Sin and Surrender by Julia Latham

thought the same of himself until he’d returned to England and realized how much he’d missed his brothers, the only family he’d ever known. He had thought he would return directly to France when this was over, but now didn’t know.
    It was a long, damp day, and they were all glad to reach an inn that night in Ware, instead of camping in the open. A valet started a fire when he showed them to their lodgings, and if the room was smaller, including the bed, it did not matter.
    He and Juliana took off their wet cloaks, then stood side by side before the fire, letting the heat sink in to their damp clothing. She gave a little shudder, rubbing her hands together.
    “We need to get out of these garments,” he said.
    And then he realized there was no changing screen, and saw that she did, too.
    “I have to speak to Timothy,” he said.
    She eyed him. “You are being too gentlemanly for a man who is supposed to be vain and self-important.”
    “Are you talking about the real Sir Paul?”
    She smiled then, something he’d seen little of since their taunting of each other just two days before.
    “I am trapped here regardless of your behavior,” she said.
    He wanted to tease her, but he’d watched her too much today. “You never complain, do you?” he said.
    Her smile faded. “You expected me to?”
    “Nay, not you. I knew your bravery from the moment we met. You chose the League, when by now you could have been married with your own family, regardless of the death of your parents.” It was all he’d known of her past. He’d been warned that she was an orphan, that it would hurt her to speak of it. “Surely there is someone you can return to, some way to escape their hold on you. You are practically their prisoner.”
    “Their prisoner?” she echoed wryly. “Paul, you make it sound like the worst of prisons to be one of the League. But they saved me when everyone else refused to take me in.”
    “Refused—” He broke off. This was a part of her story he’d never heard before. He felt the need to go forward gently, to find a truth about her background that made her so willing to be loyal, to live a life unlike other women. “Why would anyone refuse to shelter you? Your parents had just died.”
    She turned back to the flames, her dark eyes flickering with the light. “You do not understand,” she said softly. “No one would take me in, but for the League. My father had been accused of treason.”
    Paul felt the first stirrings of uneasiness, of recognition. “Treason?”
    “He was innocent, but the king’s men arrested him anyway. He died in the Tower before even being brought to trial. Another prisoner took his life.”
    “So he was never cleared,” Paul said slowly, his mind whirling with the truth of it.
    “But I
know
he was innocent. I knew everything about him, and although we’d grown apart as I’d matured, that had nothing to do with my understanding of his loyalty. Grief over his arrest nearly destroyed my mother; I had a difficult time even making her eat or sleep, as if she couldn’t even care for herself. When she heard of his death, I thought her weakened heart gave up rather than go on.”
    Leaving her only child alone, Paul thought in bitterness.
    “I cannot blame my mother’s relatives for refusing us—we were a scandal, outcasts. And then I was alone, soon to be destitute. The League
found
me, Paul,” she said, looking up at him with shining eyes. “They saved me from a life of poverty, gave me a purpose when no one else would bother with me, when I was a burden on our servants, who wanted to risk themselves to keep me safe.”
    She didn’t know the truth, he thought, feeling dazed.
    “I am doing more with my life than I ever thoughtpossible. They
saved
me,” she repeated, “and in return, I’m helping them save others. I do not understand how you can’t see that.”
    He was now certain that he knew the story of her father—it was surely the same one he’d overheard