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“I’m hardly Arthur’s solicitor,” I said, even though I knew exactly where this was going. If I was correct, James had just cost me a job, the only one I’d had since I’d left university. “Working with him on the poaching case is nothing more than repayment for allowing me to stay here this summer.”

“I’m sure,” James said. “And yet I still think you’ll receive word soon enough that your services are no longer needed by Mr. Garretty. It’s a shame, isn’t it? That your interference here would lead to such an outcome.”

I suppose he expected me to break down and cry, to tell him that he had done something terrible, and yet…

at the idea of losing my job with Louis Garretty, I had felt nothing but immense relief.

I had been struggling with it all summer, since the knowledge that Garretty had been instrumental in carrying out the blackmail case against Arthur had come to my attention, and the thought of not having to return to that oppressive office with a man whose morals were so obviously against my own was freeing.

“Would it be such a shame, though?” I asked, and I could tell my answer had caught him off guard.

“After all, you and I know exactly what transpired here last summer. Perhaps I had been thinking in my own way that I could no longer work for a man who so willingly engaged in blackmail.”

“Blackmail,” James repeated, and I could see from his face that he had not expected me to know about the details of what I was working on.

Perhaps he thought that I knew only of the poaching case, that I had not spent the summer investigating every last aspect of what had happened as soon as James had meddled in the Ashford affairs. “So you know about that?”

“You told Mr. Garretty I was the Ashford family solicitor without thinking that I knew the details of the case?” I had the upper hand again, and job be damned; James’s attempt to sweep my legs out from under me had backfired, had only made me more determined than before to see justice done for the Ashford men.

“You truly have no idea what I’ve been working on this summer.

” I gripped the knob of the door to the outside, ready to take my leave. “I’ll see you at dinner, James.”

He gripped my arm, preventing me from going out to the garden. I was suddenly aware of his mouth at my ear, his voice low and threatening. “Do you think I don’t know?”

“Know what?” I asked, turning and pulling my arm out of his grip; I was not a man to be threatened. “Spell it out for me.”

“That you replaced Rudolph, you sodomite,” he said, and the vitriol with which he said the word almost made me laugh.

Instead, I just looked at him, unwilling to give him any sort of satisfaction.

“You are quite the conspiracy-minded man,” I said, searching his eyes and finding only hatred there.

“Why do you want so badly to destroy Arthur?” Even as I said it, I knew the reason: jealousy, sheer jealousy, whether it was because of Arthur’s status or his looks or even his sexuality.

“Spreading these rumors gains you nothing, James.”

“It gains me satisfaction,” James said, taking a step back. “I can continue to play this game as long as it takes, Thomas.”

“That’s fine,” I said. “I’ve come to realize that you have no idea what kind of man I am, James.

You have done all of this with the assumption that I will play by the rules you’ve been raised with.

That I will do what Arthur did and simply keep my mouth shut to avoid rocking the boat.

” It was my turn to grab him, gripping the collar of his shirt and staring him in the face.

“If I have no career when I return to London, then I only have time to spare when it comes to ensuring that you cannot cause another person harm. I will do whatever I can to reverse the harm you’ve done to those I care about. Now leave me alone.”

I dropped his collar and turned, this time getting outside without his interference.

Shaken but not deterred, all I could truly do was consider what I had just learned.

James clearly thought that Louis Garretty had put my termination papers in the mail, and I could reliably believe that; I had worked with Garretty long enough to know that he had undoubtedly seen my work with Arthur as a betrayal, regardless of whether that work had been done to undo his own sabotage.

I had enough in savings to comfortably survive for some time, but I would need to begin to make inquiries in town about another position.

Or I could take Arthur up on his offer.

The idea of doing that sent chills down my spine—prolonging our relationship?

opening myself up to heartbreak?—and I decided to set it aside until I had the time to seriously consider the implications of accepting a job as the Ashford family lawyer.

I also had no way of knowing if the offer still stood, and the idea of turning back to Arthur and admitting that I was willing to risk his comfort for a paycheck was disgusting to even myself.