Page 69 of Lady of Fortune
It wasn't exactly a lie — she was going to the stable — only, she would continue on her way once she was finished there.
"Darling," her mother said, tilting her head to the side as she regarded Julia. "I am not an idiot, and I will thank you to never regard me as such. Now, come to the drawing room where we can have some privacy to discuss what this is all about."
Julia heaved a sigh and followed her mother, leaving the valise where she stood. She had no wish to speak to her mother of this, but she had been well and properly caught, and she would face the repercussions not like a child, but as a woman — for that is what she was. If she chose to leave with Eddie, her parents could not, in actuality, prevent her.
Julia sat down on the floral pattern of the settee while her mother took a seat across from her in a pale pink mahogany chair.
Her mother folded her hands primly in her lap, the vision of a proper Englishwoman, and yet her gaze, with Julia's own blue eyes staring back at her, was piercing.
"You are running off with Eddie Francis, are you not?"
Julia squirmed slightly, then reminded herself of her age.
"In a way," she said finally.
Her mother sighed, looking down at her lap. When she returned her gaze to Julia's, her eyes were watery.
"Were you not even going to say goodbye?"
"Oh, Mother," Julia said, reaching her hands out to clasp her mothers’ in her own. "I wanted to, truly I did. But I thought if I were to tell you that I was leaving, you would not allow me to do so. I wrote you a note explaining all, including the hope that in time you would forgive me and allow me to see you once more."
"Julia, darling," Lady St. Albans said, bringing her cool hands to Julia's flushed cheeks. "There is nothing you could do that would ever cause me to not want to see you again, to distance myself from you. Do you not understand that?"
The words caused tears begin to flow from Julia's own eyes. "But... Father was so angry when he found me with Eddie in the gardens, and I know how much both of you were encouraging me to spend more time with the Duke. Not only that, but Eddie's name has now been brought into disrepute, though under no fault of his own, and Father will never allow the two of us to be together."
"Julia." Her mother's voice was both soothing and commanding in the same breath as she halted the flow of Julia’s words. "Do you truly love him, with all of your heart? With enough love to choose him, for all of your days to come, to leave behind the life that you know to follow him wherever he chooses to go?"
Julia didn't even have to think about her answer.
"Absolutely."
Her mother smiled.
"Well, then, you have made the correct choice. For you can have all of the houses, all of the riches in the world, but if you do not have love, then your heart will be empty. The Duke is a good man, yes, but you would know by now if you felt anything for him that was worth pursuing. All your father and I have ever wanted is for our children to be happy. Your father may believe, as I do, that you would be happier in the life you have known, a life of luxury, but you know your heart far better than anyone else and you must do what is right."
Julia looked up into her mother's eyes, now happier than anything that she could, at the very least, ask her mother for the advice she sorely needed. She briefly told her mother of Eddie's response to her, his refusal to commit to her out of his own belief that she would be better off without him. Her mother nodded, apparently understanding the predicament they faced.
"So what do I do now?" Julia asked.
"You go find the man, tell him that you are going to be his no matter what he thinks is best for you, and then you bring him back here for our blessing."
Julia launched herself in her mother's arms, and the two of them shared a few tears before Julia waved farewell, and, with a surprised and confused Maybelle now accompanying her for propriety, Julia went to the stables to not only check Orianna but to arrange a carriage to ride into Newmarket to find the man she loved. This time, she would not let him get away.
* * *
After packingup the few belongings he had brought with him from his lodgings in London, Eddie exited the stables of Lord Torrington with good riddance. Except for Midnight Express. He gave the horse one last good pat.
“I’ll miss you, boy,” he murmured in the horse’s ear. “We had some good times together, you and me. I’m sorry it has to come to an end.”
And he was. He was sorry for the entire situation — for not only was the horse no longer valid to race because of the wrong identity, but Eddie figured that Midnight Express was also likely too old to have raced in the Two Thousand Guineas, which was reserved for three-year-old colts and fillies.
Eddie rested his head against Midnight Express’s neck, and the horse seemed to understand how hard it was for Eddie to leave as he gently nuzzled his shoulder. Except Eddie knew, deep down, it wasn’t only Midnight Express — it was leaving all of this, this horse, this life, and most of all, the woman who was so deeply embedded in his heart and soul that he couldn’t imagine being without her.
He sighed, but then jumped a foot in the air when a voice cut through the air behind him.
“I’m sorry about all of this, you know.”
Eddie turned to see Lord Torrington fill the doorway, his hands in his pockets and his gaze upon the floor.
