Page 91 of Wedded to the Ruthless Duke

“It cannot be,” Grace whispered in horror. She thought of her mother and how much Althea had always despaired of her, yet it seemed unthinkable that a lady so focused on propriety would consider putting her own daughter’s name in the scandal sheets. “Do not tell me it was my mother.”

“No, no, not your mother.” Violet shook her head firmly. “It was your cousin. It was Tabitha.”

CHAPTER30

Grace thrust the door open of her father’s house, not even bothering to knock as she entered. Behind her, Diana and Violet raced to keep up with her, holding each other's hands.

“She’s quite determined, isn’t she?” Diana whispered, clearly shocked at the transformation in Grace’s character.

“I’ve never seen her like this.”

Grace didn’t look back at her friends as they marveled at her. She marched through the house, suddenly in no danger of tripping at all. She had a feeling there was still mud on her dress from the garden back home, but she didn’t bother wiping off the dirt. Her mind was focused completely on one thing — find Tabitha.

“Tabitha!” Grace shouted the name loudly.

Toward the back of the house, a door opened. It was pushed open by her father. She smiled momentarily to see he was standing. He looked a little better; there was more color to his cheeks though his expression told all of his concern as he stared at her.

“What’s wrong, Grace?” he asked.

Behind him, just past his shoulder, Grace could glimpse that Althea and Tabitha were in the music room with him. Tabitha must have just broken off from her piano practice, for she had halted with her hands in the air.

Grace walked into the room. She briefly laid a hand of reassurance to her father’s arm then left him and walked straight toward her cousin, aware that Violet and Diana stood in the doorway, their eyes wide as if they were at the theatre.

“How could you?” Grace ranted, rounding on her cousin.

Tabitha looked like she had been frozen into a lady made of ice. Her jaw was slack, her hands still raised as she sat before the piano.

“What is going on? What is the meaning of this?” Althea asked hurriedly. “Grace, a duchess should not shout —”

“The sort of duchess I am means I can do whatever the hell I like, Mother.”

“A lady should not say ‘hell’ —”

“Not now, Mother!” Grace snapped, turning back to face Tabitha again. “How could you do it? How could you give all those stories about me to the scandal sheets? You made them up, didn’t you? The ones about me falling off my horse with my skirts falling up. As for the one about Philip’s father…”

She paused, glancing at her own father who was now gripping to the back of the nearest armchair to support himself. “You heard us that day talking, didn’t you?” she observed in horror. “And you saw an opportunity to embarrass us all?”

“Wh-what?” Tabitha stammered, speaking for the first time. “No, no, it wasn’t like that, Grace.”

“Then what was it like!?” Grace snapped. “You have ruined my marriage, may well have ruined any chance I had of being happy in love, and I would like to know why you saw fit to treat my life like it was a puppet game of yours to control. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Tabitha’s lips opened and closed, but no sound came out.

“Tabitha?” Althea asked, her voice deep and low as she moved to Grace’s side. “Is this true?”

It was this that seemed to break Tabitha. She had clearly lost the respect of the woman whose affection she had come to take for granted in that house.

Tears sprang into her eyes.

“It was not supposed to happen like this,” Tabitha said in a sudden rush as those tears leaked down her cheeks. She stood, appealing to the two of them. “Grace, I thought you didn’t want to marry him. I thought you wouldn’t care. Aunt, you were so keen for me to marry well. My parents were too.”

“You thought you could marry Philip!?” Grace shouted in shock.

“It was what my parents wanted.” Tabitha shook, holding her hands to her cheeks. “My mother writes to me every week from the country. She’s always asked me about my prospects, about when I’ll marry a rich duke. Look, look, I’ll show you.”

She strode away and dove her hands into a box full of sheet music though she didn’t retrieve music. Instead, she pulled out letters from her parents which she had hidden there.

“Read them. You’ll see the pressure I’m under.”

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