Page 52 of Elixir of a Duchess' Passion
Lord Spurnrose opened his mouth as if to protest, perhaps even to give her another reason, but Melissa could not bring herself to hear it.
She turned her gaze away, her body following, and crouched to collect her things.
Before she could do so, Lord Spurnrose gripped her wrist and pulled her back around to face him.
“My Lady, I have never been …” he began, but again Melissa could not bear to hear what he had to say.
“No, Lord Spurnrose, you listen, and you listen well,” Melissa snapped at him, “Do not feel beholden to me simply because I have cured your pain. I shall not have you regret marrying me when you come to realise that your illness and my treatment were the only things that connected us.”
With that, Melissa broke free of his grip once more, and ignoring the pained expression upon the viscount’s face, she grabbed her things and hurried out from beneath the branches of the willow tree.
“Lady Belmont, please, wait!” Lord Spurnrose called after her as she descended the small hillock towards her garden, Flit racing after her.
She did not turn back or even call over her shoulder. She simply kept running. Though she had healed Lord Spurnrose, and he would likely live for many years to come, the thought of marrying him and subsequently losing him, just as she had her first husband, was too much to bear. And upon hearing his proposal, that was the first thing she had thought about.
The grief that thought had struck her gut with threatened to double her over on her knees, and she would never again allow herself to be weak, never again allow herself to be ruled by that kind of emotion.
It was safer this way. Lord Spurnrose would forget his gratitude towards her one day. She simply had to stay away from him until then. He would find himself a proper lady to settle down with, and she could go back to concentrating on her medical practises.
At least, she hoped that was the case as she stumbled back into her manor and dropped down onto the bench in the back hallway, panting for breath and shaking from head to toe.
Lord Spurnrose’s protests continued to ring in her ears, but she would not return to him. She would deny herself that happiness and be content with helping others find theirs. Medicine was always her calling, not marriage.
Feeling sick to her stomach, Melissa struggled to catch her breath as she told her spaniel, “Flit, I think it’s time we take Daisy up on her offer to stay in London.”
Chapter 24
Elijah walked home feeling like a fool, so intent upon his dumbfounded thoughts that his feet carried him back into the manor without even realising it.
The scene beneath the willow tree replayed repeatedly in his mind, and Elijah couldn’t believe it had ever truly happened. How could Lady Belmont have rejected his proposal?
Of course, it had been impulsive and not nearly a grand and romantic gesture as one might have expected from a nobleman to a noble lady, but he had imagined that all of the right things had been there. He had sensed the tension between them, felt the passion that passed from Lady Belmont’s lips to his, and reacted to the desire coming off her in waves.
It was her fault the words had even fallen from his lips in the first place. At least, that was what he told himself. Never had he felt the urge to ask a woman to marry him, yet he had felt it several times in Lady Belmont’s presence. Only this last time, he had been entirely unable to fight it, and the words had tumbled from his lips before he had a chance to stop them.
Looking back on them now, he knew he ought to have. He should have bent on one knee and at least done things properly, but the moment had taken him so by surprise that he had even stunned himself.
Perhaps she was right,he thought as he stood in the manor hallway, trying to recover from what had just happened.Maybe it was only a response to my gratitude.
A small stabbing in his gut told him that probably wasn’t the case, but at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall, Elijah quickly forced the sensation away, determined not to think any more about it.
“Elijah? Are you well?” His mother’s words surprised him, and he looked up to find her standing before him. “You look terribly pale. I do hope you aren’t …”
In the short time his mother had been there, Elijah had already grown tired of her concern, especially now that he was finally feeling better. He quickly cut her off. “I am well, Mother. I was just returning from a walk.”
“I see that,” his mother said with a raised eyebrow as she glowered down at his muddy boots. With a little guilt, feeling like a scolded child, he realised he had made one hell of a mess for the servants to clean up.
He was about to excuse himself to get cleaned up when his mother smiled and said, “It is such a relief to see you up and about.”
Elijah scoffed at that. He was certainly relieved to be up and about though for a second, he thought it might have been safer had he still been bed bound. Maybe then he would not have made such a fool of himself with Lady Belmont.
“Yes, well, I do believe I have been up and about for long enough,” Elijah said, sidestepping back onto the mat beside the front door. “If you will excuse me, I shall remove my boots and head upstairs to get cleaned up.”
“Of course,” his mother responded, though an edge to her tone suggested she was not quite ready to let him go.
“Was there something you wished to talk about, Mother?” Elijah asked, looking up from where he had already kicked off one boot. His mother seemed to bite her lip a moment, contemplating before she removed something from behind her back.
“I debated whether I ought to give this to you,” she admitted, and before Elijah could even take the envelope from her, she added, “It is an invitation to a musical being held this evening.”
