She’d had time to think about it, and following her visit with Anthony, she had charged over here the first chance she’d gotten to speak to him.

“Anthony,” she blurted.

Her brother cocked his head.

Well, that hadn’t been the best way to start this.

“Beg pardon?” he asked, straightening slightly.

“I… It is just… I saw him.” Her brother narrowed his eyes.

When her brother only continued to stare, she hurried to speak, stumbling over her words as she went. “As in the Earl of Montgomery.” Did she imagine the way her brother’s face darkened? “Though he’s no longer the earl. He’s the Duke of Granville now. Well, it occurred to me when I did…that is, when I did see him, that it had been years since I had…seen him,” she finished weakly.

A long silence met that rambling.

Her brother stared hard at her. “And?”

Oh, the dunderhead. What did he think she was asking? “And…it made me curious as to why,” she said, placing a slight emphasis on that last word.

A muscle pulsed along his jawline, a telltale movement she’d only ever seen when confronting some nastiness about their mother. “We had a falling-out.” With that, he grabbed up a pastry from the untouched refreshment tray and took a large bite.

Lettie continued to study him.

It had been as Anthony had said, then. And yet, hearing her brother say as much left a weight pressing down on her chest. Because it made it true, and it was important to her that Rhys not feel this way about Anthony.

Because of their longtime friendship, of course.

That was solely the reason why.

It was also why, despite her brother’s tone that invited no questions, she pressed him anyway, gentling her tone. “You can’t possibly think to say that and I’ll be content?” she asked when he’d swallowed the remainder of his pastry.

“No, just hope. It’s not your business, Lettie.”

“Actually, I believe it is.”

He frowned.

Careful. How she handled this would determine what information was—or was not—forthcoming. “Well, it is just that I was very much friends with you and Anthony.”

“You were a girl.”

“And he was only ever kind to me. As such, I cannot possibly understand how you could so easily cut from your life someone who was warm and friendly with me.”

“Because some people conduct themselves in a way that makes it easy to sever that connection.”

Once again, his tone urged for an end to her questioning, but his cryptic response only fueled her urgent need to know.

“It could not have been so very bad,” Lettie insisted.

“I was in love with a young woman and discovered him with her, Lettie.”

She drew back, stunned by that revelation. Of all the things he could have said, might have said, that was decidedly not what she’d expected.