No matter what price love demanded from him, he would pay it.
“Very well.” He met the duchess’s gaze. “I’ll stay away from Leonora.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Afortnight.
Fourteen days.
Too many hours.
Leonora stopped before the door of the drawing room. Time truly dragged when one had no person to spark life into each moment. And no sparks sparked Leonora’s life at the moment. The hours bled into one another, colorless and dull. It felt rather jarring that the world continued while she was utterly devoid of spirit.
Devoid ofhim.
No sharp, witty barbs thrown her way, no stolen touches or intimate moments of ecstasy. None. Gone was being understood in a way that made her feel breathless. Gone was the anticipation, the awareness that somewhere—perhaps around the next corner, perhaps in the next heartbeat—hewould be there. Well, if she were honest, a smidgeon of that anticipation still lingered, but it carried a more desperate edge rather than the pulsing beat of excitement. This must be what a woman felt being ravaged and discarded by a rake. And yet, at the theatre...
Shush, Leonora.
But that moment... that moment when he’d grasped her wrist and pushed Calstone away from her...
She clutched her breast. It meant...something. And at the same time, did it also meannothing?
Leonora shook away the thought, inhaled a deep breath, and entered the drawing room to which she had been summoned and stopped short when she came face to face with three figures: Heart, the duchess, and the marchioness—her mama.
“Leonora, dear,” the marchioness, Lady Heartly, said. “Please come have a seat.”
Her gaze darted between the three people. It didn’t take a brilliant mind to understand that certain introductions were to be made today and certain truths were to be revealed. On the one hand, she welcomed the truth. On the other hand, she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of wariness, too.
Leonora crossed the room and lowered herself into a chair unhurriedly, flushing as those three pairs of eyes burned into her. Inside, her heart pounded.
The marchioness cleared her throat. “Heart has told us that you overheard a conversation between us when you were a child. I cannot even imagine what you must have been feeling over these past years.”
Leonora shook her head, unwilling to add to their worry. “I know why you did it, so please, do not feel any guilt on my behalf.” Their burden had been far heavier than hers, and they had carried it for far longer.
The marchioness nodded. “And as you have correctly deducted, the Duchess of Crane is your mother.”
Leonora’s gaze flicked to the woman in question. Her mother. She had thought once they were officially introduced, she might feel an instant sort of mother-daughter connection. But there was no such extraordinary feeling.
“Leonora,” the duchess said, her voice soft but proud. “You’ve grown into a beautiful young woman. You must have so many questions for me.”
Questions? Leonora’s gaze dropped to where the woman rubbed one finger over the other before meeting her gaze again.She didn’t have any questions, in fact. Perhaps in the past, but not anymore. She loved her family, and the Duchess of Crane wasn’t part of it. She hadn’t been for the past twenty years. She had merely birthed her.
All Leonora had wanted was the truth, which she now had. As for the rest, she could surmise what had transpired between the duchess and Heart. A rake had seduced an innocent lady, or perhaps the other way around, and when the consequences came in the form of Leonora, that rake failed to do the right thing, which left the lady with limited options.
It was a tale that might be considered as old as time.
The duchess’s family might even have had a hand in how it had all played out in the end. Perhaps they wouldn’t have welcomed the idea of her marrying the rake who had ruined her anyway. However, it didn’t matter to Leonora. In time, they might build a relationship, and she was certainly open to that—would be delighted, in fact—but at the moment her mind was rather stuck on someone other than her real mother.
“Leonora?” Heart said gruffly. “Are you all right? Do you want some tea?”
Right. Leonora cleared her throat and shook her head.
Then she suddenly recalled something that Dare had said at the lake. “I do have some questions, now that I think about it.” Not questions that had anything to do with the distant past, rather a more recent past. But first, she turned to the marchioness, “Are you not supposed to be in Wales, Mother? I witnessed your early morning meeting with the duchess that time in the park.”
The marchioness jolted. “Oh. That. Yes.” She let out a little cough behind her hand. “I heard Cassandra planned to return to London and grew concerned. But now that it has come to this, I plan to travel back to join your father in Wales as early as tomorrow.”
Ah. Well, Leonora had suspected as much. Her gaze found the duchess’s. “Dare told me you paid him a visit.”
