“What do youmean, you’ve decided to end the engagement?” Lady Harcourt all but shrieked.
She looked wild. Her face was bright red and her hair was in disarray. If the moment hadn’t been so tense, Hugh might have laughed.
But he couldn’t bring himself to see humor in it. Lady Eugenia was clearly frightened. She was cowering behind him. He realized that he hadn’t understood until just this moment how hard it was for her to stand up to her mother.
Of course she told her mother everything that was going on between myself and Esther. Her mother bullied her into it!
He kept himself firmly between Lady Eugenia and her mother, protecting her from her mother’s wrath as best he could. “I’m sorry, Lady Harcourt,” he said, doing his best to keep his voice calm and steady. “Lady Eugenia and I have agreed that it isn’t a good fit for either one of us.”
“My daughter doesn’t know what she’s saying,” Lady Harcourt insisted. “Of course it’s a good fit!” She started toward Lady Eugenia, who skittered backward several steps. “What did you say to him?”
“There’s no need to get angry,” Hugh said. “I have a great deal of respect for your daughter, Lady Harcourt.”
“You have respect for her?” Lady Harcourt demanded. “What good is that? When it gets out to other members of thetonthat she’s been rejected by the Duke of Hallowbinder—”
“There’s no reason that should get out to anyone,” Lady Eugenia interjected. Her voice wavered with fear, but Hugh was impressed nonetheless by the fact that she was standing up for herself. “I’m not going to tell anybody. Are you, Mother?”
“Certainly not, but I—” Lady Harcourt looked momentarily confused.
Then she recovered herself. “Hewill tell people, Eugenia! Do you think that he won’t? He’ll tell everyone how your mother came to his home andbeggedhim to take you, and he agreed out of pity, only to think better of it the next day! No one will look twice at you once they’ve heard that story!”
Lady Eugenia sucked in a gasp.
Hugh couldn’t blame her. Was it typical for her mother to speak to her this way? As if she was completely unlovable?
If so, it was a miracle that Lady Eugenia had grown up to be the tenderhearted young lady she was. Hugh didn’t think he would have managed to become such a decent person under similar circumstances.
“Lady Harcourt,” he said. “The decision is made.”
“No,” she said. “I don’t accept this decision. You and I signed a contract. If you don’t uphold it—”
“You won’t do anything,” Lady Eugenia said.
“Eugenia, for once in your God forsaken life, hold your tongue!”
“No, I won’t,” Lady Eugenia said, her voice growing steadier. “You can’t threaten the Duke, Mother.”
“Eugenia, you do not tell me what I can and cannot do in my own home—”
“You just said you’re worried about my reputation, Mother,” Lady Eugenia said. Her voice was even now, and Hugh could almost feel a new strength radiating from within her. “You were worried that the Duke would spread the story of our broken engagement, and that it would make me look bad. You can’t turn around and threaten to spread the story to makehimlook bad. He knows you don’t want it to get out.”
“Eugenia, for goodness’ sake—”
“We both know it would be more damaging to me than it would to him, Mother,” Lady Eugenia said. “The Duke has lots of prospects. There are plenty of women who wouldn’t care at all that he rejected me. They would just see it as a sensible decision on his part. For me, that story could be really harmful. But for the Duke, it won’t do any harm.”
Lady Harcourt looked on the verge of slapping her daughter, and Hugh was suddenly very glad he had imminent plans to get her out of the house.
“It doesn’t matter,” she hissed. “There are plenty of things I can say to make people question His Grace’s reputation. There are plenty of rumors I can spread. Everyone knows he was courting Esther. Everyone knows she went home suddenly. I can tell them why she did that.”
“You’d make up a story?” Lady Eugenia asked, sounding aghast. “You’d tell people that the Duke did something untoward with Esther? That would ruin both of them, Mother.”
“I care foryourprospects, Eugenia,” her mother said. “It’s time you learned to do the same.” She turned to Hugh. “Of course, there’s no need for rumors. All you have to do is agree to stay and to marry my daughter, as you promised.”
Hugh shook his head. “I can’t do it,” he said quietly. “Your daughter deserves better.”
Lady Harcourt laughed bitterly. “Better? Who would be better than a Duke?”
“She deserves to marry someone she loves,” Hugh said. “And someone who can love her in return. Lady Eugenia is a lovely person, but my heart belongs to someone else.”