Page 39 of The Lord Next Door
Lord Thurlow carefully set down his fork and gave her mother all his attention. “What did he say to Victoria?”
“It was nothing,” Victoria said quickly.
“He insulted my daughter,” her mother went on with calm deliberation.
Victoria looked between them, then focused on Lord Thurlow, whose face briefly showed anger, before he trapped it beneath the polite mask he wore. That small blaze of emotion robbed her of speech, left her wondering what he hid from her. As a child he’d hid behind the fiction of Tom, and now she was beginning to think he had mastered too well the art of deception.
Lord Thurlow turned to Victoria. “What did my father do?”
“Truly, my lord, he doesn’t yet know me.”
“All the more reason for him to be civil.”
Victoria could only bite her lip, uncertain if she should step between her husband and his father.
But her mother, once so bold, seemed to be trying to regain her former self. “My lord, he insulted my daughter, as if glancing through the day’s mail was not her right as mistress of the household.”
Oh heavens, Victoria thought, please let her not mention the earl’s words about Lord Thurlow having an affair.
But her mother only finished with, “And he accused her of marrying to rise in social status, as if it were a sin, instead of something that most young girls should do for the good of their family.”
“Mama, please stop this. We all know exactly why I married Lord Thurlow.”
He sighed. “Ladies, allow me to apologize for my father. Illness cannot absolve his behavior.”
Hadn’t Victoria hoped to bring harmony between father and son? She would have to make clear to her mother that she didn’t need defending.
Lord Thurlow carefully set down his napkin and rose to his feet. “Victoria, I have several things to take care of in my study. Have a good afternoon.”
Victoria stared after him, then looked back at her mother, who calmly continued eating with an improved appetite.
“Mama, you know Lord Thurlow and his father are at odds. You did not need to tell him about our confrontation with the earl. You drove him away from his own dinner table.”
“You need to be protected, my dear, and I am grateful to be able to do it.”
Victoria felt a chill as she remembered the last several years. “But Mama—”
“I promise you it will be all right, Victoria. He’ll learn to protect you, too. Just wait and see.”
Chapter
Nine
David tried to concentrate on the letter he was writing to the secretary of foreign affairs, but he was interrupted by the door swinging open unannounced.
Nurse Carter, a tall, big-boned woman, pushed his father’s wheelchair into the room, and didn’t meet David’s gaze.
David sat back in his chair and tried to size up his father’s mood. The earl wore an air of satisfaction that was confusing.
“Father, once again you didn’t have luncheon with us. Rather rude of you, wasn’t it?”
The earl glanced over his shoulder. “Nurse Carter, you may leave us. Wait outside the door. I’ll call for you.”
When they were alone, the earl spent a moment studying David, as if he was waiting for something. David remained silent, much as he’d like to tell the earl what he thought of his treatment of Victoria. That would only make the old man’s hostility worse.
Confronting Lady Augusta had made David realize that now Victoria would be paying for his father’s sins, too, and that wasn’t fair.
“I imagine the girl came running to tell you what transpired between us,” the earl said.
