Page 65 of Dancing with an Enigmatic Duke
Edward wanted to reach out to her. “I am sorry if I cause you any pain. I could not bear to remain silent. It is better that I look a fool than to never try to get you to cancel the engagement.”
“I had some inkling that you might hold me in esteem. But I had no idea that you felt so fervently for me.” She wrung her hands together. “I do not know what is the right thing to do.”
Edward clasped his hands together as he prayed for her to listen. “If you have any doubts, I beg you to please cancel this engagement before it is official.”
“Please, Lord Hawley, I want to be fair and truthful in all I do, and yet you put me in an awful spot.” She looked at him pleadingly. “I do not know if I can be with someone I do not love. I thought I could manage it, but while I like you, I cannot say if that fondness is the beginning of love or not. I need time to think on this.”
He let his hands fall to the side. “I understand that women need love and adoration. My heart is so full of the emotion for you. I simply thought that perhaps you would feel it too.”
“Do not take me wrongly, Lord Hawley,” Lady Callum said on a soft breath. “I need to tell you something. It must not, cannot leave this room. I just feel as though I must.”
Edward looked at the radiant lady before him with something akin to alarm. “Whatever it is that you need to tell me, you can trust that I will never breathe a word of it to another soul. I would never betray you.”
Lady Callum looked down at the floor. She seemed to be collecting herself before she finally brought herself to look back at Edward. Her eyes were brimming with tears even as he saw her try to calm her nerves once again. “Lord Torrington and I are not what you think we are. We are not really a couple.”
Edward stared at her for a moment, his brain trying to rationalise what she had said. This wholesome, darling creature had lied to him and everyone else? “How did this come about?”
“It is a very long story. But when we first met Lord Torrington was in woe about his mother and her constant harassing about marriage. I was in fear that my brother would not allow me to make my own choices and would simply choose the first man who offered marriage.” She looked down as embarrassment coloured her cheeks. “We came up with a plan to help both of us escape our plights. We fostered this false engagement to allow me to make my own match and allow Lord Torrington to escape the season, as it were.”
Edward frowned. He would have spoken but the door to the library came open with such force that Edward winced. Lord Pentworth and Miss Durant came into the room as Lady Callum clutched her shawl about her shoulders, staring at the angry face of her brother.
“What is going on?” Harcourt demanded angrily.
***
“Harcourt, please keep your voice down,” Emmeline whispered urgently.
Harcourt’s hands were balled into fists and Emmeline knew he was too angry to reason with at the moment. But she had to try.
Harcourt growled, “How exactly did you think I would react to all of this?”
“You were not supposed to find out.” Emmeline spoke the simple truth. There was little else she could do. Her eyes went to Francesca. She was sure that the woman’s presence meant she had alerted Harcourt to where Emmeline was. “Lord Torrington and I were going to ask you to break the engagement off tonight before it was official. No one was to be the worse for it and I would have the rest of the season to find a good match.”
He looked as though he really could not believe what he was hearing. He hissed, “Nash and you both made a fool of me. I’ll wager you had a good laugh behind my back. Did it ever occur to you that I was happy for you?”
“Of course,” Emmeline said with sad eyes. “I never wanted to hurt you and Lord Torrington certainly did not think of it causing you ill. We both care for you dearly.”
Lord Hawley looked at everyone in turn. Harcourt rounded on him next, as if just noticing the man because he dared to move. “And you, Lord Hawley. You pull my sister in here to get her to break her engagement. That in and of itself is a lecherous thing to do.”
“Can we all keep our voices down?” Emmeline was frantic to interject some calm into the situation. The last thing anyone needed was the whole party to become aware of what was going on in the library.
Francesca sneered at Emmeline from behind Harcourt. “There is little need for secrecy now. I followed you and overheard you tell your consort here that you would give his offer of marriage thought. I knew that I had to tell the earl and duke immediately.” She laughed brightly. “I hate to say that was right, but it is clear that I was. I knew it was some sort of jest that you were wanted by all of these men. Look at you! There is no way you could have attracted them all with your beauty.”
Lord Hawley and Harcourt came to Emmeline’s defence, almost in unison.
“That is a step too far!”
“No one speaks to my sister like that!”
Emmeline raised her hand to silence the men as she stepped toward Francesca. The smaller woman seemed to rethink her callous words as Emmeline looked down at her. “I should have heeded my instincts earlier. You might want to look for new employment, Miss Durant.”
“You think you will shame me by letting me go? If you do that then you might want to think about what the newspapers will say when I tell them of what has transpired here tonight. I earned my place,” Francesca drew herself up straight and turned to leave but faltered.
Standing between her and the door was Lord Torrington. Emmeline had never seen such a look on the man’s face before, and it frightened her. His voice was laced with such threat that Emmeline shivered. “Get out,” he growled to Francesca.
“I will have the butler escort her from of the building,” Harcourt said as he went to yank on the cord to summon Gerald. “We would not want her to get lost and accidentally mingle with the guests,”
Francesca looked at two the men. “Do you mean to threaten me?”
