Clutching a newspaper in one hand, he lifted his other and pointed menacingly at the old woman. Hope stood, determined to come between him and her aunt.
“You,” he seethed, stalking down the side of the dining room table. He threw the paper in front of Belle and it landed on her half-finished breakfast plate. “Is it not enough that you’ve tried to force your agenda on me? You have to insult me, too?”
“MacKinnon,” Belle hissed, her eyes flickering to Hope. “Hush.”
Hope couldn’t understand Belle’s reaction, especially since Graham seemed completely focused on Belle. He leaned over her, one hand gripping the top rail of her highbacked chair. He hunched over her, ominous in his stance.
“What the devil do you mean to do to me? Eviscerate any part of my pride?”
“You’re being ridiculous—”
“And you’re nothing by a conniving old—”
“Graham,” Hope said loudly, her voice cracking as she tried to stop him from saying vicious thing that he wouldn’t be able to take back.
The urgency in her voice seemed to catch his attention at last, but as soon as he turned to her, Hope began to question her decision to be on the receiving end of his glare. He stood up and came around the table, stalking her as though he were some disgruntled hunting dog and she were an injured rabbit. Her hand came up to her throat as she took a step back.
“‘Dearest love,’ was it?” he said as he came to crowd her, but Hope would not be cowed. “Had I known how desperately in love you had been, I might not have bothered.”
Hope knew he was hurt. But she was not in the wrong here, and she would not let him make her ashamed. Though she was shaking slightly, she held her chin up, confident in herself.
“I will not deny my feelings for Mr. Pennington, or what I believe I felt. You knew as much when I came here.”
“Oh aye, I did,” he said sarcastically, his dark eyes baring into hers, as though he were trying to see into her core. “I know he threw you over the moment it was convenient.”
Hope inhaled sharply, and her sisters stood, evidently dismayed by the distress she was clearly in.
“Girls,” Belle said, standing with the help of Andrews’s hand on her elbow. “Let’s leave these lovebirds in peace.”
The term “lovebirds” sounded heavily sarcastic, Hope noted as her aunt walked the length of the table. Still, neither Faith or Grace moved until Belle struck the ground with her cane, shaking both of Hope’s sisters from their trance. They turned to follow Belle, though Hope knew neither wished to leave her.
Once they were alone, Graham took several deep breaths. For several long moments they looked at one another, Hope searching his face for any crack in his anger that might show he was capable of being reasonable about this.
“Graham—”
“She’s made me out to be some fortune seeking beggar,” he snapped, though his voice seemed defeated. “I should have never have even come here.”
Hope’s heart sank. She reached out to touch his arm, but he pulled away and turned his back on her.
A stone on her chest might be more comfortable than the pressure she felt in that moment. She opened her mouth to speak, but her throat felt tight. She felt ill at the thought that his next words would be to end their engagement. If he did that, she would be ruined.
“Do…” She started after a long moment. “Do you wish to… to end this?”
Graham circled back slowly and the fury displayed on his face somehow even more intense than it had been a moment ago.
“So, you can go back to your precious Penton?”
“No,” she said quickly, not bothering to correct him. It would do no good, since he never seemed to able to remember Pennington’s name. “No, I just thought—”
“Thought that I’d abandon you? Like he did?” he asked, taking a step towards her. The space that separated them waseliminated in seconds and she had to crane her head back to look up at him. “Unfortunately for you, I’m nothing like him.”
That irritated her.
“I don’t want you to be like him.”
“And yet the author of that article—”
“The author wrote what he wanted to write. He writes for a gossip column—he’s not interested in the truth but only in what will sell papers,” she said, shaking her head. “Whatever I felt for Jacob before, it’s not… It doesn’t compare…”
