“Excuse me?”
It was exactly the reaction Elijah had expected when he approached his mother at his parents’ residence directly after the dinner at Lord and Lady Fenchurch’s home. No sooner had he asked her how he might go about getting a woman to accept his hand in marriage than she had looked at him as if he had grown a second head.
“You heard me,” Elijah stated, standing in the drawing room where she had been reading quietly while his father was clearly out late on business as usual.
As though she was quickly overcoming the shock, Lady Durham jumped up from her seat and hurried over to him. Gripping his forearms, she exclaimed, “Oh, Elijah! I never thought I would see this day!”
Elijah’s throat constricted. He hated seeing the excitement when he had no good news for her.She has already rejected me,he thought, though he could not bring himself to admit that. He needed his mother’s help.
He started to ask again, but his mother beat him to it as she asked, “Well? Who is she? I can tell from the look in your eye you have a sweetheart! Oh, I hope she is beautiful.”
“She is.”
Elijah’s heart raced at the thought of Lady Belmont. At his mother’s continued curious gaze, he admitted, “Lady Belmont has stolen my every thought since the day I met her.”
Had he not heard her gulp, how his mother’s entire body stiffened would have been enough to tell him what she thought. “The widow?” she exclaimed though her tone was hesitant and careful as though she was frightened of going too far, a tone she took with his father when she was nervous of some business decision he had made. “Would you not wish to marry someone, younger?Purer?”
Elijah cringed. He had no need for anything like that. He cared only for her. No one younger, purer, or more innocent could ever be her. Not a single woman in his life would ever match up. Yet he knew there was only one sensibility within his mother he could speak to now.
“Lady Belmont is a duchess in her own right,” he pointed out, seeing the spark that flashed through his mother’s eyes as he added, “and a very wealthy one at that.”
He felt sick to speak of such things when it came to Lady Belmont, but it was the only language his mother and the rest of his family seemed to understand. To them, marriage was a business arrangement; the very fact that his mother sat alone in the drawing room and his father was out late on business told him as much.
“She is no foolish young woman, and I sense you are no fool either,” his mother said, looking at him closely. “Am I right to guess you have already discussed this with her?”
The tension within her as she squeezed his forearms suggested she knew she would not like the answer.
“Yes,” Elijah admitted, gritting his teeth as he added, “Though I regret to admit she did not take it too kindly.”
Still, she looked at him closely, reading him as she always had when he was a child. “And yet, you still wish to marry her?”
Elijah nodded. “I am quite determined.”
Raising a hand to his cheek, his mother finally smiled for the first time since he mentioned Lady Belmont. “You have never stopped getting what you wanted in the past without coming to me for advice. What has changed?”
Bile threatened to choke him.I have never been rejected before.Unable to look his mother in the eye any longer, he admitted, “I am fearful that though I believe she cares for me, I may not be able to convince her that this is a good idea.”
“I cannot say I would not agree with her,” his mother admitted through gritted teeth, but her eyes softened when he met her gaze again. “My darling, all you can do is admit the truth. A real woman shall make her own mind up whether you like it or not.”
Though, deep down he knew she was right, a part of him wished he were a boy once more and able to request anything from the two people in the world who had always managed to give him whatever he wanted.
No, Lady Belmont is worth fighting this battle on my own,he realised, deciding that he had spent long enough as the spoiled, over-privileged heir of an earl and a countess who would give him whatever he desired. If he was going to win Lady Belmont over, he was going to do it on his own merit.
At that very moment, there was a knock on the door. The urgency of the sound caused both Elijah and his mother to look around.
“Come in!” Lady Durham called, and a second later, the butler entered, looming quite contrite, his gaze to the floor.
“Forgive the interruption, My Lord, My Lady,” the man apologised, and the tone of his voice sent a shiver down Elijah’s throat. “I’m afraid there has been an accident.”
“What kind of accident?” Elijah demanded before his mother could say anything. He straightened up, once more becoming the confident, used-to-giving orders earl’s heir rather than the boy frightened of rejection, asking his mother for advice.
The butler lifted his gaze, Adam’s apple quivering before announcing, “Your brother, Edmond, My Lord. It appears he has been in some kind of altercation.”
“Is it serious?” Elijah demanded as his mother gasped.
The butler looked quite uncomfortable as he responded, “It appears so, My Lord.”
Chapter 29
