spat, her gaze venomous. “That’s what it says in the letter.”
“Molly, enough!” James said. “I’ll deal with Miss Dunne. This is none of your concern. Please leave us.”
“Make sure, sir, you don’t listen to the evil she’ll likely spread to defend herself,” she said, eyes narrowing. “Miss Dunne is a wretched liar. Next she’ll be saying all sorts of things about Peg and me, to make her own self look good. Don’t believe them.”
“I asked you to leave, Molly, in case you didn’t hear me.”
Molly blanched and scurried down the stairs, toward the kitchen.
Miss Dunne’s gaze was fixed on a spot halfway up the wall. Spine erect, shoulders squared, she awaited his sentence like a prisoner in the dock.
Dash it all, why did you do this to me, Miss Dunne? I wanted to remember you as perfect in every way . . . I wanted to hold on to you until the last possible second.
He walked nearer until they stood face-to-face. He attempted to gather his thoughts, but they kept slipping away from him, like he was trying to cup grains of wheat in his hands only to have them trickle through his fingers. He had to believe she was innocent of any crime, this woman he had come to respect so highly. This woman he had desired to embrace, to kiss. But it was clear now that she had kept secrets from him. Clearer still that his only option was to send her away.
A vast abyss, arid and wide as some distant desert chasm, opened in his chest.
When he spoke, his mouth was dry. “You should have told me what happened to you in Ireland, Miss Dunne. Now because Molly knows what you’ve concealed and the rest of the house will learn, too, I have no choice but to dismiss you from my employ.”
“I am sorry for not telling you. Believe me, I truly am.” Her eyes begged him to understand. “But the treatment I received in Carlow from people who had known me all my life led me to believe I had to keep quiet. They shunned me, Dr. Edmunds, went out of their way to avoid me on the streets, like I was a leper. They shunned my family as well. My mother’s work as a modiste dried up like . . . like a puddle of water on a hot day, as if it had never existed. My brother, my little sisters, treated with contempt and cruelty though they were innocent . . .” Her voice cracked. “I concluded I would have no chance at honest employment anywhere if my past were known.”
He started to reach out to grab her shoulders and shake her back to being the woman he’d believed her to be. “I entrusted you with the care of a patient.”
“It is too late now to change what I did.”
Too late. Much too late. “I wish you had told me anyway.”
Rachel’s eyes were on him. “I hope you will still give me the character reference I require. In spite of everything.”
Without a reference, she would have no future in London beyond some menial job that would force her into poverty. He couldn’t do that to her, no matter that disappointment weighed like a millstone on his heart.
“Your work for me has been exemplary. I will write to Mrs. Chapman and inform her of just that, nothing more.” James swallowed hard, though the lump he felt wasn’t in his throat. “I must ask you, though, to please pack your things and leave in the morning. The staff . . . they’ll expect me to force you to go. I’ll pay for hackney fare to whatever destination you choose.”
“I am forever in your debt, Dr. Edmunds.”
She bowed her head and left him to the emptiness of the hallway.
How long did I think I could keep this from him? Forever?
Rachel stared up at the bedchamber ceiling as if she might find an answer in the dips and hairline cracks in the plaster. Frankly, she should feel better that the truth had been forced into the open, but she didn’t. Not when there were details of that awful day in Carlow that she’d kept from him.
Restlessly, Rachel shifted on the bed, her sniffles nearly drowning out the sound of a muted sob coming through the bedchamber wall. Rachel lifted her head and heard another sob coming from the chamber next to hers. The one shared by Peg and Molly, but only occupied by Molly now that Peg was