Eugenia nodded unhappily. “Tomorrow,” she whispered.
“Tomorrow.”
After Lady Helena left, Eugenia stared down at the sewing in her lap, shivering.
Tomorrow is too soon. I cannot do it, I am too frightened. God help me, I cannot leave these rooms ever again. Not even for Max.
Chapter 24
Maximilian stood near the stable, garbed for riding in a black coat and habit. His tall hat sat on his head as he waited for the grooms to saddle his horse. Though his ankle still pained him, he thought it healed enough to ride to the Viscount Mallen’s estate. He hated leaving his castle when Eugenia still felt traumatized by the attack three days prior. Not knowing what he could do to help her only added to his frustrations and feelings of helplessness.
“Here you are, Your Grace,” the groom said, leading out from the stable one of his favorite riding horses, a tall, rangy bay gelding.
The man held the horse’s bridle as Maximilian swung into the saddle, then waved to him cheerfully as he nudged the horse down the road at a mile eating trot. Naturally, his thoughts traveled unerringly to Eugenia. In private, Lady Helena explained to him her emotional trauma, her nightmares, her inability to leave their rooms. He had been in to see her and felt rising alarm at her pale flesh and gaunt cheeks.
While she smiled and tried to be the humorous and sweet girl he knew, he also realized it was a sham. The girl he spoke to and tried to make laugh had turned into a shell, a ghost of her former self. And he had no idea how to bring her back.
“I love her,” he said to the gelding. “God help me, I love Eugenia.”
While admitting to himself what he had suspected was growing all along, he wondered how easily it would be for him to lose her. Her mental state was as fragile as spun glass, and if it broke – “It will not happen,” he gritted, inadvertently tightening his hands on the reins. The gelding tossed his head, asking for the release. He relaxed his fingers, but not his jaw. “I will not permit it. I am the Duke of Bromenville, and no cowardly villain lurking in the castle willeverkeep me from the woman I want. Iwillhelp her … somehow.”
The Viscount of Mallen had obviously seen him riding up his road from the windows, for he stood at the doors of his huge house as grooms rushed to take Maximilian’s horse. He dismounted, handed the reins to one of the grooms, and walked up the steps to the huge front porch
“You look like you need a stiff brandy,” Edmund said, shaking Maximilian’s hand. “A good thing I have plenty ready for imbibing.”
“You are so very right, my friend,” Maximilian said, following his host into the house.
Seated in Edmund’s library, a brandy in his hand, Maximilian felt as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Perhaps I just needed to get away from the perpetual drama for a quiet afternoon with a friend.
He felt relaxed for the first time in weeks and smiled as Mallen sat in a chair near him. The fire on the hearth crackled and spat sparks, its heat sending tendrils of warmth up from his legs to his belly
“Your letter did not say what you needed to see me about,” Mallen leaned back in his chair.
“I am in love.”
Maximilian’s words, spoken to another human being, made his feelings for Eugenia all the more real to him. He never told anyone else about his love for Sophia and kept it between Edmund and himself. Thus, few knew about his broken heart –and one of them was Edmund, now grinning, nodding, and clapping his hands genteelly together.
“Damn happy for you,” he said, raising his snifter of brandy. “Here is to you, Max, and your lovely lady.”
They clinked glasses and drank.
“Tell me,” Mallen said, “is it that Whitington girl? Lady Helena?”
Maximilian shook his head, smiling. “Her maid.”
Edmund paused in lifting his glass to his lips, his brows hiked. He lowered it. “The lady’s abigail?”
“The very one. Now, do not tell me you disapprove.”
“It is not for me to approve or disapprove, old chap,” Mallen said, crossing his legs. “If you are happy, then I am ecstatic.”
“I wish I was as happy as all that.”
“Are you going to tell me what is wrong, or must I drag it from you with a team of six?”
With a sigh, Maximilian told him about the attempts on not just his life but on Eugenia’s. As he spoke of the loose stallion all but trampling her to death, of a hooded figure pushing him down the steps, and the latest attempt of shoving Eugenia off the battlement, he watched Edmund’s face grow dark with anger.
