Setting the glass down, he finally muttered bitterly, “She left.”
From his periphery, he saw the two share a look, “Sheas in… the Duchess?”
“Why?”
Eyes clenched, he leaned on the table and the tale came out, from the moment he had met Briget in the alley to the deal he’d made with her to find her brother and restore her fortunes. It all spilled out in calm, concise words. He did not hold a thing back and when everything was said, the silence around him was deafening.
“Now, I thinkIneed a drink,” Colin called for a glass from the barkeep.
“Shakespeare has nothing on this torrid tale,” Andrew muttered.
Taking a stool, Colin asked, “Did you try to explain it to her?”
“I did, but she would not listen to a word I said,” William slurred. “I cannot convince her otherwise.”
“But—if the man had a heart condition, anything could have made him collapse,” Andrew replied. “Isn’t that simple logic?”
“Would you listen to logic when you heard someone killed your loved one?” William scoffed.
“You’re a fighter,” Colin pressed. “Go and fight for the woman you love and don’t even try to tell me you don’t love her because it is written all over your face that you do.”
“She went off with Baron Howell, somewhere to Kent,” he murmured, “What should I do? Go there and scale the ivy like a love-skin Romeo?”
“It couldn’t hurt,” Andrew replied cynically with a shrug.
His words were met with a fist against the heavy wooden table. “I forgot to tell the reason I did not chase after her,” William exhaled somberly. “Howell stated clear as day he would publish that I was the one who killed Frederick, and you already know how London thinks of me.”
“Extortion? Christ,” Colin muttered.
“No matter how you look at it, I will be blamed,” William sighed, shifting his glass to the side, “Dukes can get away with almost anythingbutmurder.”
“Is there a way to turn this back on him?” Andrew asked, very little hope lacing his tone.
“I don’t see how,” William shrugged, “As far as I know, he never committed a crime, nor would it do any good to my standing with Bridget.”
If he’d only taken the risk and told her the truth earlier, she would have maybe understood and forgiven him. Instead, he’d been a coward and dragged it out.
Shifting in his seat, Andrew pressed, “Are you going to let the love of your life fade away like that? I thought you were more of a stubborn bastard than a spineless one.”
“I cannot love her from gaol,” William grunted, the shadows of the room playing over the back of his hand. “Maybe I have allowed the fantasy to take over my common sense.”
“Despite what you might think, you do deserve love,” Colin scratched the side of his head. “You fought a giant for her, William, and we both know it. The moment she touched you, you got the strength to finish the fight. Maybe the tables are turned now; she is the weak one and needs your strength instead. Think of that, Hartwell.”
With a clap to William’s back, both men moved off and left him to his thoughts.
What if they are right? What if it is a switch around, and I need to go to her this time?
His gut clenched.
ThisBaron, it was clear he desired for more than a ‘sisterly’ relationship with Bridget, and the thought of the man touching Bridget the way he’d loved her made him want to rip the man limb to limb.
His words played over in William’s mind.It would do you well to annul the marriage…
He had to get to Bridget before the man sewed permanent poison into her heart against him. He had to find her.
CHAPTER 31
Three days sequestered in Adam’s house; Bridget was starting to feel cloistered. Adam was constantly showering her with gifts that made her uneasy and she had the sneaking suspicion that he might be taking her separation from William as a sign to court her.
