Page 75 of Wickeds Scandal
Tears ran down Alexandra’s face.“Sutton, do you hear yourself? Please calm down and we can talk aboutthis. I didn’t need Helmsby Abbey to marry you. Your past withJeanette has poisoned you and - ”
“You know I tried to buy it for you,” hecontinued without listening to her. “Meechum told me it had already beensold to a private buyer whose name he couldn’t disclose. It was my owngrandmother.” Sutton’s face looked as if it were carved from a block ofmarble. He looked down his nose at her. “I felt I had failed you bynot buying the estate. You let me live with that guilt when all along…”He looked out the window.
“Please let me explain, Sutton.”She reached for him again.
He flinched from her touch. Heturned back to her. “Tell me this is a misunderstanding. Was theprice for your ruination Helmsby Abbey? Tell me I am wrong.”Sutton’s voice broke. “Please tell me.”
“Sutton,” she sobbed brokenly.
“Damn you,” Sutton whispered as thecarriage halted to a stop. “Damn you, Alexandra Dunforth. Why did youhave to be like all the rest?”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Alexandra spent a sleepless night,alternately crying or fuming with anger. How could Sutton believe she’dmarried him for Helmsby Abbey? Did their time at Gray Covington meannothing to him? He thought her a mercenary. How could he nottrust her? His relationship with his stepmother blinded him to everythingelse.
Upon their arrival at Cambourne House,Sutton opened the carriage door and asked a footman to escort the Marchionessinside. He was going out. When Alexandra tried in vain to questionhim, he shut the carriage door in her face.
The Dowager and Miranda burst through thefront door of Cambourne House barely thirty minutes after Alexandra’sarrival. Donata was visibly distraught, her face pale and haggard as sheangrily railed against her grandson. Miranda demanded to know where heridiot brother was. How could he allow himself to be manipulated byJeanette? He would come around, Miranda told her. He would be homefor breakfast.
But he had not come home. No notehad been sent.
Alexandra walked into the empty breakfastroom this morning and noticed the empty space where her husband usuallysat. A servant brought her tea.
“Should I pour for Lord Reynolds?” theservant asked. It was not an odd question; the staff noticed that the masterand mistress always began their day together.
“No, Hobbs. His lordship went foran early ride in the park.”
Alexandra nibbled at a piece of toast andtried to quell the rising tide of panic in her breast.
Miranda wandered in a few moments later,looked at her brother’s empty chair, and took a seat next to Alexandra.Mutely, she sipped her tea. Under the table, she took Alexandra’s hand.“I shan’t leave you, Alex.”
A quarter hour ticked by. Alexandrapushed away from the table, prepared to go find Sutton herself, when there wasa knock at the breakfast room door.
“My lady.” A footman entered andbowed low offering her an envelope on a silver tray. Her named wassprawled across the front in Sutton’s bold hand.
“Do you want me to open it?”Miranda asked.
Alexandra shook her head.
“He’s a fool, Alexandra, if he can’t seethat you love him.” Miranda’s emerald eyes welled with tears.
“No.” Alexandra sliced openthe envelope, pulling out the cream colored paper it contained. She readit through twice before the contents sank in. Tears ran down her face asshe laid the letter down. “Bloody idiot,” she whispered.
“Alexandra?” Worry etched Miranda’sface.
“He’s gone,” Alexandra replied calmly,wiping the tears from her face.How could he?“He’sgone to Macao.”
TWENTY-NINE
Alexandraput down the ledger and stretched to get the crick out of her neck. Herback popped as she stretched, the tiny vertebrae snapping into place. Sherubbed her eyes. The numbers on the ledger were beginning to blur. Sheworked day and night, determined to oversee the vast Cambourne empire on herown. She barely succeeded. In the three months since Sutton’sdeparture, or as she called it in her darkest moments, his idiotic abandonmentof her, the work had been a balm to her soul. Work kept her from dwellingon Sutton. As she put down her quill her stomach growled.
“Yes, yes. Time for tea.”Muttering she reached for the bell-pull when she overheard voices in the hall.
“Her ladyship is not receivingtoday! Please leave your card, my lord and I’ll –“
A large, powerfully built man burst intoher study. The door slammed against the wall knocking a watercolor oflilies askew. The man, tall and muscular, dominated the room at hisentrance. Dark, shaggy brown hair hung over his ears and brushed the topof the elegant coat stretched across the broad shoulders. Some would havecalled him handsome, except for the bend of his nose, a testament to having itbroken more than once. The eyes, of course, were what madeAlexandra sit back in her chair and clutch the desk tightly. One eyebrown the other a brilliant, azure blue. She’d read about the conditiononce, it was genetic and hereditary, sometimes carried in families forcenturies. The effect was startling, and slightly demonic.She knew who this man was. A trickle of fear ran down her back.
“Lady Reynolds?” Her namerumbled out of the giant’s chest.
