How is this happening? After all I have done to avoid scandal and rumor-mongering. A lifetime spent never once finding myself on the wrong end of gossip. And this is my reward.
Adrian did not do scandals. That was why he lived alone, as he did. That was why he rarely went outside, why he avoided social functions, and why he coveted the image of a man best left alone for fear of what might happen was he disturbed.
Now, in one fell swoop, his reputation was ruined…
“Well?” he barked at Mr. Watley. “Why are you still here?”
“I…” Miss Ophelia’s voice cracked from behind him.
Adrian turned, his glower still fixed squarely on his face. She winced under its gaze, and Adrian almost felt guilty because of how he was treating her.
She cut an impossibly tragic figure. Curled up in bed. Her skin pasty. Her auburn hair matted and lifeless. In another setting, she might have been a beauty. With her big green eyes, those freckles that peppered her button nose, and a round face that was innocent and soft. But that hardly mattered now.
“What?” Adrian barked, unable to control himself.
She winced and looked away. “I think that I… there is a chance that I know how word spread of my arrival so quickly.”
“What do you mean?”
She grimaced, and she spoke into her chest. “Last evening as I tried to find my way through the storm I…” She swallowed. “I came cross a farmer, he must have been. I asked for directions to your home and where I thought that he did not notice Harriet, somehow, he must have done…”
Adrian groaned.
“I am so sorry,” she hurried. “I did not think – I thought the child was yours! I did not stop to consider that it would make a difference if anyone found out. Please, I did not mean…”
“You have ruined me,” Adrian groaned again, the anger starting to dissipate in place of the dread that loomed. “You have come here without cause. You have forced me into…” He groaned again. “I need you gone.”
“No!” Her eyes widened and she looked at him. “You cannot do that!”
“Do not tell me what I can do in my own home.”
“She is right, Your Grace,” Mr. Watley spoke up. “Now that her presence is known here, if she suddenly disappears, it will only make things worse.”
“As if things can be worse.”
“Word will spread quickly,” Mr. Watley continued. “No doubt, tomorrow’s scandal sheets will make this story the center of their news cycle. People will start to pay attention. People will wonder at what you might do next.”
Adrian’s world slowly crumbled around him.
He massaged his temples as he tried to clear his head and come up with a plan that would not ruin him. He might not have been well-liked in the ton, but he was not one to be mocked or thought lowly of. That was on purpose, of course, a promise he’d made to himself years ago that he would never be found in a scandal. He knew from firsthand experience what that did to a man, and he would not have it happen to him.
What then? What can I possibly do that won’t make this worse?
“You will remain here for now,” he said, speaking more to himself than Miss Ophelia. “The child too –”
“Harriet,” she spoke.
“Excuse me?”
“Her name…” She affected a soft smile. “Her name is Harriet.”
He glared at her in warning. “You and Harriet will remain here until I can think of what to do next. The child is not mine, and that needs to be made known to me. This Lord Delacourt…” He nodded his head as an idea came to mind. “He might not likethe fact that his wife had an affair but that is his problem, not mine. Yes, he is the one who will deal with the consequences of his wife’s –”
“No!” Miss Ophelia cried out.
He looked at her with warning and this time she did not look away. She might have been softly spoken. She might have been a meek little thing. But there was fire burning behind her green eyes, enough of one that it made Adrian pause… even reconsidering his first impression of her.
“Lord Delacourt was stricken with rage when he learned of the child, and it only grew worse throughout the pregnancy. If you send Harriet back to him, there is no telling what he will do.”
