man from harm before he gained an enemy, as well.
“Hello.” She greeted Val and waited for his acknowledgement. He’d been affectionate company when they were private, but almost as if he sensed she’d withheld information from him, he’d also shown her a certain indefinable reserve.
“Hello.” He took her wrist in his hand to tug her down beside him on the bench under Belmont’s spreading oaks. “You are playing truant?”
“It was too hot to nap and I have much on my mind.” Two truths. Ellen told herself it was a good start.
“You look burdened with weighty thoughts, perhaps.” A neutral enough greeting, but Ellen heard reservations in it. Best get the discussion over with.
“You are going to be disappointed in me.”
“Why is that?” He did not slip an arm around her shoulders.
“I have not been… forthcoming,” Ellen said, wishing she had the courage to take his left hand between her two as she had many times in the past.
“I have never raised my hand to a woman, Ellen,” Val said, allaying her fears not at all. Of course he wouldn’t strike her. “I can’t recall even raising my voice to a woman, not even to my sisters, and there are five of them.”
It was as much reassurance as he’d give her, and Ellen realized that somehow Val must have indeed suspected she’d been prevaricating.
He reached for her hand, and all she could do was watch as he held it between both of his. “I know you’ve been troubled by something in recent days, and I am vain enough to believe it’s not my intimate attentions about which you’re having second thoughts, at least not directly. But if there’s something you need to tell me, Ellen, just say it. We’re rather at a standstill otherwise.”
She risked a glance at him and saw no censure, but rather, a grave, resolved seriousness. He had warned her he wanted more than a romp and a fond farewell, warned her they would be friends if they were to be lovers.
“How is your hand?” she asked, apropos of nothing, but she could hardly think over the pounding of her heart.
“It hurts,” he said simply. “Constantly, but not as badly it did in the spring. Talk to me, Ellen. Please.”
She was going to miss him, miss him with a sharp, low-down ache that might never fade, and she’d never really had him.
“It’s my fault your estate is in such disgrace.” She stared straight ahead as she spoke. “It was neglected five years ago but salvageable, then we had some big storms and… I let it go.”
Val nodded as if he’d expected this. “And how were you supposed to pay for repairs when you were not the owner and you have no portion, no dower property?”
“It is my dower property,” Ellen said, the words bringing an inconvenient lump to her throat. “Francis knew I liked it because it was quiet and unpretentious and the farms were in better shape than the house. It isn’t entailed, but I hold the life estate, while Freddy had the title in fee simple. He’s younger than me, so it likely would have reverted to the Markham estate if I never remarried.”
“You chose not to put it to rights,” Val summarized. “But what have you done with the rents, Ellen?”
His voice wasn’t angry; it was gentle, almost resigned.
“The rents go in the bank,” Ellen said, reaching the limit of the half truth she was willing to disclose. “If there’s something critical on one of the farms, I’ve told myself I’ll see to it, but I don’t know enough about farming to understand what matters and what is just the tenants’ endless grousing.”
“I see,” Val said, holding her hand passively between his. “Well.”
Beside him, Ellen was still and quiet, as if waiting for him to rain down contumely and criticism upon her.
What Val felt was a vast, sad relief that she’d confessed her mismanagement of the funds. He couldn’t blame her for not putting her fate in Freddy’s hands or for being ignorant of proper land management.
“Well?” Ellen glanced over, and the way she veiled emotion from her eyes tore at him. He dropped her hand, and she bowed her head until he slid his arm around her shoulders.
“Well,” Val said, kissing her temple. “You are being honest and I have to appreciate that. The question becomes, where do we go from here?”
“How can you want to spend time with a woman who has lied to you?” she bit out miserably. “I hate myself for it, and you must hate me too.”
“Must I?” He rubbed his chin on her crown. “Because your trust has been abused by the present baron and you were slow to confide in a stranger trying to get into your bed?”
“You’re not like that.”
Val snorted softly. “All men are like that. I haven’t been exactly honest either, Ellen.” The words were out, a little surprisingly and a little relieving too.
“You haven’t?” She raised her head to peer at him. “Can you be now?”
He could; he wasn’t going to be, not entirely.
“I did see Cheatham. He told me you had kept the rents, and the deed itself cites your life estate in the property. I didn’t really study the deed until I met with him, though he wasn’t willing to tell me much more than I
