“Kitty would have let nothing happen to me.” She shook her head as if Madame Delcour could stop a raging gentleman. “I had to do something. You were evicting us! My mother is ill, my aunt is old, and we have nowhere to go. You did not care; you just wanted us gone because you have some grudge against Graham that has nothing to do with me or Brown Manor, which was a gift from my father and is rightfully mine.”
She was correct. He hated his cousin so much that he did not even consider what Winnie, her mother, or her aunt would do. His only thought was of the greater good.
Ashamed and needing some time alone to think, Richard began picking up his discarded clothes, throwing them on, and ignoring the crying woman on the bed. The woman he loved who was carrying his child, not Graham’s.
“Richard, wait!” she called after him, but he ignored her.
He was no better than his grandfather and his cousin. Evicting three women with no thought of them. His only thought was his own selfish reasons. No matter how honorable it was to him to find housing for freed men and women, the truth was that Brown’s Manor was not his to do with as he pleased.
He walked out of the room; the sounds of her quiet crying followed him into the hall. Richard couldn’t face her, not now, not when he felt so ashamed of himself.
Walking through the quiet house, he stepped outside, going to the stables needing to clear his mind. He wasn’t his grandfather or his cousin. He was Richard Musgrave, the Fifth Duke of Richmore, and he would be an honorable man.
CHAPTER9
Reaching Brown Manor, Winnie released an audible sigh as she passed through the gates. The sight of the three-story Jacobean-styled house brought a smile to Winnie’s tired face. The light-brown structure had sash windows with rectangular chimneys and a deep cornice. Winnie had loved Brown Manor since she was a girl.
She didn’t know where they all were going to live. Her first order of business was to inform her mother and aunt that she was indeed with child by the Duke of Richmore.
Richard had walked out on her, leaving her alone and crying. She cried herself to sleep, hoping that when she woke he would be there, but he wasn’t. He’d left her.
Deciding that she had had enough of Town, Winnie had Barrington prepare her carriage and her two servants so that she could return home. It was her home until he evicted her and their child. She hadn’t realized that he had assumed her child was Graham’s; it confused her, but obviously he did not recall the slight impediment of her virginity that first night they were together.
“Welcome home, my lady.” Her butler, Davis, helped her out of the carriage.
He was an older man that had been employed at Brown Manor since she was a girl. Her heart broke at the thought of her servants losing their jobs because she fell in love with Richard.
She loved him; of that there was no doubt. It was quick and potent, threatening to consume her very being.
Servants greeted Winnie cheerily as she made her way to the Ladies’ Parlor as they had affectionately named it.
“Winnie, you’re back! I’ve missed you so terribly,” her mother called out from her place on the chaise lounge.
The sight of her had Winnie in tears again. She rushed to her mother, needing her comfort like she was still a girl.
“Whatever is the matter?” her mother asked, stroking Winnie’s hair.
“When do we have to move?” her aunt asked, sounding exasperated with the entire scene.
Winnie would have laughed at her aunt if her heart wasn’t breaking in two.
“Move? Ana, what are you talking about?” her mother asked her aunt, her hand stopping its gentle up-and-down movement on Winnie’s back.
She heard her aunt’s huff of outrage. “Oh goodness, Tori, try to keep up. The Duke of Richmore was never allowing us to stay here, and now I suspect your daughter is with child.”
Her mother let out a hearty laugh, one that Winnie had not heard from her in a very long time. “You know sometimes I really believe you read too much,” was her mother’s reply to her aunt revealing Winnie’s activities.
“Tori, I’ve seen you with child on three separate occasions and myself one. And although only one child lived between the four. I know very well when a woman is with child, and our dear Winnie has been expecting for weeks. Isn’t that right, Winifred?”
Winifred. She hated when her aunt called her that; she used it more like a sword than a name.
Sitting up, she looked at her mother, whose blue eyes were wide and questioning, and faced the two women she loved most in the world. “Yes, she’s correct. I am carrying the Duke of Richmore’s child, and he wants nothing to do with us. We also must leave our home, and I’ve really made a muck of things.” It all spilled out of her like the Thames. “I don’t know what to do, Mama!” Winnie cried again, flinging her body on her mother’s much frailer one.
“There’s nothing we can do but move on. If he wants nothing to do with you and this precious child, we will help you. No woman in this family will ever be alone,” her aunt said, placing a firm hand on Winnie’s shoulder. “I have written the Widow’s League, I feared this would happen when you first left. Do not worry, they will assist us, all is not lost. You should’ve gone to them first, but you are your father’s daughter—”
“Ana,” her mother warned in a firm voice.
A knock interrupted the intimate scene before the door opened, causing all three women to sit up to look. Usually, Davis would wait for admittance before he entered.
