Page 49 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

And yet...

‘It’s getting late.’ Her voice was flat. ‘I’ve got a long commute so it’s best if I—’

‘Tell me, Portia. I promise to listen.’

He was no longer a reckless teenager, driven by hormones and emotion, thrilled that the girl he’d loved returned his feelings.

Maybe, despite the sizzle of physical attraction that had brought him back to London, it wasn’t sex that would finally break their thread of connection. Maybe hearing her excuses would do it instead.

Either way, Lex knew that one way or another, their lives were headed in separate directions.

She gave him an assessing look then picked up the coat that had fallen to the floor and moved away. But instead of going to the door, she perched on the broad arm of the chair near the window, arms folded under the coat. As if ready to leave at any moment.

Lex strolled across to stand on the opposite side of the window. He propped a shoulder to the wall, hands in his pockets.

‘Tell me.’

‘My dad found out about us that morning. Raine saw us coming out of one of the outbuildings and heard enough to know I planned to elope with you that night.’

Something caught Lex under the ribs. They’d been found out?

Lex remembered Raine. The woman who’d started coming to Cropley Hall mere months after the death of Portia’s mother. Old man Oakhurst was besotted with her and there had been rumours of an impending wedding.

There was no love lost between Portia and her father’s lover.

‘He went ballistic. I’ve never seen him like that.’

He’d have been apoplectic at the idea of his daughter eloping with the youth he’d always despised, despite Lex’s hard work and ability with the horses.

‘His roars would have brought the house down.’

Yet none of the staff had mentioned it while he and his great-uncle worked that afternoon at the stables. Lex had even seen Portia’s father late that day. The man had been brusque but no more than usual.

‘That’s just it. He didn’t shout. He went quiet and cold. It was eerie, seeing him so furious he shook with it, but bottling it up inside. It wasn’t like him at all.’

Lex tried to imagine it and couldn’t. The man was a loudmouthed bully. His rages were renowned.

‘He grabbed me by the arm and marched me into the library, then told me he had plans for me that didn’t include me throwing away my future on you.’

That Lexcouldimagine. The man was a snob and would want his daughter to marry an aristocrat, or at least a wealthy man.

‘He refused to listen. Every time I tried to speak he kept going as if he didn’t hear me, until finally...’

Portia hesitated, one hand lifting to her cheek, and despite his doubts, Lex felt his blood run cold.

‘Finally, what?’

‘He slapped me.’ Her face turned to his and Lex read a shadow of his own shock there. ‘So hard he knocked me right off my feet.’

‘What?’ Lex straightened, hands fisting by his sides. ‘Hehityou?’

The man was known for his abominable temper. Even the horses grew nervous when he came near. But according to Portia he’d never physically lashed out.

‘I couldn’t believe it either. Maybe that’s why I was woozy afterwards. I couldn’t seem to get my balance back. He frogmarched me out of the room and down the stairs. By the time I realised where I was, the door was locked and he’d taken my phone.’ She paused. ‘Thereisa dungeon, you know. Just the remnants of one at the far end of what’s now the wine cellar. Cropley was built on the ruins of an old castle.’

As if that were the most important thing out of everything she’d said!

‘Hehityou! And locked you up?’

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