“I’m concerned about my family’s financial well-being,” Lord Codfield said. “You needn’t act as if that makes me a monster of some kind. Any gentleman would worry about the same thing in my shoes.”
“Perhaps that’s right, but I’m not the solution you’re seeking. I’m in love with someone else, and I intend to ask her to court me.”
And he turned toward Eleanor.
She stood frozen with shock. She might have seen this coming, she supposed, and yet somehow, she hadn’t. She hadn’t suspected that he would really do it. How could this be happening?
Did she want it to happen?
Strangely, that question was answered in her mind as soon as she’d asked it of herself. Yes, she did want this. She would be devastated if he walked away from her now. She wanted to believe that he could really want her. And the fact that he was saying it like this, out loud, in front of all these people, made it very easy to believe. Of course it was true. He wouldn’t have made such a show of it if it hadn’t been.
Lord Codfield looked fit to be tied. “You can’t meanher?” he demanded. “Not the errant daughter of Lord Crestley? Everyone knows she’s nothing but trouble, Your Grace. That’s why she’s so rarely allowed out of the house. You’d choose her over my Hannah, with whom you’ve had an arrangement all this time? How can you disrespect me and my family like this? I thought you were a gentleman, but now I see that you’re nothing but a rake! And here’s what I think of you!”
He threw his drink in the duke’s face.
The duke didn’t raise a hand against Lord Codfield, or even to wipe the drink from his face. He stood blinking, staring at the gentleman in front of him, doing nothing, saying nothing.
Eleanor’s father stepped forward and took Lord Codfield by the arm. “Come with me,” he said, his voice low. “We don’t want this to become a scene.”
“His Grace is at fault!”
“Perhaps so, but let us be dignified and take it outside,” Eleanor’s father said. He turned to the duke. “Your Grace…”
“If you’ll excuse me,” the duke said. “I have other business to attend to.” He turned to Phineas. “Will you adjourn to the library with me? I think you and I have things we ought to discuss. We should clear the air between the two of us—it’s been too long since we were perfectly honest with one another.”
Phineas nodded. He looked as if he was in disbelief. “I think we do have a lot to talk about,” he said.
The duke looked around at the assembled guests. “I apologize to all of you for the commotion,” he said. “Particularly to you, Lady Marina, Jacob. It was never my intention for things to go this far. But I did feel as though I needed to say the things I said, and for better or worse, I am glad to have said them. I’ll leave you all to the festivities now.”
He left the ballroom, Phineas following after him. Eleanor watched them go.
A part of her longed to follow. A moment later, she wished she had.
Her mother came hurrying over to her and seized her by the arm. “What do youmeanby it?” she demanded, giving Eleanor a hard shake.
Eleanor wrenched her arm away, knowing that she was asking for more trouble by standing up to her mother but unable to stomach the idea of submitting to this cruel treatment right now. “What do I mean bywhat?” she asked angrily. “I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t the one who caused that scene.”
“It was centered around you. Don’t play innocent with me, Eleanor, I can see right through you when you do that.”
“I’m not doing any such thing,” Eleanor said. “It’s not my fault the duke chose to say all those things. I didn’t put him up to it.”
“Eleanor, you knew that the duke had an arrangement with Lady Hannah. I’ve seen you spending time with him this week, but I never dreamed that you would act to disrupt his engagement. Even you couldn’t be so bold—or at least, I wouldn’t have believed it of you. I’m shocked at you.”
Eleanor stepped back. “You’re determined to believe the worst of me,” she said.
She couldn’t tell her mother the truth about what she had done—sneaking out to attend the masquerade, meeting with the duke in the garden. Her mother would judge her harshly for all of those things. But also, Eleanor knew that she had not in fact been as bad as her mother seemed to think she had. She had certainly never intended to break up an engagement. She’d done all she could to keep away from the duke once she had learned of the engagement. He had never taken it seriously, had never intended to follow through on it, and Eleanor knew that that wasn’t her fault. It couldn’t be her fault.
Her mother continued to glare at her. “All I asked for was one week of good behavior from you,” she said. “One week in which you didn’t give your father or I any trouble—one week in which you weren’t a burden to your sister. You couldn’t give us that, and now you’ve caused a scandal that will forever ruin your sister’s wedding week! This will always be the thing people speak of when they remember Marina’s marriage—not how happy she was or how beautiful she looked in her gown, but the way her sister’s messy affair with the duke ruined everything and caused gossip. I am so ashamed. Marina deserves better than you for a sister.”
It was the one thing her mother could have said to really wound Eleanor, who felt devastated at her words. She wanted to run away, to hide from what was happening.
Marina broke through the crowd. “Mother, stop it,” she said, hurrying to Eleanor’s side. “What are you doing? Why are you berating Eleanor publicly like this? Eleanor has done nothing wrong.”
“Marina, did you see what the duke just?—?”
“I saw it. And it’s just as you’re saying, Mother—it’s what the duke did, not what Eleanor did. She did nothing. She can’t control his actions, and she can’t be held responsible for them.” Marina put an arm around Eleanor’s shoulders. “Come with me,” she said quietly. “There’s no need for us to stay here in this ballroom, surrounded by all these people.”
Numbly, Eleanor followed her sister from the room. Marina led her through the foyer, up the stairs, and down a hall. It wasn’t until they had reached the library that Eleanor realized where they were going.
