Page 91 of Trapped with her Cruel Duke

“You have lain with countless women!” the Countess shouted, her usually soft voice reverberating through the room like a thunderclap. Her face was red with rage. “I know it—I haveseenit. You do not understand the misery I have endured all these years. I had to hear about your conduct from an acquaintance at aball. You spent your money on yourmistressand squandered the rest of it at the gaming tables.”

“This is outrageous,” the Earl roared, but she would not be silenced.

“I have endured this for years, Walter. You promised me time and again that you would change. Even when you gambled away my mother’s jewelry—everything I cared for in the world—I accepted it because I believed that you would change. It has taken the love of a good man, abetterman, to see that you will never change.”

Her eyes were sharp and assessing as she glanced at Louise, the sorrow in them palpable before she looked back at her husband.

“When you gambled away my beloved daughter, when you almost destroyed her future, I knew then that I had to get away from you. One way or the other, if you have not already destroyed yourself, Marcus and I will leave you to your debts and your precious name and be done with you forever.”

Louise’s chest swelled with pride as she witnessed her mother’s defiance. Her bruises seemed to darken as the weak sunshine began to filter into the room, and her face twisted into an expression of disgust as she looked upon the man she had once loved.

“You will do nothing of the sort!” the Earl bellowed, pointing a meaty finger at her. “You are a disgrace. Do you hear me, Althea? A disgrace to my name and Louise?—”

“You will not bring me into this,” Louise spat.

His head whipped around, and he looked at her in astonishment as she came to stand beside her mother.

“You have created the world in which you live, Papa. By your own hand, you have set it alight in more ways than one. I always believed that you were better than you seemed… that in your heart, there was some good that remained. Until you tried to kill me and Christian in our beds by setting our house on fire!”

A charged silence fell over them before the Earl began to splutter desperately.

“Do you deny it?” Lady Northbridge demanded, reaching for Louise.

Both women stood to their full height, a silent agreement passing between them.

“You are both mad,” the Earl said with a derisive laugh. “Utterly mad. What fire are you speaking of? Have you lost your senses, Louise?”

“Then where were you tonight? Answer me!”

The Earl’s pomp and bluster slowly faded, as did the color in his cheeks. Louise had held on to the hope that her father was not guilty until that moment. To see the truth written all over his face was sickening.

Lady Northbridge stepped forward, but Marcus made to stop her.

“We will be leaving now,” she announced solemnly and reached out her other hand to her lover.

Marcus gripped it tightly, and that was when Louise saw the light in her father’s eyes change.

Before, he had been a dejected fool, standing in the house he had gambled away, in front of the wife he had lost. But in a few seconds, the monster that lurked beneath reared its head.

Her mother seemed to recognize the change in him, too, and recoiled as he swung back his left hand, the muscles beneath his coat bulging as he prepared to slap his wife across the face.

Without a second thought, Louise stepped in front of her mother at the last moment. It could have been mere seconds, but the Earl did not slow down, and she felt the blow rattle her cheekbone.

With a startled cry, she fell to the floor, astonished at the pain that splintered through her face. There was absolute silence for a charged moment before a thundering voice filled the room.

“How dare you lay a hand on my wife?”

Christian had stayed in bed late into the night, replaying the events of the evening.

He was glad that his mother and brother were safe, but his thoughts kept returning to Louise. The moment when the fire was finally put out and he had looked across the garden at her played over and over in his mind.

The relief, the overwhelming joy he had felt at seeing her safe, had shocked him. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever beheld, brave and determined to the last—he did not know how he had not seen it before.

He tossed and turned, hating being alone in his bed and wishing she was with him. He was at a loss as to what had caused the cold distance in her eyes, but he was determined to find out.

Eventually, he rose from the bed and walked out of his room. He padded to her door and prepared to knock on it, only to find it ajar.

“Louise?” he murmured, gently pushing the door open. He peered inside to find her room empty.

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