“I feel like there’s more to this than you’re willing to talk about.”

“You’re very perceptive.” He let out a long sigh. “I suppose you should know. It will make things clearer, at least.”

She waited patiently.

With a frown, he began. “Evangeline’s father and mine were strong friends even before our marriage was arranged. I’m sure their friendship had something to do with that arrangement, but it was still considered a good match and we’d been promised to each other almost since birth.”

Tessa just nodded and let him speak.

“The wedding was a few months off yet when her father was thrown from his horse. He was severely injured. There was no question that he would die, it was just a matter of when. He called for me and of course I went to see him.”

“As I sat at his bedside, he confessed to me that he knew he’d spoiled Evangeline, that he’d pampered her too much and turned her into a willful, moody creature who cared only for her own pleasure. He apologized for the years ahead of me and the suffering she would bring me as a wife. He told me that if I wanted out of the arrangement, he wouldn’t hold it against me. In fact, he would see to it that no censure would come to me because of the disillusion.”

Sebastian straightened his knife. “I was young and couldn’t see past her beauty. I thought he was mad from the injury. I told him I would not break the arrangement. That I loved Evangeline.”

“Did you?”

“Then? Yes. Fool that I was.” Sebastian’s face went a shade paler. “That’s when he made me promise to look after her for the rest of my life. He feared that if left to her own devices, she would come to ruin.”

“I vowed that I would.” His eyes held a very different light now, one so distant that Tessa imagined she could see him as he must have looked before he’d been turned.

“Her father died the next day and at the reading of his will, I discovered he’d left me an inordinate sum of money.” Sebastian swallowed. “He’d paid me to keep my promise.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. I wish it were otherwise, but it is what it is. I have been paid to watch over her and I promised to do it. As I am a man of my word, I have no choice but to do exactly that. Especially since she was turned by my own hand, something I would take back if given the smallest chance. Becoming a vampire did precisely what her father feared would happen to her anyway. It ruined her. And so, I do what I can to look after her. I will until the day one of us dies.”

Tessa could respect that. So few people held to their promises these days. It was a slightly old-fashioned view of life, but one she appreciated. And he was a man from another time. How else could he respond to such a promise? “I understand.”

“Do you? Because I don’t think my brothers would.”

“They don’t know?”

“Greaves is the only person outside of you who knows. Mostly because I refuse to discuss Evangeline with my brothers or my grandmother.”

“So they’ve asked.”

“My brothers used to. Now they know it won’t get them anywhere, so they’ve stopped. It’s understood I don’t wish to hear her name in my house, and they tend to abide by that. As far as my grandmother is concerned…I think she likes to pretend Evangeline is dead.”

“I see.” She folded her napkin and set it beside her plate. “Thank you for telling me what happened then. I feel honored that you’d share your past with me.”

He laid his napkin on the table as well. “Considering what you’re about to do for me, I thought you should understand how intertwined in my life she is. And why I would want her around me again.”

“I get it. You feel responsible for her because of the promise. Even more so because you feel you turned her into the person she is today.”

He nodded and sighed. “The truth is, I find it all very exhausting. Perhaps that’s why I don’t leave my house as often as most people.”

“Could be.”

“Speaking of, are you ready to go?”

“I am.” She collected her purse. He clearly needed a change of scenery and subject.

“Shall we take a walk through town? Continue getting to know one another? Or have you had enough of me?”

“A walk sounds nice. And no, I haven’t had enough of you. We still have a lot to learn about each other.” Although she definitely felt like she knew him so much better than she’d imagined she would. And curiously, she liked him far more than she had when he’d shown up at Jenna’s.

Amazing how one conversation could change so much.

“That we do.”

They got up and he put his hand on the small of her back as they walked out. It was a sweet, intimate gesture that sent a shiver of unexpected pleasure through her.

She shifted the shopping bag of goodies to her other hand and reminded herself that this was all for show. She was not in a relationship with him, nor would she ever be. For one thing, he was a moody vampire. The vampire part wasn’t so bad, but the moodiness she could do without. For another, he had enough on his plate with Evangeline. And if he’d lasted for centuries without succumbing to the charms of another woman, he certainly wasn’t about to fall for a valkyrie with self-esteem issues, a dread of confrontation and a deadly temper.

She made herself smile and focus on the town as they walked toward Main Street. If she had supposedly been living here, she ought to know more about the place. “What should I know about the town?”