Wells was at once awestruck and aggrieved, for every word Charles spoke was true. He loathed himself for behavior he was anything but proud of, sickened by the manner in which he’d dishonored and debased her.
“Charles, I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’ve no right to.” He swallowed, nervous. “My actionsweredespicable that night, regardless of crime or family. To treat even a village girl the way I treated you was, I admit, the misdeed of a pirate and not the behavior of a lord. But let me make it up to you now, Fox. Marry me! Be my future Duchess, stand beside me that we may finish the Abbey together. Share my bed, my name, bear my heirs, and remain here with me, far from London’s evils. You needn’t be my housekeeper any longer, Charles. Not if you are my wife.”
Her eyes swelled to round, inscrutable pools of murky green he could not read, could not find answers within.
“Is this what your mother wishes, sir?” Her words came out clipped. “And what of Miss Mowry, my lord? I can offer you no dowry, not like she can.”
“I don’t give a rat’s arse about Mowry’s dowry.” Wells stepped closer. “And yes, it is whatMamanwishes. Just now she told me we must marry to preserve your and your father’s honor. And after all I have discovered, it is of course the most reasonable solution to?—”
“Ah yes.” Her voice grew cold. Implacable. “Reasonable, logical Lord Wellesley can now reasonably marry his lusty mistress, knowing her lineage, rather than relegate himself to bedding fresh virginal flesh. How perfect for you,Your Grace.” She skewered him with the title. “How utterly, perfectly delightful for you. For why shouldn’t I now fall further into your lap, giving you all that you desire: a body to lay your seed in and a native who knows her people, who’ll no doubt convince them to revere their dashing new Duke.”
She curtsied in such egregious, mocking display he flinched, as if slapped.
“Only I will not, Lord Wellesley.” Charles drew herself tall. “I willnotmarry you, not now, and not ever, for you do not get to order me into obedience, nay, into subservience now through marriage, sir!”
Her eyes were so icy he shivered.
“I told you before you’d not claim my soul, and I proclaim it now loud. You do not own me, Roland Wellesley, nor will youever.”
She knocked the wind from his lungs as she hurtled past him, jabbing him hard in the chest as she flew out the door, her legs bearing her away at terrific speed.
For a moment Wells could not breathe. Until he gasped for air, in pain.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
“Ellie.” A voice jarred her dreams. “Sister, wake up.”
“Charles?” Eleanor pulled herself awake. “Is that you?” She opened her eyes and flung her arms about her sister. “Oh Charles, you came! Thank heavens you came home!” She held on tight and would not let Charles go.
“Ellie, we must speak. Please, it is urgent.”
Immediately she rose from her bed to follow her sister into the kitchen, where a candle was already lit.
“Charles, it is the middle of the night! Why have you come to see us so late, sister?”
“Ellie, I leave at daybreak, but I’ll not go without seeing you first.”
“What has happened? Has he hurt you more? Are you with child? So help me God if that man?—”
“No, Ellie, hush,” Charles insisted. “It is nothing of the sort. We merely quarreled, and I can no longer stay. It is imperative I leave Cumberland, at least until his lordship marries and forgets me.”
“So he will marry the lady his mother brought?” Eleanor willed herself to believe her sister now told her the truth; sheknew Charles’s feelings for Lord Wellesley were no mere passing fancy.
“Yes. I don’t know. If not her, then some other lady. It doesn’t matter, Eleanor, what matters is thatIcannot marry Lord Wellesley. And so I cannot stay, I can’t bear to. Surely you understand why I?—”
“Then stay with us, Charles. Papa is not long for this world, I fear, and John will not abandon you, I know it. You can live with us, at least until you decide what?—”
“No, Ellie, I cannot. I’ll not cast a pall over your honeymoon.” Her smile looked sad. “And Father won’t know if I am here, gone, or all of ten years old still. I shall say goodbye to him now and catch the first coach to London at first light.”
“But Charles, whatever will you do in London? You abhor London. We both do. Where will you stay? How will you?—?”
“I shall figure that out, Ellie. I am not unskilled. And once I’m settled I will send word, I promise. Only first, sister, you must take this.”
Eleanor was promptly handed a small bag of coin.
“Charles.” Her stomach flipped. “I cannot accept this, Iwillnot. You will need every penny of this in London.”
***
