“That can be easily remedied.” Diana took the one step necessary to exit the study and entered the darkened corridor, pulling him along with her. “Now we are no longer in your study.”

Everton closed his eyes and didn’t reopen them.

“Are you still scared of me?”

His eyes slowly reopened. “Terrified.”

Diana sighed. “Still?”

“You don’t know me. Not really. I’ve sworn never to marry again, and I didn’t make that promise lightly. I cannot lead you to believe I’ve overcome that part of me when I am only just beginning to understand it.”

Diana’s stomach knotted. She had thought . . . what? That she could be the woman who changed his mind? Did she really think she was that powerful? “I had thought you made that promise because you and your wife had had such a deep love you couldn’t fathom marriage to anyone else. But the two of you didn’t—”

“That is new to you, Diana, but not to me. I was married to Rachel for months before I knew anything was wrong. When I finally discovered what the problem was, I was powerless to fix it. I couldn’t make her love me. No matter how hard I tried. I broke that woman, and I cannot trust myself not to do it again.”

“She broke you.” Diana’s voice was soft but firm. “She broke you.”

“I won’t have you speaking ill of her. Her family has done enough of that to last a lifetime—one much longer than hers. She did everything everyone had ever expected of her. Her parents, Society, me. She tried. She never complained; she never even let anyone know how unhappy she was. She wanted to love me. She simply couldn’t. But she was going to try.” His voice broke. “She was coming back. And regardless of her feelings for me, I did love her. She was my wife. So you see, you weren’t exactly wrong about your earlier assumptions.”

“That’s not love, Everton. Love is meant to be shared. It cannot only be given and given until you have nothing left to give.”

Everton’s face grew turbulent and as dark as the corridor around them. “I don’t need a twenty-two-year-old woman to explain what love is.” She had lost him. He was back to being defensive. “Even if she does own a railroad company.”

She knew Everton loved his wife, but Diana was beginning to hate her. “Why would you break your heart and spirit over a woman who never loved you back? Everton, there is so much more to love than that. Why—?”

Everton slammed his fist into the wall beside him. His voice rose to a roar. “Because I was supposed to.” Plaster scattered to the floor, and Everton pulled his hand out of the hole he had created. His face grew strange and empty like she had never seen it before. He stared at his hand like it was not a part of him.

Diana reached out toward Everton, but the broken look on his face made her pause. This was not something she was going to be able to fix. Not right now. Diana let out a long sigh. She wasn’t sure what she had expected to happen tonight, but this wasn’t it. If he wasn’t ready, he wasn’t ready. She couldn’t expect him to change over the course of one conversation. It might never be, but she wouldn’t give up. She could always come back tomorrow after the vote. “You win. I’ll leave.”