The Deceptive Lady Darby (Lost Ladies of London 2)

Rose raised her hand to silence him and surprisingly he obeyed. She knelt on the floor in front of the chair and placed her hand on Jacob’s back. “Were you trying to get rid of me? Do you want me to leave? You need only say the words.”

Lord Farleigh inhaled sharply.

“Tell me why, Jacob?” Rose continued. “I can fetch my cloak and leave here within the hour if it will ease your suffering.”

Jacob looked up, his white face all red and blotchy. “D-don’t go, Rose. Everyone leaves us.” He thrust forward and flung his arms around her neck with such force she almost toppled back.

Lord Farleigh put his hand on her shoulder to help steady her balance. As always, his touch roused a heat in her belly that spread through her like fire in a hay barn.

Rose kissed Jacob on the temple, eased his arms from around her neck and clasped them tightly. “You must talk to me, talk to us. What do you mean everyone leaves?”

“He knows I would never leave him.” Lord Farleigh’s defensive tone held a wealth of pain. “Does this have something to do with your mama?”

Jacob fell silent.

“The only way to solve the problem is to talk about it.” Rose squeezed Jacob’s hands. “Some things make me sad when I think about my father.”

“But your father wasn’t mean,” Jacob blurted.

“Oh, he was.” It had taken years before her father’s barbed words failed to penetrate. “I’ve never known anyone be so cruel.”

The large comforting hand on her shoulder rubbed gently back and forth.

“Mama didn’t want us.”

“That’s not true.” Lord Farleigh came to his wife’s defence. “An illness of the mind is a terrible thing to live with. A person struggles to understand what is real and what is not.” He sucked in a breath. “But that does not explain why you would hurt Rose.”

Jacob’s head shot up. “I wasn’t trying to hurt her. It was a test.”

Lord Farleigh’s hand slipped from her shoulder. “A test?”

“When you care about someone you forgive them. That’s what Reverend Wilmslow says.”

Rose breathed a sigh of relief. It all made sense now. “Then you know that I do care, else I would have left this house within five minutes of waking this morning.” The comment left her lips before her mind had time to process what she’d said. She truly did care. Was it possible to form emotional attachments in two days? “Everyone knows a woman’s glory is her long hair.”

Lord Farleigh’s breath breezed past her ear as he leant forward and whispered, “I’m afraid I would have to disagree with the last statement.”

While her stomach performed a somersault, she tried to focus on Jacob. “I’m not going anywhere for the time being. But know that when the time comes to leave, my decision will have no bearing on my feelings for you and Alice.”

Jacob pursed his lips and nodded. “Everyone’s happy now you’re here.”

Rose put her hand on her chest. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her, and she couldn’t help but draw the child into an embrace.

“You’re not to blame for your mother’s failings,” Lord Farleigh suddenly said. “Perhaps none of us are.”

“But I … I stole from her.” Another sob caught in the child’s throat. “She said she knew it was me and that if I didn’t give her what she wanted she’d leave and never come … never come back.”

A suffocating silence filled the air.

“She was not herself when she said those things.” Lord Farleigh knelt down at Rose’s side. “What did you take? Trinkets? Tokens to remind you of your mother?”

“No.” Jacob shook his head and pressed his lips together firmly

“Then what did you take that would see her fly into such a rage?”

Jacob shrugged.

“You’ll tell me now.” Lord Farleigh stood, the sharp edge to his voice revealed frustration, not anger.