Chapter 14 #2
For a moment, he allowed himself to stay there. He allowed himself to accept her kindness without questioning it.
“You have carried this alone for too long,” Eleanor said softly.
“I thought I had to.”
The answer was quieter than he intended, but she heard him and she listened, too.
She knew what it meant to make sacrifices and call them duty.
She knew what it meant to put everyone else first until there was barely anything left for herself.
She knew what it meant to carry pain quietly because there were people depending on her.
For a brief moment, Gabriel let himself imagine what it would feel like not to carry everything alone. The thought frightened him not because he did not want it but because he did.
Slowly, reluctantly, Gabriel withdrew his hand. The loss of her touch was immediate, and he hated that he noticed. He stood, adjusting his coat and forcing himself back into the straightened spine that had carried him for years.
“I believe we have both been awake far too long.”
The words were polite, but Eleanor undoubtedly heard the retreat hidden beneath them.
“The physician will want updates when he returns,” Gabriel continued. “And you should rest.”
“Of course.”
Gabriel wanted to explain. He wanted to tell her that he was not leaving because he regretted the moment, that the difficulty was not that she had reached for him, but that he had wanted to take her hand and never let go.
There was so much that he still had to say to her, but the words lodged in his throat and refused to surface.
Instead, he stepped away. As he walked down the corridor, Gabriel was not angry with Eleanor.
He was angry with himself. He was angry that he had allowed himself to forget the distance between them, and that a simple afternoon with a child and a kite had reminded him of the man he had been before everything changed.
Most of all, he was angry because he was beginning to wonder whether the man he had become was truly the man he wanted to remain.
He left Ravenscourt shortly after breakfast, carrying the weight of the investigator’s appointment more heavily than the simple journey into town should have warranted.
The morning was gray and unsettled, with a thin mist clinging to the roads and dampening the countryside around him.
He had always found the quiet of a morning ride calming, but lately even that seemed to offer him no peace.
His thoughts followed him wherever he went, returning again and again to Eleanor, to Sophie, and to the growing certainty that Julian’s accusations had been constructed with far more care than anyone had first realized.
The danger was no longer only the damage done to Eleanor’s reputation. It was the possibility that Julian might succeed in taking Sophie from her.
The investigator had been discreetly gathering information for several days, and Gabriel had chosen to meet him away from Ravenscourt to minimize the risk of drawing attention to the inquiries.
Julian had already shown that he had eyes and ears in unexpected places.
Gabriel would not give him another advantage.
He could not afford to.
The meeting took place in a private room away from the busiest part of town. The investigator rose as Gabriel entered, offering a respectful greeting before placing several documents upon the table.
“I have followed the points you asked me to examine, Sir,” he said. “There are several matters that deserve your attention.”
Gabriel removed his gloves and sat. “Start with the most important.”
The investigator opened his notes. “The apothecary’s man, Tibbs, has recently come into money.”
“Tibbs?”
“Yes, the same man whose statement was used to support the accusations against Lady Marbury.”
Gabriel leaned back slightly, considering the information. “How recently?”
“Recently enough to be unusual.”
The investigator explained that Tibbs had previously lived within ordinary means, with no indication that he possessed any source of additional wealth, yet sometime before his testimony became valuable to Julian’s case, his circumstances had changed and there was no clear explanation for it.
“Do we know where the money came from?”
“Not yet. At present, all we know is that it exists.”
He appreciated the investigator’s caution. Too many people were willing to turn suspicion into certainty when the truth was less convenient. The discovery was troubling, but it was not enough on its own.
Still, Gabriel could not dismiss it. The timing was too precise.
“Continue looking into Tibbs,” he said. “Quietly, of course. I want to know who has benefited from his testimony, but I do not want him frightened into destroying whatever evidence may exist.”
The investigator nodded before moving to the next matter.
“There is also Julian Marbury’s financial situation.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. “What of it?”
“His debts are considerably heavier than society realizes. They have been increasing for some time. Of course, if he were to gain control over Miss Sophie’s inheritance, those debts would be resolved.”
For a moment, Gabriel said nothing. That did not mean, however, that he was not thinking.
In truth, he was becoming well aware of how perfectly everything aligned.
It was not simply an attack on Eleanor’s reputation.
It was a plan to take everything from her because he felt he needed it, and that he had a right to it all too.
“He does not need the court to believe every accusation,” Gabriel said quietly. “He only needs them to believe him enough to question my wife’s ability as a guardian.”
Gabriel looked down at the papers.
Enough to take Sophie.
The thought sent a cold anger through him. Julian had found the one thing Eleanor could not bear to lose and built his entire strategy around it. He had turned grief, gossip, and suspicion into weapons, knowing that even an innocent woman could be destroyed if enough people repeated the same story.
But there was still one thing Gabriel could not understand. How had Julian known so much? Certain details had appeared too quickly. Private matters had somehow reached the ears of a man who should not have had access to them.
Someone had been feeding information into Julian’s hands, and until Gabriel discovered who, the danger remained closer than he liked to admit.
By the time he returned to Ravenscourt, the unease that had followed him from the beginning of the day had only deepened. He had barely removed his coat when a servant approached with an urgent expression.
A new affidavit had arrived, and the contents were worse than expected.
Another sworn statement had been added to Julian’s petition, strengthening the case against Eleanor and giving the court further reason to question her fitness as Sophie’s guardian.
Before Gabriel could fully absorb the implications, the second document was placed before him.
The court summons.
The news moved through Ravenscourt with alarming speed. The household that had only just begun to find its balance was thrown into confusion as servants whispered in the corridors and family members gathered to understand what had changed.
The battle that had been fought through rumors and society’s judgment had now entered a far more dangerous stage. Julian had brought Eleanor before the law.
And there was no avoiding the consequences.