“I have no wish for your humiliation. What I want is the truth.”
“I am leaving.”
“You will not be leaving.” Joseph grabbed her, picking her up as she tried to pass him. He placed her back before him. “You are not going anywhere.”
“You have no control over me or my actions.”
“Now there you are wrong. I have questions that need answering. You said you were leaving with the man you loved, and yet I see no man.”
She looked at his necktie.
“H-he died.”
“What was his name?”
“Mr. Brown.”
“Yet you carry the name Miss Higglesworth. Did he not marry you?” Joseph snapped the questions out quickly.
“W-we did not wed, and I can hardly go about as Lady Millicent.”
She was lying. Joseph was now certain of that. What he hadn’t known was that she was lying four years ago. Shock had not allowed him to see anything but that she was leaving him for another man.
“You are lying to me, and this time I want the truth. Why did you run away from London?”
“I have told you why. The rest does not matter now.”
She was looking at his boots.
“Oh, it matters.” He pushed her chin upward until their eyes met. “In fact, it matters a great deal. But for now I will ask another question. What did your father beg your forgiveness for?”
Her eyes flew to his. “You have seen my father?”
She doesn’t know.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you that he died a few months ago.”
She didn’t speak or move, almost as if she had turned to stone.
“He has been ill?”
“As to that, I do not know. After you left, he never ventured into society again. No one saw or heard from him. Your aunt told everyone that you were gravely ill, and had left London to give your health a chance to recover. It was then believed he had gone with you, as no one saw him again.”
“H-he never went back into society?”
Joseph shook his head.
“Two months ago I received word of his death by way of a man appearing on my doorstep. In his hands was a set of papers. The note attached to them said to Lady Millicent Lawrence. Inside were the words, ‘Daughter, please forgive me.’ Again I will ask you, why did he want your forgiveness?”
“Why would he send you papers for me?”
That question had kept Joseph awake many nights, and still he did not know the answer.
“I do not know why.”
The tears were there in her eyes now, but they did not fall, and he wondered when the emotional Lady Millicent had learned such control. This was obviously another change in the woman she had once been.
“Wh-what was inside the envelope?”
“I did not open it. But it is in a locked drawer in my London town house.”
“You knew who I was the night you found me on the road, but waited until now to tell me of my father’s death and about this envelope?”
Hearing the shock in her voice, suddenly his actions no longer felt justified. He had just told her of her father’s death in a cold manner, without a thought of how his words would be received.
“Your anger and need for revenge were so strong, you could not tell me this sooner?”
He could not deny her words as she stood there judging him, with eyes that looked world-weary, and in worn and faded clothes. Eyes that now looked upon him with sadness for what he had done. Joseph fought back the shame. He had once believed she had betrayed him, but no longer.
“Why did you leave London?”
