He nodded.
Rothermere was arrested before dawn. The documents cleared Julian's claim. The old Duke's suspicions were finally proven correct. The family secret that had haunted Bellamy House for decades was finished.
But Julian could not stop thinking about how close he had come to losing Eliza. For days afterward, he barely left her side.
Finally, she became irritated. "You are following me."
"Yes."
"I am going to the garden."
"I know."
"I am going to the library."
"I know."
"I am going to take tea."
"I know."
She turned. "Julian."
"Yes?"
"I am not made of glass."
"I know."
"Then stop behaving as though I am."
He looked at her. "I am afraid."
She softened. "You have been afraid before."
"This is different."
"How?"
"Before you, I was afraid of losing myself." He stepped closer. "Now I am afraid of losing you."
She touched his cheek. "You cannot control everything."
"I know."
"Then do not try."
He exhaled. "I am learning."
She kissed him. "That is all I ask."
The crisis changed them again. Not because it made them more romantic, but because it made them more honest. Julian finally told Eliza about the night his father died.
He had been seventeen. His father had argued with him over breakfast. Julian had said something cruel. He left the house angry. By evening, his father was dead. For years, Julian had carried the belief that his last words to his father had been the ones that mattered.
Eliza listened. "What did you say?"
"That I hated him."
She was quiet. "Did you mean it?"
"No."
"Then your father knew that."
"You cannot know that."
"I know what it is like to say something in anger."
Julian looked at her. "You have?"
"Once."
"What happened?"
"My mother told me that people should never be judged by the sentence they regret most."