Page 117 of Rakes & Reticules
Everything he still wanted in a wife.His heart had decided his fate from the moment he saw her again. It just took his mind longer to agree.
In front of him, Mrs. Miller forcefully tapped her cane against the upholstered floor. The sound was louder than one could imagine on carpet. “You fool of a girl, behaving like some common doxy!” Mrs. Miller shouted at her granddaughter, shocking the viscount who gasped beside her.
Fitz took two steps toward the older woman, but Patience stopped him. Her delicate hand rested on his arm. “How dare you speak to your own granddaughter in such a way?” he asked, trying to control his temper.
He understood Mrs. Miller was a vile, deceitful woman, but he had hoped her granddaughter would be spared her wrath.
He was wrong.
* * *
Her grandmother heldup her hand, pointing it at Patience. “She’s made a fool out of this family for the last time. Are we supposed to rejoice that she is now connected to an earl without a farthing to his name?”
Patience closed her eyes, trying to contain her indignation, but really she was beyond angry. She had done everything the older woman had ever asked, but still it was not enough.
It never would be enough for her grandmother. She knew that now, more than ever. Unwanted tears pooled in Patience eyes. She wanted to wipe them away, but she wouldn’t give her grandmother the satisfaction.
Patience startled as Fitz’s hand slipped into hers, giving her strength to continue.
“I don’t care what you do, Grandmother.” Patience took a deep inhale of breath, drawing strength from the man beside her. “I will no longer be used as a pawn in your games. Now if you all will excuse me, I suddenly feel ill.”
“Are we to ignore what we saw with our very own eyes? I demand that you marry her at once!” her mother shouted in outrage. “This will surely ruin our family and any semblance of a decent match for your sister.”
Her sister.
Not Patience.
Her mother did not care what happened to her eldest, ruined daughter. It was fine because for the first time in her life, Patience would choose herself over her family.
Her godfather cleared his throat several times, his cheeks speckled red with embarrassment, as he shuffled from foot to foot.
“You do plan to make this right, don’t you, Killingworth?” the viscount asked Fitz, like it was his decision and not Patience’s.
Was she not to have an opinion on whom she was to marry?
It wasn’t that Patience did not want to marry Fitz. Even after five years, she could not deny she still had feelings for him. She just would not take away his choices in the matter, or her own.
Finally, this was her chance to teach and eventually open her own school. Patience would be her own woman and provide for herself. After years of doing what her family expected of her, Patience was finally going to be her own person.
“I will marry her if she will accept me. On my honor.” Patience turned to Fitz, shocked by his statement.
There was a small part of her that wanted his words to be honest, but she had believed him once before. Then he had left without speaking to her, believing the lies of her grandmother and Mr. Reeves.
Her godfather nodded repeatedly, dabbing at his bald head with a handkerchief. “Good. Then I think we all should return to the ball—"
“The word of a scandalized lord means nothing. Are we to gloat that she’s to marry someone like him, whose family scandal and debts are known to all?” her grandmother huffed out, sneering from Patience to Fitz.
Patience stepped in front of her grandmother; her head held high. “I have to take your abuse because I’m your granddaughter, but don’t you dare speak to Fitz in such a manner.”
“You fool of a girl!” her grandmother snapped. “You ruined everything five years ago by refusing Mr. Reeves, but I’m sure he will accept you now. All you have to do is agree to his previous offer,” she spat at Patience.
Patience laughed, not believing the other woman had the audacity to champion Mr. Reeves after all these years.
“What offer? Mother, what are you talking about?” her mother asked, looking from Patience to her grandmother.
Both her mother and Hightower had equal expressions of shock on their faces at her grandmother’s admission.
Patience stared at her mother, searching for the truth, and finding it in brown eyes that matched her own. “Mr. Reeves wanted me to be his mistress,” she said, her voice shaking slightly. “He made it clear that night we were discovered in the garden, but I refused him.”
