Lady Longthorpe turned to address her. “I do hope your journey was a pleasant one? I always say that a journey without excitement is the best kind.”
Had her journey been pleasant? Oh, my, but how could she answer such a question.
“Aside from a few unfortunate… mishaps,” Aubrey answered. “It was most pleasant indeed.
But that she could chalk Chance Bateman up to an ‘unfortunate mishap.’
“Is this your first visit to London?” The gentleman sitting off to the side finally spoke up.
Aubrey nodded, still dazed by her guests’ appearance—grateful, but taken aback.
She conversed with her visitors for another ten minutes before the countess rose, along with her son and Lady Zelda, announcing that they had other visits to make. Aubrey promised she’d attend the Countess’ at home but forced herself not to recoil when Mr. Longthorpe bowed over her hand, a rather warm expression in his gaze as he met her eyes.
Not that he was unattractive, or undesirable in any way. In fact he was rather pleasant looking and had seemed to be a kind gentleman.
But Mr. Cochran Charles Bateman’s betrayal had left her feeling raw. Upon meeting Chance, Audrey had begun to consider that she might marry in the future. But upon loving the blighter, doubted she could ever open her heart again.
She would remain a widow forever. Which was likely for the best.
She had a home, funds, friends. It seemed she had a future.
If only Chance Bateman had not come along to ruin it all for her, she might have known true happiness.
Chapter 14
Part Two, Chance
1825, (Two Years Later)
Chance dropped the red rose atop the fresh mound of dirt and backed away. A headstone would be placed months from now, allowing the masons time to craft a monument worthy of a duchess. Such practical matters, such mundane matters, required time.
His wife had been barely twenty years old when she’d died. Time had not been on her side. And yet she was at peace now. The pain she’d endured for most of her life could finally cease. No one had expected she would live much longer than she had.
Chance wondered when he would begin to live again. It seemed as though his life had stopped two years ago. When he’d left the woman he loved in order to marry a woman he had barely known.
It had not been a marriage, in truth. But he had done his best to make her comfortable.
“It’s over. Finally.” A hand dropped on his shoulder. “You fulfilled your obligation, paid your dues. The question is, what will you do now?”
Chance was free and yet, was he? He’d be expected to spend a year in mourning. Another year alone.
If he were to travel to London, there was no way he could avoid seeing her.
Chance shrugged as he glanced over at his friend. “I don’t know.” Hollis knew everything. He knew the true circumstances of Chance’s marriage, he knew why it had been that way, and the bastard knew about Aubrey.
In a moment of weakness, sometime during a night of heavy drinking, Chance had told him all about the auburn-haired young widow he’d fallen in love with at the very worst possible time of his life. Hollis knew how they’d met, how Chance had felt about her and how Chance had left her.
The memory of that morning never failed to haunt him. He’d hurt her, he knew that, and yet she’d stood a better chance at happiness if she wasn’t waiting for him. She could go on with her life if she hated him.
And so he’d done the very thing he’d promised her he would not do. He’d left without saying goodbye.
“She is in London. She is unmarried. Have you considered talking with her? Have you considered telling her the truth?” Hollis had the annoying habit of oversimplifying complicated situations.
An icy gust of wind tore across the field, sweeping leaves, long dead, through the family graveyard. Chance and Adelaide had buried their mother here a little less than one year ago, beside their father. In the course of two years, everything had changed. He felt decades older than the man who’d accompanied her on their unforgettable journey. He could not expect that Aubrey would be the same woman he’d known for such a short time. HisPrincesse…
“If you wait much longer, you may very well lose this one opportunity. It’s not as though the gentlemen of the ton haven’t noticed her. Not only is she beautiful, but intelligent, charming… and wealthy. Eventually she will accept one of them. You must ask yourself, my friend, do you wish to live with the regret? Do you wish to live never knowing ‘what if?’”
Chance slid a glance toward his best of friends and scowled.
