Page 92 of Wedded to the Ruthless Duke

Grace didn’t bother to catch them though. Althea did. What she read briefly in those letters clearly horrified her, for she pushed them away fast.

“That is no excuse,” Althea said darkly. “You could have written back and told your mother and father you would find a man in due course. You are a fine lady, Tabitha. You could have your pick of the gentlemen. You have so many suitors.”

“But none of them is a duke,” Tabitha suddenly wailed. “None of them! Yet Grace, Grace has a duke, and she didn’t even want him.”

“I do want him,” Grace confessed. It was like a stone dropping in water. There was sudden silence in the room. “That doesn’t matter now. He’ll never accept this. Never.”

She took a step back from her cousin, feeling tainted by association to a person who would be so willing to condemn them all by putting all of their names in a scandal sheet.

“I’m sorry,” Tabitha murmured hurriedly. “Truly, I am. I didn’t know he mattered to you this much. I was just…” She paused, looking around the room, clearly trying to find someone who would understand, but no one would. “I was just trying to find a way to make my parents happy.”

“Enough, Tabitha. Enough,” John said from his chair, rubbing his brow. He looked very sorry indeed.

“Yes, enough.” Althea took control of the situation. “Tabitha, clearly you are not quite the lady I thought. All the formalities and fine manners in the world cannot make up for something so underhanded, so… cruel.” Althea’s condemnation made Tabitha cry all the more. “I think it best you retreat from London at once to consider what you have done.”

Tabitha nodded, her tears stifling her next words.

“Ye-yes, if you like… I’ll go-go to my parents?”

“I’ll write to them. I’ll let my sister know what her insistence on a good match has produced.” Althea pointed toward the door. “Go and urge your maid to pack for you, Tabitha. I shall speak with you again before you leave.”

Grace watched open mouthed as Althea turned her back on Tabitha. In seconds, Tabitha had gone from being the apple of Althea’s eye to nothing better than the apple’s pips.

Tabitha fled the room fast, great wails escaping her. Violet and Diana barely stepped out of the way in time to avoid being knocked over by her.

“This is difficult,” Althea murmured once a door slammed shut upstairs, muffling Tabitha’s cries. “She is not alone to blame though I doubt I will ever forgive her for this betrayal.”

“She felt backed into a corner,” Grace said, trying to understand her cousin though just like her mother, she was finding it hard. How could she ever forgive Tabitha for such an action?

No matter what pressure Tabitha was under to marry a man of such high position, she had willingly chosen to see Grace’s name disgraced in the scandal sheets a number of times. She had even disgraced the name of the man she claimed she wished to marry as well as the uncle who had been so good as to give her a home for the summer and introduce her to society.

“She has ruined everything,” Grace managed to utter these words eventually, feeling tears prickle the backs of her eyes.

Althea stepped toward her, placing her hands on the tops of Grace’s shoulders.

“Moments in time pass much quicker than you think,” Althea said in a softer tone than Grace could remember hearing her mother speak for some time. “There will come a moment when the scandal sheets are forgotten as hard as that is to imagine right now. Especially if we are able to put our own story in the scandal sheets and set the story straight. Things will move on fast.”

Grace nodded though she was not convinced by her mother’s words. Come what may, she had lost something that mattered to her.

I have still lost Philip.

“Do not worry, Grace.” Althea smiled at her. “You will make quite the duchess in your own way.” There was a glimmer of humor in her face. “You have a good heart. That is more important than anything else.” She shot a resentful glare to the ceiling, clearly referring to the fact that a good heart was what Tabitha had been missing after all, deep down.

“Thank you, Mother,” Grace whispered, wanting to say how much her words mattered.

“Why don’t you go home to your husband? You can explain all to him now.”

“That doesn’t matter.” Grace shook her head, knowing the truth. She recalled the arrangement they had made ahead of the wedding. Clearly, he intended to keep to that deal. “It won’t make a difference. He only wanted me for a month anyway.”

* * *

Tired and aching, Grace stepped down from the horse. She swept the black veil she’d worn to keep her face hidden from the scandal writers, who might be walking the streets back over her updo. In the darkness of the night, she barely saw where she was going. One glittering lantern from the Dowager Hall shone, urging her toward it.

As she stepped up onto the marble front stoop though, another light caught her eye. Turning to her right, she saw an entire line of lanterns, rich orange candles hidden within glass lanterns leading away through the grounds, far from the Dowager Hall. They looked oddly like giant glow worms, hovering in the air, just out of reach, creating a path.

“What is this?” Grace murmured.

Her maid stepped down from the Dowager Hall entrance, bearing the one lantern in her hand that had first drawn Grace forward. The apricot light fell on the maid’s face.

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