“You should write to him,” Evelina suggested. “Someone there will know how to find him.”
“Perhaps I should, but I will not. He promised me that he would write. He promised me that he would tell me what was happening, and he has not, which means that he has lied to me. He has also made it known to me that he does not want to speak to me, and therefore, he does not want to hear from me either. Therefore, that is what I will do.”
“Your pride will be the death of you.”
“Perhaps it will.”
Her friend rolled her eyes at her, and Anna knew that she was taking it too far, but she was going to stand firm in her decision. If that was what Spencer wanted, then it would be what he got. She did not need to know where he was, nor what he was doing. She had spent most of their marriage in such a state, and she could do it a second time.
But it was painful, and her friends could see that. She did not want them to say as much, and she was grateful that they did not, for she already had enough to contend with. Her husband had lied about writing to her.
What else was he lying about?
CHAPTER 23
The moment Spencer woke up the morning after his arrival, he knew that he would not see much of Sophia.
She had taken his return as a sign that she could relax, which meant the care of the boy would fall to him. He knew that most gentlemen would have recoiled at the responsibility, but it was second nature to him. He cared for the boy deeply, and even in these circumstances, he was glad to spend time with him.
However, with the child’s illness, it was not possible to do anything else while he was there. Each time Spencer placed Gilbert down, he cried furiously for him, and it broke his heart to hear him suffering.
“You will have to do something to help,” he told Sophia as she passed the sitting room.
“I have been doing so for a month. It is your turn.”
“He is your son,” he groaned. “I know that I let you do as you please for the most part, but you are his mother. He needs you.”
“He also needs a man to guide him, but you decided that there was something more important elsewhere.”
“Yes, Sophia, it is more important that I am able to support you. If I lose the estates, I cannot do that. What do you not understand about how important all of this is?”
“What I do not understand is why you did not leave the moment I wrote to you. You arrived later than you should have, which meant that there was something keeping you there. Do not tell me that there is another one of me.”
Spencer could only blink at her in surprise. If he had more than one lady in the same predicament as her, he would have been driven to madness long before.
“Very well,” he grimaced. “I will tell you the truth, but you are not to be angry.”
“Why not?”
“For one, I kept it from you because I know how you can be. More importantly, though, your son is sleeping at last, and should you make a fuss, he will awaken.”
He handed the bundle to her and took a deep breath.
“A little over a year ago,” he explained, “I took a wife. I needed her in order to secure my lineage, and then I returned to you.”
“Do you mean to tell me that, when you disappeared for a week, you returned married?”
“Indeed.”
“And you did not tell me.”
“I did not. I knew that you would be furious.”
“And I have every right to be! Gilbert and I are supposed to be your priority, not some purebred, dainty thing of good breeding, or whatever it is you men like in a wife.”
“And you were. Why do you think I returned, leaving her for an entire year?”
He had hoped that she would be soothed by his words, but she only looked at him with more anger. He wondered just what mistake he had made, but then he realized.
