Page 77 of A Sight to Behold
Pippa followed Isabel out the door, down the steps, and onto the street. “Wait, Isabel!”
Tears ran down Isabel’s cheeks, and she stormed down the street, holding her bonnet tightly over her face just beneath her eyes as if she tried to hide it.
But before the end of the block, Pippa had caught up with her. “I’m sorry, it was a terrible idea! I thought Violet could help you, and I just made it all worse!” Pippa’s voice shook with horror. It was all her fault to make Isabel feel so bad.
“Lady Pemberton!” sounded behind them, and they turned to see the earl emerging from his house. He looked back and forth, up and down the sidewalk, and then spotted them. “Lady Pemberton! Please! Wait!”
“Let me go!” Isabel withdrew her hand, and Pippa reached for it again. “I have to go away.”
“Don’t go to him!” the earl said when he reached them on the sidewalk. “Please don’t go to your husband today. Take it from a man who has undergone this surgery. We don’t want to be seen by anyone, especially not our wives.” Pippa blinked up at the earl, usually the epitome of grace. But right now, he looked like a disheveled man in the wind, furrowing his brows. “Please let him heal and save face.”
Isabel stilled, dropped her arm, and pinched her mouth shut. But she didn’t keep walking—at least that was good.
“Lady Ellington, I implore you to consider my words. When Violet’s father permitted me to court her, she sniffed at me as if I was of no consequence. It seems that she needs no introduction as you attended school together?”
“She told you?”
“Only this much, but I can imagine the rest.” He inclined his head as if he knew what it felt like to be a victim of Violet’s scorn.
“It is I who must save face, my lord.” Isabel sniffled and then lifted her head and nose in the air. “I’m going to return to the country.”
“But Lance needs you here!” Pippa protested.
Both Isabel and the earl looked at her as if she’d sprouted horns. “He will not want to see me…” Isabel’s voice failed her. Then she grimaced and made a terrible face that broke Pippa’s heart. “I’m such a bad and shallow person; I don’t deserve Lance.”
“Isabel! Why would you say such a thing?”
“Because His Grace said Lance might be embarrassed, but it is I who only think of my vanity. I want to run away from my husband because I’m ashamed that he’ll see my face. I should have considered his feelings, and I was too vain even to contemplate it. I’m as ugly on the inside as I am on the outside.”
You’re not ugly at all, was what Pippa hoped the earl would say but he just stood there with horror on his face. A perfect match for Violet.
“Lady Ellington, you mustn’t leave your husband on the day of or after his surgery.” The earl spoke matter-of-factly. “If there is anything I know as a man, it is likely that he underwent the procedure precisely because he wished to see you.”
“And when he does, he will no longer love me,” Isabel wailed.
“No, no. That’s just not how love works. Nobody falls out of love like that and especially not for a little blemish. Look at me, I had no chance with Violet. She gave me the same condescending look she gave you today. When I saw that expression on her face, I knew something was amiss and that you’d had the pleasure of being more closely acquainted with my wife.”
Pippa couldn’t believe her ears. The tall and handsome earl had been on the receiving end of Violet’s scorn, and he married her regardless? Loved her? How un-aristocratic of him!
“Yes, what a pleasure!” Isabel’s tone was sarcastic with an undercurrent of deep hurt. “If she and her mother hadn’t told my parents that I’d bring shame on the ball’s debutantes, they wouldn’t have sent me away.”
“But isn’t that how you met Lance?” Pippa asked, trying to help the situation, but there was something bubbling between the earl and Isabel as if they shared a bond from being Violet’s victims.
“It is but that’s not the point.”
“I’m sure Violet didn’t mean anything by it, Lady Ellington.”
“How can you say that? She’s vicious and superficial. Anyone who doesn’t fit her image of perfect beauty and immaculate composure is ousted from society.” Isabel could barely contain her shrill voice, vexed by Violet’s actions from years ago.
“I know, but it’s not that simple.” The earl was undeterred in his honesty but looked flushed and embarrassed to bare hisfeelings to two ladies on the sidewalk. “See, I was a glutton when I first returned from St. Petersburg. I had bedded women in almost every court in Europe and shared more than a few whiskeys with the peers of various realms. It took a toll on my health, and it showed.” Isabel crossed her arms in front of her chest and quirked a brow, but he continued. “I came back and sought out the dentist first.” He opened his mouth wide, and Isabel looked away like a dutiful lady. It was unseemly to stare an earl in the mouth. But Pippa looked and saw all of his back teeth, full of gold. The rest were bright white.
“Did Felix do that?” Pippa asked.
“Yes, he’s my dentist. And I’m glad for it. If it weren’t for him, I’d be in terrible pain or even worse, toothless. Thanks to him, I am donning gold fillings and inlays, but I can smile at my dear wife and will be able to for many years to come.”
“Dear wife,” Isabel snuffed.
“Yes, indeed. If she hadn’t made it so difficult for me to court her, I wouldn’t have been able to gather the strength for these improvements. Who knows where I’d be or with whom?”
