She looked at him evenly. “How have you been searching for the truth?”

“Reynolds continues to work in Beckfoot and the surrounding towns. And I’ve been here searching my brother’s journals and personal diaries, trying to find a connection between him and Maitland that could tell me anything about this supposed treasure and where it might be.”

“But no luck,” she said, her heart sinking.

“No,” he admitted.

“Is that all of it?”

He nodded. “Yes. All I’ve done and kept from you. All I know.”

She pushed to her feet and paced away from Jasper, going to the window, where she stared out at the pretty gardens below. He had been doing so much, in truth, while she stood by, wringing her hands and waiting…just waiting…for someone to take charge. It had been that way all her life, hadn’t it? Assuming her father or one of her sisters would handle things?

Only now she didn’t want to wait anymore. Anne was in serious trouble, worse than she had imagined, and Thomasina couldn’t be angry at being kept out of the loop if she refused to do anything but dither about the problem.

For the first time in her life, she felt the strength to tackle it head on.

“I’m helping you,” she said, her voice shaking as she turned from the window. “I’m not asking you for permission, I’m telling you that I’m doing it.”

His lips parted in what she could tell was surprise. She waited for him to refuse her. But then he nodded. “Yes. Of course. I might do better with a person at my side who didn’t know my brother. You could see things I am not capable of seeing.”

She blinked at his acquiescence. At his implication that she could be a true partner in such an endeavor. She folded her arms so he wouldn’t see how much that moved her.

“Don’t lie to me again,” she demanded.

He got up, a slow unfolding of all the beautiful muscle and sinew. He moved a step toward her and no farther. “I won’t. I don’t expect you to believe me. I know from experience that words mean nothing without action. But I will prove to you that I can be trusted.”

“I hope that’s true,” she whispered, and meant it with all her heart. Right now she wanted so much to trust him again, but she had to keep herself at a distance.

He shifted. “That leaves me with a question. Will you tell Juliana and your father what you now know about Anne and her whereabouts?”

She drew back, for she had been so shocked by everything that she hadn’t considered that question. Now she thought about it carefully.

“I…should,” she said. “Or else I’ll be as much a liar as you’ve been.”

He nodded. “But it’s complicated.”

She knew that comment was directed toward her. An explanation. Worse, she understood it and him. If she told Juliana the truth, her sister would take all the responsibility on her shoulders, bearing the weight of all the pain. Juliana had been made that way, to fix.