Everyone cheered.
Chapter Nineteen
Lisbeth sat inthe drawing room, exhausted. She hadn’t slept well after Thomas left her in the guest chamber the previous evening. Now, night was approaching, and she hadn’t heard from him at all. A sigh escaped her. The day had been awful. She’d planned to spend most of it at Seely House, meeting with the other board members of the Historical Society of Female Curators, but couldn’t.
Her marriage was all over the papers, as well as the fact that Thomas was out celebrating his celebrity status and their union. She felt foolish. Alice wouldn’t speak to her, and Jeremy wouldn’t stop asking when he would return. Lisbeth had no idea. She felt so alone.
A knock on the door jerked her from her melancholy thoughts. Her butler, Morrison, opened the door. Perhaps it was Thomas, still not comfortable just walking in, but it wasn’t. Rose, now the Duchess of Sinclair, asked Morrison, “Where is she?”
Lisbeth tilted her head back against her wingback chair. Tears burst from her. Rose barged into the room, frowning. “I’m going to murder Thomas Easton.”
She stared at her once frenemy, who always liked Thomas more. Her eyes continued to water, and her chin trembled. “I’ve made my own mess of things.”
Rose sat down. “Tell me. He loves you, but somehow, I suspect this marriage isn’t what you anticipated or wanted.”
Lisbeth rose and shut the drawing room door. Rose pulled a flask from her reticule and uncapped it, handing it to her. The absurdity of Rose carrying it around caused her to giggle even though she was so upset. Her friend grinned. “I wanted to come prepared.”
“I have wine, brandy, and champagne.”
Rose grinned at her cheekily. “This is more fun.”
Lisbeth took a sip and handed it back to her. Her friend took a large gulp. Another giggle escaped Lisbeth. Rose smiled. “I’m glad to hear that sound from you.”
It felt good, but the drama of the last day hit her with full force again. “There are so many things I wish I had done differently, but I truly never felt I had a choice.”
“Start at the beginning.”
Lisbeth stood and paced back and forth. She’d never shared this with anyone but Nicholas, Justin, and Thomas’s mother. Still, the need to let it out flowed through her. “When Thomas proposed to me in Tuscany, my brother Justin showed up a few days later. My father was destitute. He’d just been beaten badly by a creditor and was close to debtor’s prison. There was no money. It was all gone. Justin had used the last bit of it to find me.”
“Why?”
Bitterness filled her. She smiled sadly. “My father and my husband’s family arranged a marriage between us. Nicholas, at the time, hadn’t wanted to marry and refused to put in any effort, so his father offered an exorbitant sum to mine.”
Understanding flashed across Rose’s face. “You left to save your family.”
Lisbeth grabbed Rose’s flask again, drinking it. “I left because I had no other options. While you and your father were successful, Thomas and I were still barely surviving. None of us were wealthy at the time.”
“Thomas would understand that,” Rose insisted.
“He did,” Lisbeth said with a sigh and sat down. “But he saw Alice and instantly realized she was his.”
Rose’s eyes widened. “I suspected, but then I saw portraits of your husband. They all have similar traits.”
Lisbeth wiped at another tear. “I didn’t know until shortly after I wed Nicholas that I was with child. I told him the truth right away. Shocking me, he dealt with it more compassionately than I believe most husbands would. Likely because he also loved another, but she’d passed away, which is why he’d agreed to the marriage. I spent years wondering if I should write and tell Thomas the truth. His mother has always known. I just didn’t want to cause more pain. It is awful.”
“It is,” Rose said, never one to mince words. “But I don’t know what other option you had. What did his mother think?”
“She worried about what he would do if he knew, especially since I was married, and Nicholas had claimed Alice.”
“What a bloody mess,” Rose muttered.
It was. There was no fixing it. “I should have told him in Syria, but selfishly, I enjoyed having a few moments with him where the past wasn’t so heavily hanging over us.”
“Still, as a young lady, had you returned to London and told everyone, you would have been ruined. I can’t believe your husband stood by you,” Rose pointed out.
Lisbeth smiled sadly. “Nicholas was a good man. I didn’t hold his heart, but we grew to be dear friends.”
Rose sighed. “How did you and Thomas end up married?”
