“You will be angry with me,” he said. “All those years ago, I notified your brother of your whereabouts. I saw his advertisement asking for information regarding a dear relation gone missing from York. You fit the description. I sent word to him anonymously—Alexander risked much to abet that effort—that a young lady matching the particulars had taken up employment at a facility familiar to me. Your brother replied within a week.”

Constance took in his words, knowing that in all material regards, Rothhaven was honest to his bones.

“You alerted Quinn to my whereabouts?”

“I did. While I was prohibited from sending mail, Alexander had limited correspondence privileges. He was happy to do me that favor. I did not feel I had the right to impose on him again when it came to answering your note to me some weeks later. Nothing could have come from a correspondence between us in any case. You may explode now if you like. I won’t blame you.”

Constance did not want to explode, exactly. She wanted to understand. “When you contacted Quinn, you took a risk with my welfare. You assumed my family would be kind to me, that they were not the reason I was on my own.”

Rothhaven stepped back and took her by the wrist, leading her into the orchard, then closing the gate behind them.

“I assumed your family was part of the reason you sought a position in service in a corner of the world the Almighty Himself preferred to forget. But we are not at our most rational when aggrieved at the age of fifteen, and the ad had been appearing in every paper I read for weeks. I demanded assurances from your brother that you would be well received, without recrimination or punishment. He provided those assurances by return post. You admitted to missing your family, to regretting that you’d caused them worry.”

Rothhaven walked off a little way and slanted a look at her over his shoulder. “How I envied you a family who worried about you. I concluded that if I raised the topic of your brother’s search with you, you might well disappear again, perhaps even take ship. Surely the care of a concerned family was preferable to that outcome? As I said, I can understand if you are in a temper with me over this revelation, but I did not want a lie by omission between us.”

“We are in accord in that regard. Is there anything else I need to know?” How different this discussion was from the passionate kisses they’d shared in the garden, and yet, both were intimate. Both required trust and courage.