She sat by the window looking out at the garden. An hour had passed, then two while she watched the moonlight. The palace was quiet. Perhaps the others had come back, but she wouldn’t have heard because her rooms faced the back. Guests were always given the loveliest views and the quietest spots.

She could imagine all too well how Bennett would have reacted to Reeve’s explanations. But it wouldn’t be Reeve he would blame. Hannah knew the blame would be hers and had accepted it. In the morning he would probably demand to speak with her privately.

She wouldn’t apologize. Hannah lifted her chin a fraction higher. She would accept his anger and his coldness, but she wouldn’t apologize for being who and what she was.

She loved him. He would hardly believe her now if she had the right to tell him. She would have died for him tonight, not only for duty, not only for honor, but so much more for love. He would never understand or believe that now. Perhaps it was best. If her feelings for him had gotten beyond her control, it was wiser, and safer, if his for her had deadened.

She still had an assignment to complete and two years of work to finish.

Hannah laid her head on the windowsill and wished she were in London where the night would be cold and damp and smell of the river.

He didn’t knock. The time for manners, formalities and small kindnesses had passed. She was curled on the window seat with her arms folded on the sill and her head resting on them. She’d loosened her hair so that it fell over the shoulders and down the back of a plain white robe. A man could almost believe she was a woman lost in the night. Bennett no longer believed what he saw and little that he felt. When he shut the door behind him, she was up and standing quickly.

She hadn’t expected him that night. Looking at his face, Hannah saw that she should have. Because she knew the worst when she faced it, she braced.

“You spoke with Reeve?”

“Yes.”

“And your father?”

His brow lifted. Though he had discarded his formal jacket, he could be very much the prince when he chose. “We talk tomorrow, though that doesn’t concern you.”

She acknowledged this with a slight nod. “Only inasmuch as it affects my position at the moment.”

“Although you’re obviously unaware of it, I’m not a fool. Your position remains.” He took the small pistol from his pocket. After crossing to the stand beside her bed, he set it down. “Your property.”

No, she would not be forgiven. She’d thought she’d been ready to accept it. She’d been wrong. “Thank you.” As coolly as he, she walked to the stand, then placed the pistol in the drawer.

“You’re an excellent shot, Lady Hannah.”