Page 92 of A Marquess' Season of Secrets
His sister jumped, spilling a little tea on her dress. “Nash! What cause have you to shout like this? Look what you have made me do.”
“Where is Isabella?”
Ellie paused and then continued to wipe down her dress as though nothing was wrong. Unfortunately for her, that pause was very telling.
“I have already told you all I know about her whereabouts. Why must you bother me again?”
“Because I know that you are lying,” he claimed. “Who is the gentleman Isabella had to meet, and why did you direct her to the area behind the clockmaker’s shop?”
“I do not know what you are talking about,” the woman replied, not looking at him. “I do not like your tone, Nash. How dare you speak to your own flesh and blood like this?”
“I dare because I can see the guilt written all over your face! Tell the truth, Ellie. I demand it.”
Ellie looked up at him defiantly, but something in his face must have made her change her mind.
“Oh, very well. I have sent her off with her fiancé.”
“What are you talking about?” Nash asked, his chest uncomfortably tight. “Isabella is not engaged.”
“Isabella is not engaged, but Miss Juliana Hathaway is. Our servant is none other than the daughter of a viscount, so I suppose you were right to think highly of her. However, I am glad to have her out of our lives. Let her fiancé take her far away from here where she can never bother us again.”
Nash’s mind was reeling with the information his sister had given. How had she come by all this information, and why didn’t she tell him?
“You need to tell me what is going on right now, Eleanor. Do not leave out a single detail.”
Ellie pursed her lips, but she launched into the tale of how she met Lord Somersby and how they fell into the discussion about Isabella.
No, her name is Juliana. I cannot think of her as Isabella anymore.
“He explained how she had run away the night before their wedding and his desperation in searching for her,” Ellie revealed. “He asked me to help him organise a meeting with her so he could take her back home.”
With both hands in his hair, Nash massaged his scalp to stop the tingling. He had found Juliana unconscious on the side of the road, so she had probably escaped her home prior to that moment. If Lord Somersby was her fiancé, why would Juliana run away from him? Something must have scared her.
“Did he say why she ran away?”
“No, and I did not ask,” Ellie replied. “I was simply happy that I had finally got rid of the woman. Do you not see that she was trying to seduce you, Nash? I knew she would be trouble from the moment you brought her into the house and put her in our best guest room.
I couldn’t understand what was so special about her that you would go to such lengths! Then you took an interest in her health and kept talking about her like a lovesick fool! I was mortified!
My own brother speaking with such affection over a commoner? I knew right then that she would destroy and humiliate you, so I had to get her out of this house, and I finally succeeded. She is likely married or on her way to be married.”
“What have you done, Ellie?” Nash groaned. “Juliana did nothing to earn your hatred! How could you have been so wrong about her? You have likely sent her to her doom!
Juliana must have run away from that man for a good reason, and now you have put her back in that man’s hands. Lord Somersby has essentially kidnapped Juliana, and it is all your fault.”
“But, but, Nash!” Ellie cried. “I did this for you. You have always protected me, and I believed I had to do the same thing. She was just a commoner!”
“But she’s not, is she? She is a lady just as you are, Eleanor. Would you have treated her differently if you had known that from the very start?”
Ellie looked away, her forehead creased with lines. “She was not good enough for you,” she said stubbornly.
“I fear you have lost touch with reality, dear sister. Your overprotectiveness has led you down a dark road, and all for what? What if you have put Juliana in danger? If Lord Somersby had been a good man, he would have contacted her parents as soon as he found out Juliana’s whereabouts and come to this house with them. Instead, he kidnapped her and whisked her away. What does that tell you about his character?”
“He didn’t seem like a bad man,” she whispered.
“Juliana wasn’t a bad woman, but you believed otherwise. Your judgement is not sound, Ellie. What has happened to you? Where is the woman I was proud to call my sister? I do not know the woman before me.”
Ellie stood up, running up to him. “Do not say that, Nash! I am still the same person. Perhaps I got carried away trying to avoid a scandal in this family, but I did it with good intentions.”
