Page 42 of Lily and the Duke
Evenifit resulted in his hurt and humiliation.
Lily had spent an exhausting week with Georgiana and her mother and sisters. Indeed, she had virtually moved into Shefford House so that she might offer them her love and support whenever and in whatever capacity they needed it.
As expected, Lily’s mother was not pleased by the arrangement, but she did appreciate receiving firsthand knowledge of the situation after the shocking news of the earl’s suicide became publicly known.
Quickly followed by the rumor that it had not been suicide at all.
Then the hunt for who could have been responsible for the earl’s death if it was not self-inflicted.
A distressed Georgiana had confided her relief to Lily that she and her mother and sisters had the solid alibi of having been at the musical soiree the evening of the earl’s death.
It was the first time Lily had realized how very much Georgiana and the other Stapleton ladies had hated the family patriarch.
Much as Lily despaired at her own parents’ grasping natures, she did not dislike them enough to want to murder either of them.
The Countess of Shefford, previously a quiet lady who preferred to remain unnoticed in the background, seemed to blossom overnight now that she was no longer under the domineering and disapproving thumb of her narrow-minded husband.
Georgiana’s sisters became equally as lighthearted now that they were not constantly being told what a disappointment they were to their father.
Only Georgiana remained withdrawn. “I hated him, you see,” she told Lily vehemently as the two of them sat together in the family parlor on the seventh day after her father’s death. “And I wished him dead dozens of times.”
Lily reached out to squeeze her friend’s hand. “You did not kill him.”
“But I wanted to!”
“Wanting is not the same as doing,” Lily soothed. “And no matter what your feelings toward him, they are still your feelings, and you are allowed to express them.”
“He was so hateful to us all, always.” Tears began to fall down Georgiana’s cheeks. “He was a horrible, horrible man who made us all feel worthless and unloved, unlovable, and whose death I do not mourn in the slightest.” The tears fell faster.
“I believe he was the one who was worthless and unlovable,” Lily stated as she drew her friend into her arms.
Georgiana’s tears were long overdue, and they were necessary, even cathartic.
“Why did he have to be such a horrible man? Why?” her friend continued to sob.
Lily knew there was no answer she could give that would not sound insincere or trite, and so she said nothing, but instead continued to hold Georgiana as her friend cried at all past hurts and slights she had received from her father.
Lily had kept her own tears over the ending of her relationship with Gabriel firmly under her control. Mainly because she knew that if she once started to cry, she would not be able to stop her outpouring of grief.
She had not heard from him, or the Duke of Hellsmere, as to how the investigation into the Earl of Shefford’s death was going. Truthfully, Lily did not expect to hear from Gabriel again in any sort of capacity after the things she had said to him the last time they spoke privately together.
But she still loved him, still ached for him, still wanted to be with him above all and everyone else.
She knew that would never change.
Gabriel’s disappointment was heavy as he returned to his carriage after being informed by the Earl of Truro’s butler that Lily was not at home.
The man had denied knowing where Lily was. But knowing Lily as well as he did, Gabriel believed she would be at the Earl of Shefford’s residence still, after she had told him of her determination to be supportive of her friend and her family.
To that end, Gabriel instructed his groom to drive to Shefford House.
It was time for him and Lily to be honest about their feelings for each other. Good or bad. Far better for Gabriel to know whether Lily still wished their association to be over than to hope and pray that it wasn’t.
As chance would have it, Lily was walking down the front steps of Shefford House, pulling her cloak more tightly about her, when the St. Albans carriage came to a halt outside the house.
Her thoughts seemed to be so preoccupied, she was unaware of the carriage, or him seated inside it, as she stepped down onto the cobbled street. Allowing Gabriel the opportunity to drink his fill of her before making her aware of his presence.
She looked as beautiful as always, but there was a fragility to her appearance and demeanor that had not been there previously. She also appeared thinner, her cheeks pale and her eyes lacking their usual warm glow.
