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"I tell myself it will all be fine" She tried to sound braver than she felt "Of course it will be I have you"

His face drew tight

"That’s it, isn’t it?" she said, suddenly understanding his distress She smoothed the hair from his brow "That’s what has you so concerned What if so his eyes and resting his brow against her hand

"Will you tell me what happened before? With youre his mother die alone Perhaps if he talked about it, he would feel more at ease He would see how differentsied "I’m your wife, Julian You can tell reed "You should know"

He helped her to a sitting position, and they separated, folding their legs and facing one another Carefully, he undid each of his cuffs and rolled his shirtsleeves up to the forearm

"You toldaristocrat"

"It starts before that"

She recognized hithy-discussion posture Arms and hands at the ready; facial features relaxed, ready to lend nuance or e both spoken words and signs, repeating hihtest frown

"The coffeehouse," he began "You already knoas entirely staffed by the deaf That was the establishment’s draw Gentlemen met there to feel charitable and noble, ostensibly But other times, to discuss irl The place offered private ned with the others, the clientele just assumed I was deaf I was careful to never contradict their assus you weren’t meant to hear"

He nodded "Honestly, most of the tiues and business affairs didn’t interest ht a tray up to a privatetheir scheme to fix a horse race They were in collusion with the jockeys and several ga lords A certain horse was set to win over the favorite, at very long odds, and these men would rake in a fortune"

"That sounds terribly unethical, if not illegal"

"Probably both, but I didn’t care I just wanted my cut" A wry smile touched his lips "I knew arret I went and pried up the board I found two pounds, three shillings I took it all, stuffed the coins in a purse, and hurried off to place a wager on the race The odds were twelve to one Can you iine? That meant I’d win five-and-twenty pounds More than my mother earned in a year Poor as we lived, I saw this as our chance to taste luxury Foran inch a month, it seemed, and my shoes forever pinched my feet So it was shoes forpretty Perhaps soathered in the rims of his eyelids "I planned to surprise her"

"And what happened?"

"Stupidity happened Greed happened There I was, on ht to myself … why not try for two pounds, four? Before we found Anna’s coffeehouse, I used to beg pennies in the street I have this ability to reproduce voices, you know?"

She nodded

"It was how I learned to speak," he explained "Since my mother could not I would listen carefully to well-spoken et it As a boy, I would go down on the Strand with the West Indian minstrels, and imitate overblown, poh and tosshis place in the tale

"But that day soht, for a while I’d a of coins intarget for my mimicry He was a lord, with a bloody enored me, I tried to joke my way out of it He only took more offense He told his man to takecharges of ?"

He nodded "It’s unlawful But here is where my stupidity reached its pinnacle I pulled out my purse, shook the coins into my hand Said, ‘Look here, I have two pounds, three Why the devil would I be begging?’"

Lily’s heart sank to the pit of her stomach "Oh, no You didn’t"

"Oh, yes I was that foolish I’ll never forget the s jubilation on that man’s face when I proudly whipped out those coins Of course his reply was that I must have stolen it, and unless I handed the purse over to hies of thievery"

"But you didn’t steal it!"

"I know that But what judge would believe a suttersnipe over a lord? This whole world is arranged to value the word of a man like him over that of a man like me Even with the truth on rily on his te anything over a pound was a hanging offense"

"So what did you do?"