Page 79 of The Wallflower Takes All

“Yes.” Poppy folded her hands before her. “Well. Thank you for telling me yourself.”

There was still the other matter. The cup meant for Lord Ketterham seemed to accuse Gabriel from the tray.

Gabriel drew a breath. “There is more.”

Her expression changed. It was a smaller change this time, a more private one.

“What?” she asked.

“Lord Ketterham.” Gabriel straightened. “He came to my office this morning.”

She frowned. “He came to you before coming here?”

“Yes.” Gabriel nodded.

She was silent a moment. “Why?”

“He wished to ask about the rumors surrounding your mother’s household.”

Her fingers tightened in her skirts, alarm sparking in her eyes. “And what did you say?”

Gabriel forced himself to meet her gaze. “I told him I could not discuss confidential matters.”

Her eyes narrowed. “But that was not all.”

“No.”

She pressed her lips together and swallowed. “What else?”

“He asked whether the rumors were exaggerated.”

“And?” Her face was blank, prepared.

“I said they were accurate enough to matter.”

The words moved through her. Gabriel saw the change, a flicker in her eye, a small inward retreat, his answer reaching some tender place and making her draw away.

“Ah,” she said.

The one small sound was far worse than tears or anger.

“I also told him that you are the reason the household has not overtaken itself,” Gabriel said. “I told him you are loyal, capable, and undeserving of being judged by anyone else’s disorder.”

“How generous.”

“It was true.”

“Yes.” Her smile wavered. “That is the difficulty. You are so often correct.”

Gabriel said nothing.

She turned to the tea tray and moved one cake a fraction to the left. Then the spoon. Then the cup that had been meant for Ketterham.

None of them needed moving.

“Will he call?” she asked.

“He said he was reconsidering.”