Here's the last post in this wee series about the hero and heroine of Trusting Miss Trentham.

Letitia Trentham has the unique ability to hear when people lie--and Icarus Reid knows this. It's why he's sought her out.

But being with someone who can hear every lie is uncomfortable at times--especially when you're trying to hide a secret. And Icarus has a huge secret to hide.

To keep his secret, he develops a strategy when talking to Letty Trentham...



[In this scene, Icarus has just had a colossal nightmare and Letty has gone into his bedchamber to wake him.]

“You’re not all right, are you?”

“It was just a nightmare,” Icarus said, avoiding the question. “Everyone has nightmares.”

“You had one last night, too, didn’t you?”

The shudders were dying to shivering. “You should go,” Icarus said, hauling the bedclothes up around his shoulders. His voice was hoarse. Had he been screaming again? Was that why she was here? “I apologize for waking you.”

“You do that a lot, you know. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.” Miss Trentham sat on the end of his bed.

“What?” Icarus discovered that his face was damp. Tears, or sweat? He wiped his cheeks hastily.

“You don’t answer the question I’ve asked. Is it because you don’t want to tell the truth?”

Yes. “You should go,” Icarus said again. “It’s not proper for you to be in my bedchamber.”

Miss Trentham gave him a look that told him she’d noticed the evasion. “Do you have nightmares often, Mr. Reid?”

Every night. “Everyone has nightmares once in a while. Please go, Miss Trentham. Before someone finds you here.” He couched the request as an order.

As you can see, Icarus's strategy is avoidance and evasion -- but sometimes the things people won't say are just as revealing as what they will say.

[Image courtesy of the Rijksmuseum public domain collection.]