“Not nearly as much as mine pains me whenever I think of the two of you spending time together.” He tightened his hold and leaned in. “It kills me inside, knowing he has more right to you than I do.”
In spite of his error in judgment, sympathy filled her. “There’s no need for you to be jealous of him. Matt is a friend, nothing more.”
“You’re wrong, Eloise. He wants you as much as I do, I’ll stake my life on that.”
“In that case we ought to prepare for your funeral,” she told him gently. Her hand cupped his cheek. She felt broken inside – shattered – and yet she had to keep moving forward somehow. “You see,mon coeur, Matt doesn’t want a woman in his bed, but if you mention that to another soul, I shall run you through myself, no matter how much I love you.”
William’s hand fell away as his mouth dropped opened, and Eloise took advantage. She flung the front door opened and hurried out onto the pavement.
“Eloise!”
Her name followed her as she ran. She knew he would likely be faster than she if he chose to give chase, only he’d have to collect the basket of vegetables first and lock the door, by which time she planned on being well out of reach.
How could he do it? How could he break her heart so? It felt as though he’d taken an axe and chopped it up into little messy pieces. Worst of all, she actually understood him. He couldn’t envision marrying her, so he’d tried to find another solution. But he’d underestimated her pride and her willingness to sacrifice her own dream in order to safeguard her self-respect.
They were idiots.
Both of them.
He for going so far as to purchase a house and she for loving the blasted man. On second thought, she was the bigger fool for revealing how she felt. The words had popped out in pure frustration. It was too late to take them back. Unless she drugged him and then convinced him that he’d imagined the last half hour. Now there was an excellent thought.
Panting for breath she hurried back inside the kitchen the moment she reached Townsbridge House, past a series of startled servants, up the servants’ stairs to the main floor, and straight toward the small feminine office where Viscountess Roxley spent her mornings.
After everything that had just transpired, Eloise had little choice. She knew what had to be done, and she had to do it now. Before William arrived.
Chapter Five
Stunned by the conversationshe’d just had with Mrs. Lamont, Margaret sat at her escritoire for a moment after the cook had departed, her mind a muddled mess of incomprehension. Her first instinct was to seek out her husband, but she doubted he’d offer any more clarification on the issue at hand, so she finally chose to speak with her youngest daughter instead.
She found her in her bedchamber, nestled on her window seat with her sketch pad in her lap.
“Has breakfast already commenced?” Athena asked, straightening herself when Margaret entered the room. “I was just about to come down. Right after I finished this sketch.”
Margaret closed the door. “I’m not here to fetch you down for breakfast. In fact, I’m not sure there’ll be any breakfast now that I think of it.”
Athena’s brow crinkled. “Whatever do you mean?”
