Arthur looked at Abby with a slight tilt of his head, confusion softening his expression. Surely he didn’t have secrets—at least none that he was aware of. And if he did, he wouldn’t even know which kind of secret she could possibly mean.
Was it something to do with love? Or perhaps the quiet shame he carried about his poor financial state? Maybe even the memory of the cramped, miserable place he had been living in not so long ago.
Things had improved, at least a little. Lady Tina Bell had been kind enough to call her husband, and through that small mercy Arthur had been granted a temporary stay at the hotel. James, generous beyond what Arthur felt he deserved, hadn’t charged him anything—not yet, not until he found a job. And if Terence truly meant what he’d said about helping… then perhaps that job would come sooner rather than later.
Still, none of those felt like secrets in the way Abby’s voice suggested. They were simply facts of his life, worn openly, impossible to hide.
“I… I’m not sure what you mean,” he admitted at last, the words leaving him slowly, tinged with guilt. It was the kind of guilt that came from the uneasy feeling that she might have seen something in him he hadn’t yet managed to see in himself.
For a brief moment, he couldn’t quite meet her eyes.
@callme-abby
