It was probably guilt that had brought him there. She understood why he might be feeling it now. But she didn’t care. She was done feeling sympathy for a man who didn’t deserve it. And assuaging his guilt would only be a benefit to him. It would be nothing but pain to her, to hear it all spelled out, how he’d used her.

Yet the words came out before she could stop them. “Make your confession, but please keep it brief.”

He nodded. He smiled softly. He had to stuff his hands in his pockets to keep from touching her.

“The lie began from the start. I brought you to my house because from the moment I first saw you, I wanted you. That had nothing at all to do with your father. He would have been easy enough to find at his office, once he returned. Fortunately, you didn’t point that out when I mentioned needing an address so I could find him.”

“I was too upset that night to think of anything,” she said in her defense.

“That was rather obvious and to my benefit, because I was so taken with you, I wasn’t thinking very clearly myself, so probably wouldn’t have been able to come up with a better excuse to move you into my house. But it worked. You moved in. And then I faced the dilemma of how to keep you under my roof as long as possible, because I couldn’t bear the thought of being denied even one extra day with you, when I’d already accepted the fact that our time together would be limited, and end, once your father returned. Keeping you without funds or the need for them was my solution to that.”

“Need for them?”

“You had mentioned your brother would need a physician, so I had mine summoned for you. His visit wasn’t an annual occurrence as you were told, he was there specifically to see to your brother.”

“One kindness on your part doesn’t excuse—”

“Rissa, that was no kindness, that was to keep you from selling any of your possessions to pay for a physician, which would leave you with coins in hand to find lodging elsewhere. To further insure that you wouldn’t be selling anything, I invented that excuse to lock up your jewels. My servants are actually all quite trustworthy.”

“Had I requested them back?”

“The key to my safe would have conveniently—for me—gone missing.”

After that confession, it occurred to her to ask, “There was never a theft at the warehouse where our things were stored, was there?”