“Do you know why I hate you?” she asked when he finally ran out of nonsense to say.
“Why?”
“Because you make me feel, Lucas. You always have. And it has been so long since anything has touched my heart.”
He took those words from her. And in the end, he pressed his lips to her temple.
“I understand that very, very well.”
Chapter Fifteen
Diana didn’t sayany more. She simply allowed the feelings to wash through her as he held her. Safety and gratitude welled up, but also a dark, blind fury at everyone and everything. She didn’t want to feel that. It ate at her insides and choked off her breath. She focused instead on the feel of a man’s arms around her body. There was strength in him, enough to carry her for a time, and she couldn’t ever remember feeling that since her father had lifted her up while she still wore leading strings.
A knock sounded at her bedroom door, and she silently cursed Simpson as he spoke through the heavy wood. “Your mother has arrived, my lady.”
“My mother?” she mouthed as she looked at Lucas. “Did you send for her?”
He shook his head as he released her. Then he stepped toward the door and raised a brow in question. Did he open the door? She nodded. Might as well. All the staff likely knew she’d been behind closed doors with Lucas.
With a nod, Lucas opened the door and stood to the side. Simpson looked every hour of his fifty-seven years, but he still bowed to her with the elegance of a man half his age. “The dowager countess says she has come at your hour of need to provide comfort.”
If his words were sarcastic, she didn’t hear it. But in her mind, she heard every self-serving, dramatic word her mother must have uttered. And with those images came a rage that climbed up her throat and began to choke her. The nerve of that woman coming to comfort her when it was her fault that Diana was in this situation in the first place. Lucas blamed himself for being unable to rescue her from her marriage. Diana blamed her mother for foisting it on her in the first place. And at this moment when the floodgates to her emotions stood wide open, Diana would eviscerate her mother for daring to show her face—
“Tell the countess that the lady is indisposed,” Lucas said. “She will see no one.”
“It won’t work,” Diana rasped. “She’ll rush upstairs—”
“No, she won’t,” Lucas said firmly. “If I have to stand in the door and carry her downstairs, she will not pass. Not if you don’t want her.”
“I don’t,” Diana said as she tried to swallow down a black hatred toward the woman who had sacrificed her to an old man. But with every gasp, she remembered how she’d felt on her wedding night when his arthritic hands had touched her. How alone she’d felt in a house where even the servants despised her. And how her mother had visited her every day to “comfort her” when in truth, she had wanted to make sure Diana didn’t cause a scene in her new life.A scene!As if the mistress of the house couldn’t do whatever she damned well pleased in her own home!
“Perhaps,” Simpson said, “she can be called upon to act as hostess to Lady Beddoe.”
Diana reeled, and Lucas grabbed her elbow before she fell. “Penelope is here?” she asked. Oscar’s daughter was a shrew if ever there was one.
“Not as yet, but—”
“Soon.” Diana looked at the clock. It wasn’t even nine in the morning, and she was overrun. She put her hands to her face. “They’ll come up here. They’ll—”
“No,” Lucas said firmly. “Simpson, inform the countess that her daughter needs her to keep everyone away. She is understandably upset and not ready to see anyone yet.”
“Of course—”
“They won’t listen,” Diana said. Her mother certainly never bowed to any butler.
“They will because the constable is still here. He’ll want to interview them, I’m sure.”
Diana’s head snapped up. Of course. He was here investigating Oscar’s murder. Good God, why couldn’t she think?
Lucas gently guided her to sit in her chair. Back to her seat between fire and window. “Let your mother handle things for now. It’s the least she can do, and she’s well up to the task.”
True.“I’m not putting my faith in my mother,” she snarled.
“Then put your faith in me,” he said as he dropped down to face her eye to eye. “Let me have the command of your staff, and I shall see—”
She laughed, though the sound came out hard. “They already listen to you.”
“No. They are your people and will always care for you.”
