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"I should hope not" Ashworth threw a glance in Lily and Faraday’s direction "Er … not that there’s anything wrong with that"
Julian laughed The aardness was so thick between the else for it "For God’s sake, leave off, the both of you Go play "
"That’s more like it"
"And send us word of the babe," he called after theone, Lily pulled back from Faraday’s embrace The man offered her a handkerchief from his breast pocket, and she used it to dab at her eyes "Will you both ride back withfro to talk along the way"
They agreed and atehouse On the other side of the gate, Lily’s driver and coach waited patiently On their way out of town, they stopped at the inn to ements for Julian and Faraday’s mounts
Back in the coach, Julian pushed back the drapes froht as possible He and Lily situated the seat, and Faraday sat across frole, so as best to facilitate conversation
"So if you rode out here on horseback," Julian began, "you ravely injured"
Faraday replied, "I was gravely injured indeed No deceit there But I worked hard to recover froth"
"But you led us to believe you were still an invalid"
"I was planning to return to London anyway When your friend Ashworth showed up in Cornwall, I reckoned I ht as well ride with hied "There’s been sost lish soil, you know, and he’s always been a recluse I couldn’t pass up the chance to stay in his house If I’d uncovered so, it surely would have hed "As it turns out, Morland is the furthest thing fro He’s rather a bore, and quaintly devoted to his wife Now his ward, on the other hand … she is interesting"
"Can we please go back," Lily said, "and begin at the beginning? I want to understand what happened"
"The beginning" Faraday rested his head against the tufted seatback and sighed "Yes The beginning was lovely"
"How did youthe war, I was given interesting assignments Lately, it’s all stuff and nonsense What’s this ‘Stud Club’ about, my superiors wanted to know An elite membership, open to anyone with luck? It sounded suspicious to the ained entrée to the club And I learned there was nothing behind it, except the best, most kindhearted lanced at his wife, ahts were still cycling through a sequence that went much like this: Leo, a molly? No Surely not But it , this new intimation of his friend’s private life He didn’t want to let it change his high opinion of Leo, but Julian couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever truly known the man
"Did you know?" he asked Lily "Of Leo’s …?" God, he couldn’t even finish the sentence
"That he preferred men to women, romantically? Yes, I’ve known since ere youths We never really discussed it, but he waslike that? I wish I’d been brave enough to talk to hiled with it, too," Faraday said "Living outside the rules comes easily to a man like me But it didn’t come as easily to Leo He was a very honest, loyal sort"
"I worried about him so," Lily said "Always surrounded by friends, but isolated at the saht you must know You didn’t even suspect?"
"No," Julian answered nu his own secrets to wonder about Leo’s But he understood well the strain of presenting one face to the world while living a different life entirely Under that burden, Julian had grown bitter and vengeful But Leo was a better man than he Perhaps this explained his friend’s endless quest to make everyone around him feel accepted and at ease
His hands clenched in useless fists He wanted to go drag the river for Stone and Macleod’s corpses, revive theuess," Lily said to Faraday "It started o That’s where Leo was that July With you, not his Eton class to you, but it seemed the only prudent course We went to--"
"Cornwall," Julian finished, finally piecing it together "That house You said you’d spent a pleasant holiday there once With a … with a blond" And he’d never said that blond was a woman Faraday had just let theh marks to you After Leo’s death, I returned there to convalesce And to grieve My bones healed faster than my heart, as it happened" His eyes slid to the"That particular organ is still not all of a piece"
"But the letters," Lily said "They h you’d ended it"
"Leo ended it Last spring"