13. Chapter 13-Lily #2
“It’s hardly worth mentioning, though I’ve recently hired an investigator who verifies the background of everyone in my employ.”
“Do you find that necessary?” he asked, sounding shocked.
“Only as of late. And he hasn’t found anything too surprising, thankfully.”
“What a time we live in.” The man tsked. “Then again, with your situation, I understand completely. I probably wouldn’t speak to anyone in the street without knowing their full provenance.”
Lily’s curiosity was piqued, but at that precise moment, she was required to turn and say something pleasantly inane about her preference regarding riding on horseback versus in a carriage. When she transferred her attention to the gentlemen behind her, they’d moved on.
Lily felt as irritated as the time she’d been forced to attend the ladies’ retiring room in the middle of a play—she wondered whether she’d missed everything good, the entire crux of the story.
“She’s six now,” Hayes was saying.
“Has it been that long already? It feels like only yesterday that entire mess occurred.”
Lord Hayes’s tone went sharp. “I certainly hope you don’t include Rebecca in your assessment.”
“Of course not,” the man hurried to say. “Forgive me. Rebecca has all of your best qualities.”
“Some of my shortcomings too,” he joked, and the men chuckled together.
Whatever rough moment they’d traversed was all but forgotten.
Lily was soon roped into a round of eager questioning by the gentleman to her left, a dashingly handsome man with dark hair. Lily didn’t quite trust him, for some reason. Perhaps it was the sheen on his waistcoat that she found off-putting.
William wore subdued greys nearly exclusively, whereas their eldest brother, Richard, had decorated himself as gaudily as a Christmas buffet.
The two brothers couldn’t have been more different if they’d tried, and Lily vastly preferred William’s stoic way of dressing—just as she preferred the deep care he extended toward his sisters.
Lily thought, not for the first time, that perhaps she should warn William of Bradford’s arrival in London.
Then again, it felt like something she should handle herself.
William wasn’t fond of speaking of her sojourn as a governess—she thought it made him feel guilty, a reminder that he hadn’t been there to take care of them during that time.
It was nearly ten minutes before Lily could resume her eavesdropping, but it occurred just in time.
“I assure you,” the man was saying in a low tone that ensured only he and Hayes could hear him.
“We had no idea what my uncle was about. If any of us had known, my father never would have allowed it. You must understand that he and I feel dreadful about what happened. We can see clearly now that they kept it from us on purpose, but at the time, we had no reason to believe that?—”
“Gregory, it is all but forgotten. It never occurred to me that the duplicity extended to your family. No apology is needed, but if one is still offered, the best apology to me and my daughter would be that no one ever speaks of it again—not in public or private. Certainly not here.”
“Indeed,” he said quickly. “Of course. My apologies.”
“The matter is completely finished, and my greatest wish is that it remain so.”
“Indeed. I give you my word it will be as you say.”
There was an awkward moment where Lily became convinced that Bradford was staring at the back of her head. She wondered if he could read her guilt in the tension of her shoulders, in the tilt of her head.
So, Bradford had a secret—one that he didn’t want revealed to anyone. A flash of duplicity entered her mind—that if she could find out what it was, he’d never dare divulge her secret.
The idea was there and gone again in an instant. Lily would take Bradford at his word and believe that he had no wish to harm her or her sisters. It became easier to believe him every hour that he didn’t reveal where she’d spent four months out of last year.
Reading between the very wide lines, Lily surmised that the secret might have something to do with his late wife. That was the only reason she could think that Bradford would bring up Rebecca as a reason for the other man to keep silent.
Neither Bradford nor Rebecca had spoken much of the woman back in Northumberland. What little information Lily had received had been offered freely by Mrs. Clark and the staff.
Lily knew that the marriage between Bradford and the late Lady Hayes had been a practical match more than a love match, that his late wife was a very intelligent lady who loved the countryside of her birth and was determined to do what was right by the people there through charity.
Which was to say that Lily knew very little at all.
When the lady’s name came up in conversation, it was quickly smoothed over and redirected, much like one does when a small child asks incessantly for treats.
Though she couldn’t quite put her finger on why, Lily had always been slightly suspicious of the narrative surrounding Lady Hayes.
Perhaps it was because it lacked any variety whatsoever.