Perhaps that kindness was why he had told Beaumont as much as he had about Cecelia. He’d tried to convince himself that it was because he didn’t want to have to defend himself when the boy inevitably heard the gossip. It was better to get ahead of such things. Competitive jealousy and ruthless guile were hallmarks of the art world that Flynn had constantly endured, and his naïveté about his affair with Cecelia and how he would be received in a society that was not his was as shameful as it was frustrating. He had learned his lesson about misplaced trust the hard way.

But the more he had confided to Beaumont, the less difficult the words had become to share. There was something about him that made Flynn want to bare everything. Because Beaumont had simply looked at him with those calm, caramel eyes and had…understood. In his soft-spoken manner, he had put into words what Flynn had been unable to. He had unwittingly forgiven Flynn for actions that Flynn hadn’t been able to forgive himself for. Laid out a truth and a reality that his own anger had prevented him from seeing. It had been unnerving, that revelation.

I am hopeful that we might complete this commission as friends.

It had been a long time since Flynn had had a friendship that wasn’t layered in hidden agendas or deceit. He had thought Cecelia Mountbatten, with all her professions of devotion and admiration, had been a friend. He knew better now. But had she possessed even a portion of Charlie Beaumont’s gentle grace and honor, or a fraction of his wisdom and kindness, Flynn would have been lost. He would have fallen in love so hard and so deep that he probably would never have found the surface again.

As it was, however, he realized he had found his way back. Righted his ship and recharted his course with the most unlikely of allies. Beaumont had drawn Flynn out of the cold shadows of bitterness and regret, and tonight, he had found himself unwilling to let the boy step out into the darkness alone, as if by leaving, he would take all of Flynn’s newfound peace with him. The young artist made him better in so many ways. Made him want to do better. Be better. And as he watched the boy across the tavern table, he thought to himself that it would be a lucky soul who would one day capture the incredible heart of Charlie Beaumont.