Page 112 of The Art of Sinning

“Yes.”

It was time to forget and forgive. He saw that now. Yvette was right: going on in the way he’d been was impossible. He wasn’t even sure he was capable of it anymore. These past few weeks had changed him.Shehad changed him.

Mother sniffled, and he drew out a handkerchief for her. With a tremulous smile, she took it. “What will you do about your Yvette?”

HisYvette. He liked the sound of that. “Whatever I must to get her back. Because I can’t bear to be without her.”

Then prove it.

He brushed a kiss to his mother’s cheek, then rose to stare critically at his painting. Maybe it was time to head in a new direction. And how better to start than with this?

Twenty-Seven

Ever since Yvette and Edwin had driven away from the town house, she’d struggled to hide her feelings. But it was hard not to keep thinking about the shock on Jeremy’s face when she’d interpreted his painting the way she saw it.

How could he have been so blind to it? Had he been entirely unaware of the stake he kept twisting in his heart? He had to have known it was there.

Well, thanks to her, he couldn’t ignore it now. And she wasn’t sure that pointing it out to him had been a kindness. Sometimes one had to lie to oneself in order to endure pain.

Except that he’d been lying to himself, or hiding from himself, for years and years. Wasn’t it time to put that aside? Or had she been asking too much to expect that? It was fine for her to say he should get past the deaths of his wife and son, but it couldn’t be easy.

“You look upset,” Edwin said.

Lord. She really wasn’t hiding her own pain very well if even Edwin had noticed it.

Although she couldn’t bear the idea of exposing her torn-open heart to Edwin’s critical perusal, she supposed she had to tell him what had happened. “Mr. Keane and I aren’t getting married,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. “I decided that we wouldn’t suit after all.”

He drew in a heavy breath, his face unreadable. “I see.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

“Yes. Ultimately it’s your choice, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

Except that she could still hear Jeremy’s words in her heart.I don’t want you to go. Please don’t go.

It might be her choice, but she wasn’t sure she’d made the right one. And judging from her brother’s expression, he wondered the same thing. “You think it’s the wrong choice,” she accused him.

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” he said stiffly.

With her confrontation of Jeremy still ringing in her ears, that got her dander up. “You think I’m too particular.”

“Certainly not.”

“Well, then, you think I’m too contentious to find a husband.”

“I think you’re too afraid.”

She froze. “Of what?”

“Of making the wrong choice again. The way you did with Ruston.”

Her heart faltered. Edwin was supposed to be unaware that she’devermade a choice about the lieutenant. Unless...

Oh, Lord, Jeremy had been closeted alone with Edwin for some time yesterday morning, according to the servants. “Jeremy told you about Lieutenant Ruston.”

“No.” He drummed his fingers nervously on his knee. “I knew all along.”