Page 64 of The Earl's Disguised Governess
“And I had a right to know my mother when I was a little girl, but you took that away from me.”
Her anger simmered in the basement. If Magdalene would not be the first to leave, then Claire would. She did not have to endure this. But before she could stomp away, Magdalene departed, and Claire was left alone in the basement.
I have sent her out, yet I feel exactly as I did twenty years ago, wishing she would come back.
Chapter 23
Exhaustion weighed on Ernest as he looked around the gentlemen’s club, constantly aware of the darkening sky outside the window.
He had wandered home late from the ball, avoiding the guests leaving the party, including his mother, and had left for the hospital early in the morning. He had stayed late, taking on his colleague’s work as an excuse to stay longer to avoid returning home.
His mother was not someone he could face, and seeing Claire, knowing that his mother had likely already gloated about the scandal she was telling everybody she had caught, was incomprehensible.
A stronger man would have marched right home and spoke the truth. Ernest poured his only drink for the evening. Just one, he had promised himself. And then he would be dutiful and return home. He just needed some time. He had hidden away today, sequestering himself in the corner of the gentlemen’s club. If he showed his face in Society, then there would be questions.
He had already fielded some of them at the hospital that day.
Will you now propose to Lady Samantha?
Lord Bannerdown, did you truly compromise the young woman?
Do you think yourself honouring the viscount by being caught alone with Lady Samantha?
They weighed down on him, and he had ignored every single one, sending only a scathing look their way before leaving for the club.
But he could not avoid them all forever, and least of all, Claire. She would know something, and he needed her to know the truth more than anybody. He would not be able to bear it if she believed the word going around about him.
The ton was calling him a rake.
Him!
He could barely even say hello to Miss Gundry the first time he had seen her, let alone flirt with another woman.
No, he needed to come up with a way to prevent Lady Samantha from entering into any obligation he was forced topresent and had to find a way to prove his innocence. He swigged his drink.
I will curse my mother until the day this is all over, he thought bitterly. Fury was becoming something he was more and more familiar with lately, and he could not keep his emotions under wraps where his mother was concerned. She was doing everything to ignite his temper, and he did not know why. What was she doing? She spoke in riddles, smug, awful riddles that he did not know how to decode.
How could she expect him to go through with marrying Lady Samantha? That was what everybody now expected him to do. It would be honourable, to save her from being shamed out of Society and prospects.
And how could he even hope to guide Lady Florence into this labyrinthine society when he could not even figure it out for himself?
A man moved through the crowd, his eyes on Ernest. But it was quite possibly the only man Ernest would agree to see, for it was the only man who knew Ernest truly.
Graham.
He sat down and helped himself to a drink from the bottle Ernest had bought despite not planning to have more than one drink.
“You have had some isolated time long enough, dear friend,” Graham said. “It is time for company now.”
“Is it good company?”
Graham snorted. “It is honest company.”
“Graham, I did not—”
“I know,” he said. “Lady Samantha called upon me first thing this morning before I left for the hospital. I believe her, and I believe you. The only person I do not believe is Lady Katherine. I have never been fond of her, you know this. I believe she can be like a snake, slithering through the tall grasses, only to strike when nobody is watching.”
“That I can see,” Ernest muttered. “Thank you for believing me. I do not know what I would have done if you had not. I feared you thought I was encroaching on your admirer.”
