Regency Romance: A Race Against The Lord (A Historical Romance Book) (COMPLETED)

16

Nicholas looked up from the day's messages from his solicitors to see Lydia opening the door to his study. The delight he felt at her arrival was quickly drowned out when he saw the look on her face. He rose from the desk, crossing the floor toward her with concern.

"Lydia, are you all right? Has your father returned?"

He reached for her, but she jerked away from him. Her face was dead pale, making her bright green eyes seem to glow.

"Nicholas, why have you lied to me?"

It didn't occur to Nicholas for a moment that she did not know the truth. At that point, asking her what she meant would have been an insult.

"Lydia. There are many things that we must speak of. You do not understand everything."

"No! No more platitudes, no more protestations. There are no men out searching for the truth, are there?"

"No."

"And why would there be? Why send men looking for something when you know where it is? Don't you, Nicholas?"

"I do."

"Then why would you keep it from me? What truth is so terrible that you cannot tell me straight out? That you did not tell me straight away when we met on the road?"

She nearly trembled with rage, but underneath it, he could sense her pain as well. When he had met her, it felt as if that pain was always on the verge of breaking through to the surface. In recent weeks, he had guessed it had cooled. Instead, it was still there, and now it rose up to envelope them both.

"Will you sit down, Lydia?"

Still glaring at him, she took a seat, and Nicholas sat down heavily in his own chair. Had he always known that he would have to tell her? He supposed he did.

"No more stalling," she said, and the threat in her voice was clear.

Nicholas smiled sadly.

"You are right. No more stalling. I met your brother at Madame Zephyr's. He was having trouble paying her the money he owed, and some of her toughs were going to rough him up. I usually don't intervene in such things, but for some reason that night, I did. I paid off his debts."

Lydia flinched.

"He would never let his debts overwhelm him, not at a place like that, not like my father would."

"That's what he told me as well," Nicholas said ironically. "He had come to London sometime before to oversee his family accounts, but he was worried that he was in over his head. He could not tell who was a friend and who wanted to take advantage of him. Nothing made sense, and he had started to make decisions he came to regret."

"And you helped him."

"I made sure he was in good standing with Madame Zephyr. I stood him a few meals and talked to him. When I look back at it, I could see that I should have done more, but at the time, why would I? He was a stranger, another man come to London and found it too large for him."

Lydia nodded tightly, and Nicholas imagined she understood that about the great city now herself.

"I didn't see him for a little while after that," he continued. "I came, and I went, and from time to time, I did like to spend some time at Madame Zephyr's. I came in one night. I had barely gotten my foot in the door when your brother came flying across the room at me, ready to strike me down where I stood."

"Why?"

"He was in love with one of the girls there, but she had turned him down. He had gotten it in his head that she favored me instead."