“My Lady,” the Marquess turned his attention to her. “Come in, close the door. We do not need any more of the staff to hear of this.”
Growing only more and more discomforted by his words, she hurried in, closed the door and leaned against it.
“Something has happened?” she said, hearing how strained her own voice was.
“You could say that,” the Marquess said with a sigh as he dropped his hat down on the nearest settee and sat beside it heavily, resting his chin in his hand. “Your husband turned up at our house, in what you could describe as the very early hours of the morning.”
“What does that mean?” Phoebe asked, nervously chewing her lip.
“It was barely light yet,” the Marquess explained, before turning his eyes back to Hayward. “It was as we thought. He suspected Diana and I of being the ones to take Lady Ridlington away. He insisted on seeing you,” he said, nodding his head back to Phoebe. “When we explained that you were not there, that we knew nothing about it at all…he played a card I did not expect him to make.”
“What was it?” Hayward asked. His deep voice had become even deeper than before, drawing Phoebe’s eyes to him.
“He brought constables with him,” the Marquess’ words appeared to make Hayward reel on his feet. “It seems he has claimed to the constables that his wife must have been abducted.”
“What?” Phoebe asked, veering away from the door and stumbling into the room.
“It seems your husband is so much of a fool that he cannot even believe you would willingly leave him yourself,” the Marquess said with a shake of his head.
Phoebe couldn’t understand it. Graham was a demon, she had often thought that, a demon born to a human body, but to be so willfully blind too? It did not make sense.
“No, that is not in his character,” Phoebe said, finding her voice. She could see her sudden words had surprised both the Marquess and Hayward.
“What do you mean?” Hayward said, turning his bright blue eyes on her. She stilled for a minute, thinking of those blue eyes and the fun she had been having with him just minutes ago in the estate. She wanted that happy feeling back, yet it felt as far away as the stars above her now, out of reach.
“I mean I think he made such a claim for his own end,” she struggled to explain. “He is not so dumb. He knows I could well leave him of my own choice, but by making a claim to the constable that I was abducted –”
“Ah, he seeks to punish someone after all this is said and done,” Hayward said for her. “Whoever is hiding you, he wants punished. That would be me, on this occasion,” he said dryly, gesturing to himself.
“I’m so sorry,” she hurried toward him, across the room.
“No apologies, my Lady, I beg of you,” he said. He took her hand. The touch startled her, she hadn’t been expecting it, even though she had been the one walking toward him across the room. It was not an intimate touch, just the press of his hand against hers, like two friends meeting in the street after a long time apart, yet the touch made her feel safe. She didn’t pull away from his grasp. “I knew the risk I faced last night when I agreed to hide you here,” he said calmly.
She looked away from his blue eyes, down at the ground as she lifted her other hand to her neck and fiddled with the ribbon that hid the bruise there.
“You said something about Diana?” Hayward prompted, releasing Phoebe’s hand as he turned his focus back to the Marquess. Without his hand, Phoebe took a step away, startled by the power that had been in his warm touch.
“You know Diana has little patience when it comes to conversation. Least of all when it comes to an argument,” the Marquess said with arched eyebrows. “Finding the Viscount of Ridlington in our house, she happily marched down the stairs and said though we weren’t hiding his wife, she was thrilled to hear that her friend had finally left him at last. Lord Ridlington did not take kindly to it.”
“No…” Phoebe turned her head back to the Marquess, terrified of his next words. “Tell me he did not harm her.”
“No, my Lady. Even he is not so great a fool as to lift a hand to another gentleman’s wife,” the Marquess said calmly. “But he threatened her. I have never seen Diana so angry, nor so scared.”
Hearing her friend was scared, Phoebe turned away and covered her face with her hands for a second, finding the memories of all the pain Graham had caused her in the past not match up to this moment.
It is the fear. The fear that he will harm someone else.
“I should go home,” she said softly.
“What?” Hayward’s voice was so loud, the sudden word echoing back off the drawing room walls that Phoebe spun back round to face him. She found him standing surprisingly close to her, making her back up a step. “You want to go back to him?”
“Of course not,” she said quickly, “but do I have a choice? I cannot let him harm Lady Dodge.”
“So you’d let him harm you instead?” Hayward asked, crossing his arms. The logic of his statement she found surprisingly frustrating.
“Better that than let him hurt my friend,” Phoebe said, matching his stance. She could see she had surprised him. His lips parted a little as he tilted his head to the side, watching her. “What is it?” she asked.
“There are few who would sacrifice themselves so,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
