Page 8 of Adoringly, Edward
“No, I mean Iknowwho it is. I just don’t know his name. I don’t know where to find him.”
Slowly, her mother lowered herself onto a velvety chair and smoothed her skirts, regaining her earlier poise. “Listen carefully, Vivi.”
Vivienne followed suit and sat in another chair, dread and terror tangling in her stomach.
Continuing, her mother said, “No one, and I repeatno one, is to hear of what you just told me. Not even the father of this child.”
“But—”
Her mother stopped her words with a hard grip on her arm. “I am here to help you, Vivi. Ifanyonelearns of this, you will doom every single one of your siblings to a life of being shunned by their peers. No one will marry your sisters. We will be cast out of polite society.”
She wiped several more tears from her face. How could she have been so selfish? How could she have let this happen? “What must I do?”
“The only thing you can do.” Her mother sat up straighter and looked her dead in the eye. “You must marry. And quickly now.”
Emotion clogged her throat. Her eyelids shuttered closed. She was eighteen years old. Of course, she knew plenty of people who were married by that age. But she’d wanted excitement and adventure and to have a little bit of fun before marriage clipped her wings.
But it seemed she’d had one bit of fun too many.
“I have feelings for this man,” she said in a husky whisper, opening her eyes to gaze back at her mother through blurry tears. “I don’t want to marry another.”
“Tell me more about him.”
So, she explained everything. Where she’d met him. Why she was so taken with him. His endearing qualities. His physical attributes. That he ran in the same circle as her.
Mother nodded slowly, taking in all the information. “He sounds like a decent man of good breeding.” But then she rolled her eyes. “I saiddecent. He should not have taken liberties with you.” She sighed, disappointment in her very breath. “We will try to find this man. But if we don’t… I will arrange a marriagefor you. Like I said, we don’t have much time before you start showing. This must be quick.”
Vivienne understood the reasoning behind a quick marriage. But a physical ache still pounded on her chest. Hopelessness sat heavy on her shoulders. How long had she spent trying to find the masked man? It was more likely she would wed another than locate him in a timely manner.
“And what of Father?”
Shifting in her seat, Mother scoffed and smoothed down her skirts once again. “I love your father, but he will sooner blow this out of proportion than protect the family with silence. He willneverfind out. Otherwise, this entire family will be ruined. This is only between you and me.”
After letting out a long breath, Vivienne placed a hand over her churning belly, hardly believing something was growing inside of her. “And the baby’s father?”
Her mother’s expression became grave. “It is best he doesn’t know either until after you’ve secured yourself in the marriage. We don’t want to give him any reason to back out of the commitment.”
Another wave of dread crashed over her. She steepled her fingers together over her face and closed her eyes. She wanted to disappear, to pretend like she hadn’t fouled up so badly as to have to face the consequences of her actions.
“What now?” she asked in a barely audible whisper.
“I have several invitations from those within our circle. We will attend every single one of them under the guise of your interest in securing yourself a husband. But Vivi…I will only give you two weeks to find this man, and the wedding will go through only if I approve of him. Understand?”
Wordlessly, she nodded, her eyes still closed. As much as she regretted clipping her own wings…
She would do what she must for the sake of her family.
ONE THING EDWARD was excellent at was performing his duties as viscount. Much of the time, the work didn’t require him getting out of a chair, which allowed him to rest and gain back his strength. The more he rested, the easier it was to perform more strenuous tasks.
And the more he rested…the easier it would be to search Edilann for the masked woman. After how terrible the last incident was, he couldn’t risk another outing until he recovered from the weakness plaguing his body and the dizziness in his mind. Sometimes recovery took days. Other times weeks.
A long sigh escaped him as he pushed his work aside in favor of pulling out the brown lock of hair from his vest pocket. He reverently stroked the hair with a finger, an ache of sadness welling within his heart.
What if he ended up finding her? Could she accept him? Condition and all? What if his search only broke his heart more? Was it worth the risk?
Before he managed to answer his own question, Clara strutted by in a whoosh of silky blue skirts. She wore a hat over her coiffed black hair and a white fur wrap over her shoulders. Like always, she didn’t spare a glance for him when she was often in such a hurry to exit the house without him inquiring of her.
But he inquired, anyway.
