Page 57 of The Duke and His Cinderella
Nicholas nodded. “Thank you for the warning,” he said. “I suppose my mother is to blame for this—I’ll have to find her and set things right. She knows better than to do that. Honestly, if this doesn’t stop now, I’m simply going to take her home.”
“But you’ll come back, won’t you?” Jacob asked. “I so want you to be here for the wedding.”
“I won’t miss the wedding,” Nicholas pledged. “Even if I have to simply take my mother home, leave her there, turn round, and come straight back, I will be here for the wedding. I can promise you that much.”
“Good,” Jacob said, sounding very relieved. “I’m sorry. I’m sure that’s not what’s most important to you right now.”
“Regardless, I don’t want to miss out on this wedding because of my mother’s errant behavior,” Nicholas said. “I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen, Jacob.”
He hurried away in the opposite direction from the dining room, needing to find his mother quickly. She had gone too far. Every time he took her aside and scolded her for her intervention, he believed he had reached her—that he had made her see how outrageous her behavior was and how angry he was about it. So many times, he’d told himself that she must surely understand the severity of what she was doing now, and that at last, it would surely stop. And every time, she had done something more.
If she had made arrangements for a meal in celebration of his so-called engagement, she had crossed such a line that he wasn’tsure he would ever be able to trust her again. She needed to know how serious this was, and perhaps the only way to make her aware of that was to remove her from the premises. Either way, he told himself firmly, that was exactly what he was going to do as soon as he located her. There would be no more chances.
He had started toward the bedroom in which she was staying, hoping that he would find her there, when he came to a halt. Voices were coming from the cloakroom.
Who would be in the cloakroom?
He paused beside the door, leaning close to listen.
“I can’t believe you’ve allowed this to happen,” said one voice furiously, and Nicholas was stunned to recognize it as belonging to Phineas. “I can’t believe you would let things reach this point, Hannah. Youknowthat he doesn’t want this.”
“And what would you have me do?” The second speaker was Lady Hannah, and she sounded absolutely furious. “How would you have me solve this, Phineas? You know I’m in just a much of a conundrum here as anyone! How could I have orchestrated a different outcome? How much control do you think I have over this situation?”
“He doesn’t want to marry you,” Phineas said. “You know he doesn’t.”
They could only be talking about him, Nicholas realized. He leaned closer to the door, anxious to hear what was being said.
Lady Hannah let out a sigh. “Of course I know that,” she said.
She knows that?It was the first time Nicholas had ever heard her acknowledge that fact aloud. If she knew that he didn’t want the marriage, if she could actuallyadmitthat he didn’t want it, why was she continuing to pursue it? What was she thinking of?
“If you know she doesn’t want it, how can you have told everyone that it’s happening?” Phineas demanded. “You must know that he won’t let it happen.”
So it was Lady Hannah who had spread that vile rumor and not Nicholas’ mother? Nicholas frowned. He was glad he had heard this information before confronting his mother. But at the same time—Phineas was right. What could Lady Hannah have been thinking by doing this? What could she possibly mean by it? Surely she didn’t imagine that such tactics would actually work against him? Surely she didn’twanta marriage that was only born of manipulation, the way this one would have to be?
“I don’t know what else to do,” Lady Hannah said. “I have to do something. You know my father has made his expectations of me very clear—Imustmarry the duke.”
“But you don’t want to marry him either. You and I both know that you don’t.”
She sighed. “Stop this, Phineas. What can I do? What can either of us do?”
“You do love me.”
“Stop it.”
“Say it.”
“It doesn’t matter. Can’t you see that? It doesn’t matter how I feel or how you feel. Our feelings have nothing to do with anything. What matters is that my father has decided, and if you truly feel for me as you say you do, I can’t imagine why you would force me to think about something I can never have. Don’t you want me to be happy?”
“Of course I want you to be happy?” Phineas burst out. “And I’m the one who will make you happy! You and I both know that, Hannah. I don’t know why you persist in lying, both to yourself and to me, when we both know you’ll be happier in a marriage to me than you ever would be married to Nicholas.”
“Stop it,” Hannah said again. “Stop it, Phineas.”
“No. I’ve held my tongue long enough. You know, you almost had me believing that you stopped loving me when you ended our engagement, but I no longer think that’s remotely true. You never stopped loving me, did you? You love me still.”
“Don’t do this to me.”
Nicholas couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Phineas and Lady Hannah were in love with one another? The two of them wished to marry each other? How could that be true? Could it have been true all this time?
