Page 60 of A Love to Remember
Philip’s gut did a long, slow roll. “How long did she stay?”
“Not long, my lord.” Booth’s hands, normally so controlled, were clenching and unclenching into fists. “And when she left she took”—his eyes popped wide and his face turned sheet-white—“oh, my lord, she took a large trunk with her. The footmen brought it down. Elaine said Her Grace was donating some of her old gowns to charity.”
“Which footmen?”
“I was one, my lord.”
Philip glanced to the door. One of the two footmen Booth had sent to find Elaine had returned. “Was the trunk heavy or light?”
“Heavier than one that held only a few gowns, my lord,” the man said. “But Elaine said Her Grace had added a few other things, as well.”
“Where is Elaine now?” But he already knew the answer. Elaine was working with Kirkwood and had disappeared.
“Not in the house, my lord,” the footman said. “But her things are still in her room.”
“Show me.”
It didn’t take Philip long to search Elaine’s room. It was small and scrupulously tidy. There was nothing incriminating in her dresser or in the trunk.
Frustrated, Philip stood in the middle of the room and forced himself to calm down. If he were Elaine, and living in this tiny space, where would he hide any personal correspondence?—assuming she had not simply burned it.
The idea came quickly. During the war there was only one place he’d been able to keep private correspondence. He moved to the bed and flipped the mattress off it. A letter lay on the board of her bed frame.
Yes! He reached down and plucked up the note. But it was not what he expected. The letter was addressed tohim.
Lord Cumberland,
I have done something unforgivable but could not find any way out of the mess I have caused.
Lord Francis Gowan, Lord Kirkwood’s son, has taken Her Grace to Chatsworth Manor. You know where that is, I hope, as it’s in Devon.
I could not leave this note anywhere obvious as His Lordship is watching me.
He is not the man I thought he was. Please hurry. He means to marry Her Grace, but even though you have forsaken her, I know you will not let a man like him bring up your child….
Your child…Rose was carrying his child.
The room around him seemed to tilt. Philip staggered, and the note fluttered to the floor.
No wonder Elaine had been so frosty to him in the garden; she honestly thought he’d walked away from his child.
Hischild.
His heart clenched so hard in his chest he thought he was having a heart attack. This was a dream—a dream he thought he’d never have. Now he knew it was all he’d ever wanted.
And Rose had not told him.
How could he blame her?
He could not. He would not. But he wasn’t about to let anyone take his chance at love and happiness away. Lord Francis Gowan was a dead man.
He crushed the note in his fist.
“My lord.” It was the footman. “The gentlemen are arriving.”
“Thank you.”
If Francis had already married Rose, she’d be lost to him forever. Philip pushed the anger, hurt, sorrow, and roiling fear away. No, by God, she would not. Not even if he had to make her a widow for a second time.
