“I would,” he replied. “It should have been done before now. I owe you that much.”
“Do you mean to say you have come here to correct it.”
“I have come here to offer you the means to correct it,” he said. “If you will accept it. You would be received properly again. There would be no question of your standing. I will ensure it.”
“And this is something you can promise.”
“It is.”
His confidence did not waver. Eleanor felt the weight of it, not only in what he said, but in how he seemed to believe it too. He had always spoken that way, with a certainty that made what he said difficult to question.
“And do you mean to say that you expect nothing in return?”
“I expect nothing that you are not willing to give,” he said.
Eleanor held his gaze, and yet, as she stood there, listening to him speak with that same quiet certainty that had once persuaded her so easily, she could not ignore the fact that the last time she had believed him, she had paid for it in ways he had not had to consider.
He had been convincing then. He was convincing now. And that, more than anything else, made the choice before her far less simple than he seemed to believe. Eleanor did not answer him immediately. She remained where she was, her hand resting lightly against the chair. There was no visible sign that his words had unsettled her, for she could not afford that.
“You speak as though it would be easily done,” she said at last. “As though what was taken could simply be returned because you have decided it should be.”
“I would not insult you by calling it easy,” Halford replied. “But I would say it is possible, and that is more than most would be able to promise you now.”
Eleanor held his gaze, studying him carefully, searching for the same calculation she had once failed to see clearly enough.
“And you expect me to trust that promise,” she said, “after you have already shown me what your assurances are worth.”
“I expect nothing so easily given,” he said. “I know I forfeited that when I allowed matters to end as they did. I am not asking for your trust. I am offering you an opportunity that exists regardless of how you feel about me.”
She let out a quiet laugh, though there was no humor in it. She shook her head, the movement small but decisive.
“You cannot undo it,” she said quietly. “You can only change how it is spoken of.”
“That is all that has ever mattered in London,” he replied. “You know that as well as I do.”
Eleanor did not know what to say, because that, at least, was true. Reputation had never been about truth, not entirely, but about perception, about what was repeated often enough to become accepted. What he offered was not restoration in the purest sense, but it would be enough for society to receive her again without question, enough to allow her to step back into that world as though she had never been pushed from it.
She had told herself she did not need it, had given up her life in London and accepted a quieter life in its place. That acceptance had not been easy, but it had been necessary.
Now, standing before him, she could not pretend that the offer meant nothing.
She drew a slow breath, steadying herself, aware of the direction her thoughts threatened to take.
“You presume a great deal,” she said. “You presume that I wish to return to a society that proved so willing to turn against me.”
“I presume that you recognize the difference between being excluded from it and choosing to stand outside it,” he replied. “At present your absence has been decided for you, not by you. I am offering you the ability to change that.”
“And what would you gain from it,” she asked. “You say this is not a negotiation, and yet you would not be here if it were of no consequence to you.”
Halford considered that for a moment before answering.
“I gain the knowledge that I did not leave matters as they were,” he said. “I gain the opportunity to correct something I handled poorly. That is not nothing.”
Eleanor did not respond at once, because that answer, too, had been chosen with care. It was precisely the kind of answer he had always given. She knew it in a way she had not before.
“You speak very well,” she said quietly.
“I speak plainly,” he replied.