Page 90 of Sir Hugo Seeks a Wife
Miles let go of her hand and regarded her with a concerned expression.“Athene, there was no scandal.”
Chapter 23
Our happy end is here!
The skies above are clear.
Hugo will be mine.
The world is all sunshine.
Hugo didn’t understand, and he saw that Athene was equally confused.
“Of course there was a scandal, Miles,” she said with a trace of irritation.“Lady Athene Colton-Heath, the Earl of Stannard’s seventeen-year-old daughter, eloped with a scoundrel.Even worse, she never married him.It must have been the talk of the county.”
Miles looked troubled.Hugo had spent a good deal of time with him since Athene’s accident.He liked the man.Miles mightn’t resemble his sister, but he shared her directness and intelligence.So this nonsense about the lack of a scandal struck Hugo as an absurd attempt to be kind, when kindness achieved nothing useful.
Miles made a sweeping gesture.“Athene, you remember what a hermit Father was.We never saw anyone, we never participated in any social life.We rarely even saw the neighbors.”
“But…” She turned a wide-eyed gaze on Hugo.
Miles went on before she could phrase her question.“Father told the household that you’d gone north to live with an aunt.Given you spent most of that last summer quarreling with him, it was in character for him to send you away.”
“I haven’t been back in ten years.”She reached for Hugo’s hand, struggling like he did to make sense of what Miles said.“That’s a long time to be exiled to some mythical aunt.”
“Everyone understood how obstinate Father was.Nobody questioned your absence.”
“The Fosters know I ran off with George.”
“The Fosters had as much reason as we did to keep the secret.They were used to covering up George’s faux pas in the local area.And his extended absence was nothing unusual.Their son was always a rare visitor.The fleshpots of London held his attention, not rural Yorkshire.When you met, he’d only come home to hide from his creditors.If he found someone to warm his bed in the meantime, it made a nice bonus.It was just damned bad luck you fell into his clutches.”
“I was riding in the woods when I met him trespassing from the Fosters’ estate.He was bored and I was ripe for seducing,” she said in a dull tone.“He claimed he fell in love with me at first sight.Just what a girl brimming with romantic dreams wanted to hear.It took me longer than it should to realize what a fool I’d been.”
“You were young and inexperienced, Athene.The fault is his,” Hugo said grimly, firming his grip on her hand.“He must have thought all his Christmases had come at once when he discovered the old earl’s daughter was primed for adventure.”
Her fingers tensed around his.“I was bored, too, and furious with Papa.We’d just had another fight, which was why I was sulking on the edge of the estate.”
“And because you were unfortunate enough to encounter a cur without an ounce of honor, your fate was sealed,” Hugo said, lowering her hand.
Athene frowned down at where their clasped hands rested in her lap.“So hardly anybody knows I eloped with George?”
“You could have come home any time after Papa died.”
Athene regarded her brother with a tormented expression.Hugo could tell that she was afraid to accept what Miles said because if it wasn’t true, the disappointment would eviscerate her.He felt the same.“Papa never forgave me.He wrote to me in Vienna and told me never to darken his door.”
“That’s like him,” Miles said in a hard tone.
“He wasn’t worried about his daughter or what became of her.He was only worried that nothing tarred the family name.”Athene sounded bitter.Hugo couldn’t blame her.“He didn’t care about me at all.”
Miles shook his head.“No, he loved you.In his cold fashion.You were always his favorite, which was why he couldn’t bear your defiance.”
“Maybe.”She sounded unpersuaded.
Hugo brought her hand to his lips and placed a fervent kiss on her knuckles.Inside him, ineffable joy gushed up like a mighty fountain.And relief.He’d been euphoric when Athene agreed to marry him, but this news from Miles changed their entire future.“My darling, you know what this means?”
He couldn’t believe their luck, although he should have guessed something of this outcome.He wasn’t a man who wasted much time on gossip, but surely if the Earl of Stannard’s daughter had eloped, some whisper would have reached him.Yet he’d never heard a word.
Her eyes glowed with wonder as they rested on Hugo.He saw that she came to accept how wrong she’d been about so many things.“All this time, I could have come back to Yorkshire.I could have had a family.”
