their money and their lives. She crossed over to the corridor and into the dark hall where Alice was waiting for her, as she did every night.
Alice met her with a quick curtsy and friendly nod as she took Mary’s things. Over the months, Alice had grown in strength and confidence. Mary’s astonishment at Alice’s story had quickly died when she realized that half of the people working the club had been saved from the streets, just like the young mob-capped woman before her, by Heath.
“He’ll meet you upstairs, Lady Mary,” Alice said with her soft but East End voice.
“Thank you,” Mary replied, eager to be with her husband. With a smile at the young woman, she headed up toward the winding stairs and into Heath’s rooms.
They had become her second home, and she loved them. She stopped, letting her fingers trail over his books. It had been an amazing thing to her, to learn that he loved reading so very much.
“Hello, wife,” Heath said from behind her, and she turned.
“You’re here already,” she exclaimed happily. “I thought you would be downstairs for quite some time.”
“How could I not come when I know that you are here,” he said.
She smiled at him, and wordlessly, he went to the books she had just been touching, slipped a slim volume off the shelf, and turned to a page. He began to read. She loved it when he read to her, and he read to her every night, poems that had struck his fancy, various snippets of novels that had moved him. Tonight was no different. He was a man of such depth, of such powerful feeling, and she felt completely safe in his company, cocooned in his love and in his interest in the world.
He closed the volume slowly. “I think we’re going to have to confess, don’t you?”
She bit down on her lower lip. Then she asked, “Must we?”
“It’s going to grow harder and harder for me to see your brother and not tell him. I think the longer we wait, the more he’ll want to murder me.”
She laughed though she felt no humor. “I’m sure you’re right. I just don’t know how, now that we’ve gone so far.”
“Are you ashamed of me?” he asked suddenly.
“No,” she exclaimed. “I would never be. I just know that they will have difficulty understanding.”
He nodded. “Of course.” But she felt a sudden subtleness between them, one that had not been there before.
“Are you angry with me?” she asked.
“How can I be angry with you when this was all my idea?”
She smiled though she still felt something, some unsettling change. She went to him and lifted her hand to his face and caressed his cheek. “I am so grateful to have you in my life.”
He nodded, but there was a vacancy in his eyes, and she realized he could no longer bear to live in secret, that the secret they were holding was no longer exciting to him.
He wanted her to declare them to the world. Could she? Was she ready? She swallowed back her fear.
“If we must,” she said, “I will. Let me find a way to tell my mother and break her the news.”
“Break her the news,” he replied. “I’m sure it’s going to be very difficult for her.”
“I’m glad you understand,” she said, and he did.
She could see that in his eyes, but there was also a certain disappointment to him.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Don’t be,” he replied with a shrug meant to show he could not be hurt. “I am who I am. We were always going to have difficulty when we announced it to the world.”
But she suddenly realized that he wanted her to be proud of them, and she realized that, over the months, her continued desire to keep their love secret and just to themselves had become selfish. She wanted to shore up everything they had together and protect it from the world, but now it was looking as if she was ashamed of it.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you too, Mary.”
“I will tell her,” she said.
He gave a nod.
“Tomorrow,” she said. “I will tell her.”
He held out his hand to her, welcoming her to his embrace. She went into those arms that had become her world.
“Do you think I should write another article?” she asked.
“You may write as many articles as you please,” he encouraged. “I’m sure Royland will publish them for you.”
The Duke of Royland owned a newssheet.
It was a secret, of course, but Heath knew.
She