Eugenia’s heart filled with hope—hope for Esther, and hope for herself. There was still a chance to put things right.
“Estherdoeslove you,” she said. “She’s loved you all along, Your Grace.”
“She wanted to marry a wealthy man,” the Duke said. “She admitted that to me.”
“Yes, she did,” Eugenia said. “She wanted that before she knew you. Once she met you, her feelings for you became more important than her desire for wealth and social advancement. Don’t you see, Your Grace? Knowing you changed her. She turned away from everything her parents had raised her to think was important. She loved you more than any of it.”
The Duke shook his head. “How can I believe this?” he asked.
“You said it yourself,” Eugenia said. “I have no guile in me.” She looked into the Duke’s eyes. “I don’t have the desire to deceive you, Your Grace, and even if I did want to, I doubt it would be able to. I’m not a skilled liar.”
“Unlike your cousin, you mean.”
Eugenia shook her head. “It tormented Esther,” she said. “The knowledge that she got to know you under false pretenses made her feel awful. I believe she wanted to confess the truth to you. But she didn’t know how to make you understand.”
“I would have understood,” the Duke protested.
“Would you?” Eugenia asked. “Forgive me, Your Grace, but it seems to me as if you’re having a difficult time understanding what she was going through. Would it really have made a difference if she had been the one to tell you the truth, instead of my mother?”
The Duke hesitated.
“Her feelings were true?” he asked. “She really did love me?”
“She loves you still,” Eugenia said. “She was heartbroken when my mother did what she did. And when she was sent back to her parents’ home…I believe it crushed her. If she was still here, she would be with us right now, begging for your forgiveness.”
“What would you have me do?” the Duke asked. “I’ve promised to marry you, Lady Eugenia. I don’t want to go back on my word to you.”
“But if I didn’t mind,” Eugenia pressed. “If I said it was all right, and that I wanted you to resolve things with Esther. Would you go after her?”
The Duke nodded slowly. “I would,” he said. “I think I moved too hastily in committing to this engagement. I acted without thinking, wanting only to remove any possibility of a future with Esther from my life. But now I wonder if I should have given her a second chance.”
“End your engagement with me,” Eugenia said, her heart leaping with excitement.
“Are you certain?” the Duke asked. “This all seems very unfair to you.”
“No offense to Your Grace, but this is what I want,” Eugenia said. “My heart…lies elsewhere.”
“I thought that might be so,” the Duke said. “And perhaps I can be of help to you in the future, just as you’re helping me now.”
“Perhaps you can,” Eugenia said. “In the meantime, you must travel to Esther’s home and speak with her. There’s no time to waste.”
“Will you join me?” the Duke asked her.
“Truly?” Eugenia asked. “You want me to come along?”
“I think that if it weren’t for you, I would never have gotten my wits about me and done what I needed to do,” the Duke said. “My relationship with Esther would have been impossible to recover. I consider myself very lucky to have secured an engagement to you, Lady Eugenia, short-lived though it may be. Because of you, I have a chance to get my true love back. But I’ll need all the help I can get.”
Eugenia’s heart was soaring.
Perhaps everything really is going to work out for the best!
“Come,” she said. “Let’s go back to the Manor at once. If we’re going to set out for Cliffdall Manor, we shouldn’t delay.”
“What will your mother say?” the Duke asked.
“That remains to be seen,” Eugenia said. “But for once in my life, I don’t plan on allowing her to stop me.”
Chapter 33
