“I was only—”
“Convincing her to run away with you? Did you imagine I would part with her dowry to a servant, even if you did steal her away to Gretna Green?” Another step. “Or did you even plan to marry her? Did you only wish to compromise her so that you might force me to payyoufive thousand pounds a year as I paid your aunt—”
“She was not my aunt!” William blew air from his cheeks and stepped back, fury heating his bloodstream into lava. “And I should rather die than take your money or soil your daughter.”
“Noble words, Kensley, but they mean nothing to me. I am not so easily persuaded as my daughter. I see you as you are, a predator, and I shall not stand for it.”
“You need not worry.” William took a step for the stairs. “I shall leave tonight—”
“You are not going anywhere.” Edward’s giant hands seized William’s coat. Seams ripped as he yanked William into his face, nose against nose. “Not until I am finished. Not until I have had my word.”
“Then have it.” William did not struggle against the hold. He didn’t know why. Had it been anyone else, he would have ripped free and landed a punch in the face that leered at him.
But something inside him still remembered Lord Gresham had almost been his father. All the angst of wanting the man to accept him, to love him, rushed back in a torrent.
“How long?” Lord Gresham shook the coat. “How long has this deceit occurred?”
“There has been no deceit.”
“Answer me!” Another shake. “How many times has she been to the stable to see you? How many times have you ridden off together? How many times did you degrade my daughter with your kiss?”
“What is finished is finished.”
“How can I know that?”
With slow movements, William pried the man’s hands away. “You cannot.” He started for the stairs and made it three steps up before Edward yelled out to him.
“If you ever return to Sharottewood, if you so much as speak to my daughter again … so help me, I shall kill you.”
William gripped the wooden banister so hard the splinters dug into his flesh. “I have no intention of coming back.”
Isabella pressed both hands against the cool glass of her bedchamber window.
Below in the moonlight, William rode away. She had known he would leave tonight. She had resigned herself to such an ending while she’d hurried back to the house as Father instructed.
But she had done the wrong thing. She should have stayed in the harness room.
She should have stood by William.
Wild, unrelenting emotions choked through her as she backed away from the window with horse hooves still echoing in her ears. Too many thoughts pressed upon her. None of them made sense. None of them matched Father’s expectations or her own strong philosophies.
“Miss Gresham, why are you yet awake?” Bridget, clutching a brass candleholder, squeezed through the half-open door. “A commotion outside awoke me. Are you well?”
She was a hundred things but not well. She could not do this. She could not stand here and allow William to be thrown away. Not when she needed him and wanted him and could not bear to wake up tomorrow without knowing he was near.
“Miss Gresham?”
Isabella ignored Bridget and brushed past her as she hurried out into the hall. She ran through the darkness. By the time she reached the top of the stairs, Father was already striding past them below. “Father!”
He paused, his black form casting a long shadow on the moonlit marble floors. “Return to your chamber, Isabella. We shall not discuss what has happened.”
“Father, wait.” She flew down the steps, panting by the time she flung herself in front of him. She grasped his arms. “You cannot send him away. I beg of you, Father. Send someone after him—”
“The devil I will!” He growled in his throat. “If I thought one member of Parliament knew my daughter had behaved herself unseemly with a servant, I would go upstairs and hang myself.”
Anger cut through her. “Is that what this is about? What people shall think?”
“I have worked too hard.” Snatching her elbows, he held her at arm’s length. “I have sacrificed too much. I have forfeited everything but my soul to keep Sharottewood—and I will not lose what we have built to such a scandalous outrage as this. Do you hear me? I will not!”
