Page 61 of Marry Me…Maybe?
Francesca huffed out a sigh and looked down at her perfectly manicured fingernails. ‘She latched on to Theo after Hugo’s funeral. I could see her for what she was right away: a gold-digger. I was suspicious about how quickly she appeared after Hugo’s death and fell for him. I love my son dearly, but as I’m sure you’ve noticed he can be a little hard to get to know. He was always like that – reserved. He had good friends, and he got on famously with his brother, but he was usually wary of people he didn’t know because of his family background. So I hired a private detective to check up on her and he came back with some worrying information. A previous very short marriage and debt. Lots of debt. I did what any good mother would do for her son. I tested her with the threat of taking away his money and she failed. He had a narrow escape.’
Emily was shocked by the extent of the trouble the woman had gone to. But then maybe that was par for the course when you were part of a titled family with a large estate and bank balance.
‘Does Theo know about what the private detective found out?’
Francesca sighed. ‘I tried to tell him at the time but he blanked me. I think he didn’t want to believe it was true. He was in love with her. Or he thought he was.’
‘Yeah, it’s very easy to be taken in by people when you’re young and trusting,’ Emily muttered.
Francesca clasped her hands together, as if asking for forgiveness for what she was about to say.
‘I feel dreadful about what happened with Lauren, but I’m not sorry she left him. Clearly, she was manipulative. After we warned her off, she came back to Theo’s father and me and asked for a pay-off. Said she’d leave Theo alone if we gave her money.’
Emily frowned. ‘She came to you? Theo thinks you offered her money.’
‘No. That’s not how it happened.’ Francesca sighed and shook her head. ‘Poor Theo. His pride was understandably damaged, of course, but it was for the best. Not that he ever saw it that way. He’s been torturing me all these years – first of all with the wild behaviour he indulged in for a time after it happened, then with his determination not to get seriously involved with anyone again.’
Francesca looked at Emily with such a wretched expression it made her chest constrict in sympathy.
‘I didn’t just lose one son, Emily, I lost two,’ she said, her voice now choked with emotion.
Emily instinctively reached out and put her hand on Francesca’s. ‘That must have been hard for you.’
‘It was. Truly awful. He blamed me, of course, for Lauren leaving, and he still hasn’t forgiven me.’
‘Perhaps that’s because of the baby,’ she said, giving the woman a mindful frown.
Francesca’s eyes widened in shock. ‘What baby?’ she gasped.
Emily’s jaw dropped in surprise. ‘You didn’t know? Lauren was pregnant and she had an abortion once you’d paid her off.’
‘I didn’t know. Theo never told me. Oh, goodness.’ Francesca buried her head in her hands and stared at the floor in shock. ‘My poor Theo. I never would have – what did I do?’
Emily leant forward and rubbed her shoulder, really feeling for the woman now. There had been more than one victim in the Berkeley family too.
If only they’d all talked to each other more.
‘It’s not your fault, Francesca. How could you have known if they didn’t tell you?’
‘No wonder he wouldn’t speak to me for so long after it happened. It took until after his father’s death, a few years ago, before he’d give me more than a few cursory words of information about what he was doing. I suppose I always expected great things from him and put him under a lot of pressure to conform to that. The whole nobility thing can be both a blessing and a curse. I thought maybe that was why he avoided me for so long.’
She sighed and swiped away a tear from under her eye.
‘I probably shouldn’t have agreed to let him live in the house after I moved out. It only seemed to make him more reclusive. That’s why I made all those ridiculous threats about selling the place – to try and make things right. I thought a threat of losing the house was the way to shake him up a little and pull him out of that stubborn funk. To get him to fight for something that meant something to him. I guess it worked after all, because that something turned out to be you.’
She turned her gaze on Emily and gave her a hopeful smile.
‘Look, Francesca?—’
‘I’m giving him the house, Emily. Now he has you to share it with.’
She stared at the woman in shock, her head spinning with the sudden turn in conversation. ‘It wouldn’t work out with us. I’m not a good person. I’m selfish and irresponsible.’
‘Rubbish! You’re a wonderful person and you’re going to make my son very happy. And he’ll make you happy too, if you let him.’ She put a reassuring hand on Emily’s arm. ‘Don’t be afraid. He’ll love and protect you ferociously.’
Francesca’s approval made Emily heady with exhilaration as she realised she was finally being accepted into a family with genuine warmth and love. In fact, if she allowed herself to trust that Theo could really, truly love her – and judging by the way he’d taken care of her recently, she felt deep down that he could, if she let him – then she’d be gaining a mother at the same time as reconciling with the love of her life.
Francesca clearly felt she hadn’t quite won her over yet, though, because she smiled and tipped her head in contrition. ‘Look, I’m sorry I was so unfriendly when we first met. I suspected you might just be a friend of his – putting on a show for my benefit so that I’d leave him alone. But when I saw the two of you together, I knew that couldn’t be right. There’s this powerful intensity between you that I’ve never witnessed in him before. Whenever you’re in the same room he can’t keep his eyes off you.’
