Clara waited. "You refused."
"I gave the trustees the records. And your uncle lost his position. My mother stopped speaking to me for 2 years. Several relatives still believe I disgraced the family."
"Did you?"
Nathaniel looked at her. "I embarrassed them. They confused that with disgrace."
Clara absorbed the distinction. Suddenly, the feared Duke made sense in a way the drawing room stories never had. "So that is why they fear you. Partly because you don't protect people from the consequences of their own choices."
"Not when someone weaker must pay for them."
The words struck directly against what Edward had done. Nathaniel saw it. "Clara." His voice softened around her name. "What did your brother promise?"
She shook her head. "Not tonight."
Nathaniel's hand tightened once against the stone, then relaxed. "Very well." Again, he did not force the answer.
They stood together beneath the rain-dark glass. No flirtation, no rescue, only shared silence. Clara realized with some alarm that she felt safer beside the man everyone feared than beside the brother she had protected for years.
"You are not at all what I expected," she said.
"Neither are you. You expected an aging spinster."
"I expected the woman everyone described."
Nathaniel turned toward her. "I have yet to meet her."
Clara's breath caught quietly. "And whom have you met?"
His eyes held hers. "A woman who understands land better than her brother, insults fools efficiently, and sits beside dangerous men without asking permission."
"You are assuming you are dangerous."
"I have witnesses."
She laughed. Then softly, but genuinely, Nathaniel smiled, and the distance between them suddenly felt much smaller than it was. He lifted one hand as if to touch hers, then stopped. Clara noticed the restraint; so did he. Neither moved.
Footsteps sounded beyond the conservatory door. Edward appeared with Lord Pembroke beside him. Pembroke's gaze moved from Nathaniel to Clara and lingered on the narrow space between them.
"Miss Whitmore," he said pleasantly. "Your brother tells me there is a private matter concerning your future that we should discuss."
Clara felt Nathaniel go still beside her.
Pembroke smiled. "Tomorrow morning, perhaps once Mr. Whitmore has shown you the marriage settlement."
Pembroke's words seemed to remain beneath the glass roof after he and Edward had gone. Clara did not look at Nathaniel.
"So now you know."
"Yes." His voice was dangerously quiet. "Do you intend to sign it?"
She turned. "You cannot possibly think that."
"No, but I have learned not to decide what you think before asking."
The anger in Clara loosened by one degree. "Then no."
Nathaniel nodded once. "Good. That sounded suspiciously like approval. It was."
"I do not require it."
"I know." That answer stopped her.
Nathaniel looked toward the door through which Pembroke had disappeared. "If he believes financial pressure gives him ownership of your future, I can make his position extremely uncomfortable."
Clara almost smiled. "There is the feared Duke. He has been waiting patiently."
"Keep him waiting."
Nathaniel's eyes returned to hers. "Why?"
"Because if you frighten Pembroke away, Edward will learn nothing except that his sister happened to attract a more powerful man."
"I was not proposing to frighten him."
"What were you proposing?"
"Financial ruin was among the possibilities."
Clara stared at him. Nathaniel's mouth shifted faintly. "I said among."
She laughed despite herself, but it faded quickly. "This is mine to face."
"Then face it. You surrender surprisingly easily."
"No." His voice lowered. "I am trying to learn the difference between protecting you and insulting you."
The words warmed something she had kept cold for years. Clara looked away. "There was another man once."
Nathaniel became still. "The answer to my question, part of it."
Rain whispered overhead. Clara clasped her hands before her. "His name was Henry Vale. I was 23. Everyone considered it an excellent match."
"Did you love him?"
"I thought I might."
Nathaniel's gaze dropped briefly. "What happened?"
"I discovered he had debts, worse ones than Edward has now. He intended to marry me because my father had settled money upon me." She paused. "Then I learned he had struck a servant who threatened to tell me."
Nathaniel's face hardened. "You ended the engagement. Quietly?"
"Why quietly?" Clara gave a small, tired smile. "Because Henry's sister was engaged to my cousin. A public scandal would have destroyed her prospects, too. I said I had changed my mind. Henry told everyone I was cold and impossible to please."
"And you let them believe him."
"I thought the truth would hurt innocent people, so you paid instead."
Clara's eyes lifted. "It seemed cheaper at the time."
Nathaniel looked at her for a long moment. "Was it?"
She swallowed. "No." That single word carried eight years of whispers. Invitations extended from obligation. Mothers steering eligible sons toward younger women. Edward joking that Clara had become too particular for her own good.
Nathaniel's hand rested on the stone ledge between them. "You protected everyone except yourself."
"Someone had to."
"No." His voice was gentle now. "You chose to. There is a difference."
Clara looked at his hand, close enough to touch. "You make choices sound very simple."