Page 89 of Sir Hugo Seeks a Wife
“So you’re the earl now?”
She didn’t know how she felt about the news.Her father had banished her with a ruthlessness that had cut her to the quick.But he’d loved her once, and he’d certainly spoiled her when she’d been a child.Something that she knew he must have come to regret.Only now when it was too late did she realize that some illogical corner of her mind had never given up hope that he might forgive her.
Hugo squeezed her hand.“Are you all right?”
She met his concerned eyes.“Yes.No.”She swallowed the grief jamming her throat.“It’s a shock.He seemed…immortal.”
“I never forgave him for turning his back on you,” Miles said in a grim tone.“It was his own stupid fault that you kicked over the traces with that bastard George Foster.Anyone could see that an independent spirit like yours couldn’t be confined in a cage.And that’s what Clere Towers was, a cage.”
It was such a revelation that Miles didn’t hate her.Had never hated her, despite the trouble that she was sure she’d caused him.She couldn’t yet come to terms with it or with her father dying still cursing her name.“You…you mentioned Vienna.”
“I’ve had people looking for you for years.We traced you to Austria, but there was no further news.The French invasion didn’t help.”
She observed her brother’s haunted gaze.“You thought I’d died.”
Miles nodded, his expression haggard.“It near broke my heart.”
Athene couldn’t doubt that was true.She saw the marks of long sorrow on his face.He’d always been a quiet, thoughtful boy, very different from their bombastic, demanding father.He’d always felt things deeply.She could see now that her absence had remained an unhealed wound through all these years.Her heart cramped with guilt and misery.
“We found out George had died.”His calmness splintered.“Damn it, Athene.I was convinced you hadn’t survived either.”
“I nearly didn’t,” she murmured.“But I had a friend who helped me and brought me back to London.I’ve been there ever since.”
Miles’s face contorted.“Thank God for him.To think, you were in England, virtually under my nose.”
She realized that her brother assumed she’d taken another lover.Even more surprising, he didn’t seem to blame her for it.“No, it was a woman.A very clever, resourceful woman.”She could never repay what she owed to Sylvie.Not if she lived to be a thousand.
“Then thank God for her,” Miles said.
“I’m so sorry, Miles.I assumed that you’d loathe me the way Papa did.”
“I could never loathe you.”
She believed now that was true.“But you’ve spent ten years thinking you were the last of the Colton-Heaths.”
“I did,” he said in a somber voice.
“You haven’t married?”
He shook his head, still looking as overwhelmed with how things turned out as she felt.“I suppose I could have, but how could I start a new life until I knew what had happened to you?”
“I should have tried to find out about the family.At the very least I should have sent you a message saying that I was still alive.”So much she ought to have done.These last ten years hadn’t just been an ordeal for her, they’d been an ordeal for her brother as well.
“I can’t tell you what it means to have you back in the family.”Miles summoned a smile that didn’t quite banish the ghosts from his eyes.“And now you’re marrying Sir Hugo, you’ll be living in Yorkshire.It almost seems too good to be true.”
“I missed you, Miles.I missed you so much,” she said on a choked wail, as her tears finally overflowed.
“And I missed you.”
Hugo released her hand, and she held it out to her brother.She was shaking.She could hardly believe that Miles hadn’t forsaken her.“I’m so sorry.We’ve both suffered so much and it turns out we didn’t have to.”
“The fault isn’t yours.It’s all down to that stubborn, self-righteous prig, our father.”He took her hand in a firm grip and rose to kiss her cheek again.“I want to give you a hug.”
A watery giggle escaped, as she squeezed his hand.“That might have to wait.”
“You can come home and take your proper place in the world.”
Athene frowned at him.“That’s asking too much, even on a day crammed with so many miracles.I’ll never live down the scandal.It’s why I held back from accepting Hugo’s proposal.”
