Lord Norwood looked pleadingly at his daughter even as the color drained from his face. “Elizabeth?” The way he said her name said it all. He wanted her to deny everything.
Elizabeth didn’t answer her father. Instead, she stepped forward and held his gaze. “If you force my hand in this, Robert, you will be sorry,” she said tightly.
He looked into her beautiful eyes and sighed. “I already am, Beth.”
Chapter 21
“It’s not so bad,” Mary said softly as she poured warm water over Elizabeth’s shoulders.
Elizabeth wiped her eyes with her palms. “Yes, it is. I’m married to a man who hates me. James now hates me. Mother and Lady Bradford have both taken to their beds and, according to the servants, haven’t stopped sobbing since they’d found out word had spread around the ton about my condition and the quick ceremony. Father will not speak to me,” she mumbled pathetically.
“You have been rather busy, haven’t you?” Mary asked with a kind smile.
She nodded numbly before she burst into fresh tears once again. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I can’t seem to stop crying,” Elizabeth said, mortified that she hadn’t been able to stop crying since the forced ceremony.
“Shhh, it’s perfectly natural. It’s been a very stressful day given your condition.”
Elizabeth simply nodded as Mary continued to run warm, lavender-scented water over her hair. Today, she was supposed to make last-minute preparations for her trip. Instead, she found herself married to her childhood enemy and there was nothing that she could do about it. The moment he found out about the baby, she’d belonged to him.
Despite everything she promised herself over the years, she was now another man’s property. If that wasn’t bad enough, the man she now belonged to hated her and she loved him more than anything. This situation was hopeless.
“Did you know?” Mary asked softly as she poured more water over Elizabeth’s back.
“Know what?” she mumbled against her knees as she sniffled back another sob.
“That you were with child?”
Elizabeth closed her eyes tightly as she hugged her knees to her chest just as tightly. “Yes.”
“Oh, Elizabeth,” Mary said in a broken whisper. “Why didn’t you come to me for help?”
“It was my problem,” she muttered pathetically.
“Elizabeth, surely you knew that you couldn’t hide this from everyone forever. What were you planning on doing once you began to show?”
“That’s what I would like to know,” Robert drawled, earning a startled gasp from Mary.
“You don’t belong in here!” Mary said, and Elizabeth didn’t need to look up to know that her sister was already halfway across the room and shoving Robert out of the door. She’d never been happier with her sister’s bossy ways than she was at that moment.
She didn’t want to see Robert, not yet. Not when she was still so angry about what he’d pulled. He knew that she didn’t want to marry, and yet he’d forced her hand. She wasn’t foolish enough to believe that she’d actually had a choice in the matter. As much as she detested the rules, she also knew that she couldn’t fight them. She’d freely given herself to Robert and no matter the circumstances of that choice, she’d ruined herself and become damaged in the eyes of society.
Society’s rules also decided that the baby in her womb was Robert’s property and, as a result, so was she. The moment she’d realized that she was carrying his child, she’d also known that he now controlled her life, today only made it official. For the rest of her life, she would have to answer to Robert and be dependent on him for everything. Everything she owned was now his and there was nothing that she could do to stop him from spending it however he wished.
He could spend every last pound on women and cards. She wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop him and she hated it. She hated having no say in her life, having no choices, and she especially hated him for making her fall in love with him because he certainly would never return those feelings. No, he’d go out of his way to make her life a living hell and there was absolutely nothing that she could do about it.
Of course, she could make her situation tolerable by becoming a doting wife. She could become the perfect wife and keep her mouth shut and stay out of her husband’s way and simply be thankful for his generosity, but that really wasn’t her way. She hadn’t been lying when she’d promised him that he’d regret this, not only because she had absolutely no plans for becoming a simpering wife, but because she would make sure that he knew early on that it was best not to try and control her.
Her father had learned that he couldn’t control her, and now, so would Robert.
“Leave us,” Robert said in a hard tone.
Elizabeth softly snorted at that even as she sniffled. If he really thought that he could order Mary around, he had another thing coming. Her sister loved her and would never abandon her. She would-
“Goodnight, Elizabeth,” Mary said with a weary sigh seconds before she heard her bedroom door close with a deafening click.
Wonderful, Elizabeth thought as she wiped away another tear, hoping that the dimly lit room was too dark for him to see her crying.
“How are you feeling?” Robert asked, his words were cordial enough, but his tone was cold as ice.
