Page 20 of Courting Trouble
She swallowed the disgust his words brought forth in her, and squared her chin against him. “I have not dallied with Titus, Father, I truly care for him. I-I love him. He’s honest and kind and he’s endlessly good. He saved my life.”
“That doesn’t mean he gets to help himself to your body! I’d rather you had succumbed to fever than to a coal boy.”
She stepped forward, clasping her hands together in front of her wounded heart. “You don’t mean that.”
“Don’t I?” he fumed.
“Titus has done much more for our family and our household than shoveling coal. He is going to be a doctor, like Alcott, who you consider your friend and social equal. He can make a good living. He could be part of our family.”
He slammed the lid of the trunk closed hard enough to splinter it, causing her to jump. “Wake.Up. You stupid girl. Alcott is the fifth son of a very fortunate Viscount. Considering a street urchin like yours would ruin us all. Would you do that to your sisters? Would you soil Pru’s chances at happiness? I’ll have a hard enough time offloading the twins, what with Mercy’s relentless mouth and Felicity’s ridiculous mind.Youwill love whom I tell you to love, and that’s the end of it!”
“I will not!” Though lanced with guilt at the thought of her sisters surviving a scandal she’d created, she likewise shook with temper and fear, longing and loss. She’d never stood up to her father before. To anyone really. She’d been born biddable, butthisshe could not abide. “I’m of age, Father, I’ll leave with him. We’ll go far away and we’ll make it on our own. You’ll never have to see me again. No one ever need know what I’ve done. You can make up whatever fiction you wish. Tell people I’m dead if that helps the situation.”
He stunned her by throwing his head back and barking out a harsh and mirthless laugh, before striding to her and grasping her by the arm. “If you do anything of the sort, I’ll ruin that boy until hewisheshe were dead. Do you hear me?” He shook her for emphasis, and she let out a gasp of pain as his fingers bit into her arm. “I’ll make certain he can find no work in this city.Worse.I’ll have him thrown into Newgate for molesting you. I have friends in the police and on the Queen’s Bench. You know what happens to lads handsome as he is, in prison?”
Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”
“Furthermore, I’ll send you to Bedlam for being a disobedient wretch. They’ll shave off your pretty hair and electrocute you into submission. Is that what you want?” He stood over her like a wrathful god, eyes flashing with condemnation. His hair and beard, once handsomely fair, now threaded with shocks of silver, added to the effect.
A terror Nora had never known gripped her. This was her father, a man known to be as extravagant as he was insouciant. Certainly, he’d never been a warm parent, but she’d not thought him capable of such dire, horrid cruelty.
“Answer carefully, Honoria,” he spat. “Your next words will determine both of your futures. I can make certain that loving you will be the worst thing that ever happened to that boy.”
She had to swallow over a lump of fear cutting off her available supply of air. “What—what do you want me to do?”
“I want you to never see him again. And I want you out of this house so I don’t have to be reminded of your ungrateful wretchedness daily.”
That was a blessing, she thought. She couldn’t wait to leave.
“You’ll marry William Mosby, Viscount Woodhaven, at the month’s end. I’ll post the bans this morning.”
“Woodhaven?” Her breath hitched on the word as she shrank from him.
“Yes, the Cresthaven and Woodhaven titles were created by Richard III some four hundred years ago. Our families fought for the Yorks together. We’re distant cousins. This would be an excellent match, under the circumstances.”
Nora had danced with William Mosby at a function some months ago. There’d been a neediness in their interaction she didn’t at all like. A strange sense of possession. Something frenetic and frankly, sinister.
“I’ll have to rely on Pru’s sweet nature and secondary beauty to secure someone higher than an Earl,” he groused as if to himself.
“But,Papa,” she pleaded.
“I won’t hear it.” He released her with a rough shove toward the door. “Get out of my sight. The next time I lay eyes on you will be at your wedding.”
* * *
Honoria didn’t sleepfor days. She sat on the edge of her bed, staring at her balcony door, knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that Titus would find a way to her.
On the fourth night, the latch clicked at one in the morning, revealing a Titus who looked as haunted and haggard as she felt.
It took every ounce of her self-possession not to fling herself into his arms.
“Nora,” he breathed as he tumbled into her room, reaching for her. “Nora, are you all right?”
She stood and shoved his hands away from her, turning her back to him so she didn’t have to look. “You need to go, Titus. You need togoand not ever darken my door again.”
“No. Don’t speak like that.” His fingers gripped her arms and pulled her shoulder blades against his solid chest as he buried his cheek into her hair.
She wanted nothing so much as to turn into his embrace, which was why she kept her back as straight as steel, her every muscle coiled with tension.
