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because she could not think of anything to say – except the truth. Yet the truth would not do. She dared not tell. Her child. Their child. Was too precious to risk. It was so unlike her to feel confused. It had been a rule of hers to never let a man close enough to hurt her – but Geoff. I love you .
    “Violet, speak to me for God’s sake.” His hand gripped her shoulder and turned her back. “I have been through hell. You vanished from London without a word. I visited every damned entertainment searching for you, for three nights, like an idiot. You were not there. Then when I finally call on you because I realised you were not looking for me, I discovered you gone. I have threatened your solicitor and throttled poor Selford. Then you lead me on this damned trail! I have stopped at every toll to find you, and stalked inns and agents in Bath.” He took a breath. “Violet, I don’t understand. Is this a game? Was I amusement? Because it was far more than that to me, and I thought, well… I thought it was bloody mutual.”
    She opened her mouth but no words came. His beautiful hazel eyes shone like gold in the autumn sunlight pouring through the window.
    “Let me take your bonnet.”
    “No.” She stepped back as his hand lifted, her head tilting sideward, then slipped the bonnet off herself. It dangled by its ribbons from her hand for a moment as she took a breath, before letting her bonnet fall into an empty chair.
    “Damn it, Violet!”
    She found her voice at last and her words erupted with the confidence she’d oozed in London. “Must you keep swearing, Geoff.” But she did not feel confident here.
    “Swearing? If you wish for swearing…” The next expletive was obscene, and certainly one a man should not use before a lady.

    A blush burned her cheeks. Why must he be so obtuse?
    “Is there someone else? Is that it? Have you moved on from me, Vi? You didn’t have to flee London and hide here under a false name, in blacks, to do that. You have been doing it for years. I am no monster for you to be scared of. Yet I don’t understand what I have done? One minute you say goodbye to me at your bedchamber door and the next moment the house is empty. Tell me! What did I do?”
    “Geoffrey…” The pain in his eyes was pricking at her soul, like he was stabbing at her conscience with hairpins, and it tore at her heart. She felt his loss too. Dare she speak? Was there a possibility for them? He had said, I love you .
    He stepped closer and his fingers lifted to her face. “Violet?” They were cool and his touch feather-light. She’d never have any physical contact with him again if she did not speak.
    If she did speak…?
    “What did I do wrong, Vi?” His pitch softened as his anger seemed to blow out. “Tell me and I swear I’ll never do it again. I love you, I can’t let you go.”
    “You did nothing wrong.” The words came out on a breathless sob as tears burned at the back of her throat, gathering in a lump.
    A look of confusion creased his brow. “Is there someone else? Do you not feel the same? Is that it?”
    She shook her head as his palm pressed against her cheek, offering comfort and expressing need.
    “Then what, Vi?”
    “Nothing,” she whispered the moment before his lips touched hers.
    There had been this connection between them for weeks, this hunger and craving. They could not be together in a room and not touch.
    His hand slid down her back and sought to draw her closer. But she held rigid aware of what was between them. Yet she opened her mouth to him and his tongue swept in. Longing flooded her. He was all she had missed from London, just him. But her fingers gripped his arms and set him away. She had to tell him…

    His eyes blazed as they looked down into hers, shining like gold again. “Violet.” It was another plea for explanation.
    She took a breath to speak but as she did his fingers lifted and tugged loose the tape tying her cloak. It slipped from her shoulders as