not careful, those eyes of his might surmise more than she was prepared to admit.
“Oh, no. Oh, no,” she rushed, forcing a smile. “Just the general concerns of society.”
Robert cocked his dark head to the side, his locks falling boyishly. “I don’t believe you for a moment, you know. You were never terribly good at telling falsehoods.”
Oh, if he only knew, she’d become a master at it.
“Tell me,” he urged, leaning back in the straight-back Allen chair. “Unburden yourself.”
Why was everyone suggesting she unburden herself to them?
Was it so obvious she had some secret?
Apparently, it was.
She willed herself still, widened her eyes, and said, “I have no need to unburden myself.”
A lie.
Another lie.
She’d piled lies up like coal in a bin, ready to be set ablaze.
Robert sighed his resignation. “Well, if you insist on not telling me, I won’t press, but,” he narrowed his eyes, “is it some man? Some bounder? Do I need to go and bedevil someone?”
“No,” she piped quickly, her voice nearly an octave higher. “Absolutely not. You needn’t bedevil anyone.”
“But it is a man,” he said with an arched brow.
“Robert,” she said with as much dignity as she could portray. “We do not need to discuss this.”
“Are you certain?” he asked, his eyes returning to their former shadowed orbs for just a moment. “I can help you, you know. I am your brother. That’s what I’m here for.”
Her heart began to beat rapidly in her chest.
Now was the time.
Now was the time to tell him she was married to his friend, that it had been a reckless decision and that she loved Heath very, very much.
But still, she could not wrench the words from her lips.
Her inability was going to ruin everything.
But her growing terror that her family would never understand nor forgive was expanding apace.
“Mary,” Robert assured. “You know I love you.”
She gave a nod. “I know it, Robert.”
“So,” he said, his cravat pin winking in the morning sun as he turned towards her. “When you’re ready to tell me whatever is in your head, you must do it. And I shall listen to you. I promise. I shan’t run off headlong, doing some stupid thing. I’ve seen the effects of that with my friend Harley. Off he went, rushed by fury, not listening to his sister. . . And he would have beat me black and blue. I’ve learned that lesson. Thanks to him.”
She gazed at Robert.
This really was the moment when she should tell him.
“Robert, I think I’ve done something you won’t like at all.”
He paused. “Indeed?”
“What if I married someone you would not approve of?”
He set down his teacup carefully. “If you married someone I did not approve of, well,” he said slowly, bracing his forearm on the table, “I would have to take it into careful consideration. I would have to interview the fellow and decide if he could make you happy. And if he could not, well, then, I’d have to have another very serious conversation with you about my concerns. I cannot stop you, Mary, because you are a free young woman. But if I think the man is a bounder, I will make it absolutely clear I do not approve. And though I will support you and do whatever I can to help you, if he is a bad lot, he will not be welcome in our family.”
She swallowed. There it was.
“Mary,” he prompted gently. “Have you fallen in love? If it is such a scandalous fellow, perhaps it is just a passing fantasy.” He hesitated then said, “Would you like to tell me more about it?”
She shook her head.
“You know I will do my best to just listen to you,” he said softly, reaching out and taking her hand in his. “It is not an easy thing for a brother to do, but I will.”
She swallowed, slipped her hand away, then hastily drank her coffee.
She made a good show of buttering her toast, trying to divert him away from the topic, but he did not seem to wish to let it go.
“Mary,” he warned. “You know the way things went for our father, for our brother. They made very poor choices in this life, and it did not go well for them. And I cannot condone you making similar ones. I will not see you miserable.”
How could she explain that Heath was the last person to make her miserable? But to her brother, Heath was likely the worst sort of man, a man who had facilitated their