Page 37 of Stolen By the Cruel Duke
“I’ll be all right,” she said at once.
His expression remained soft. “I don’t want you to have to face this alone.”
She hesitated for a moment, then relented. As much as part of her feared letting Phineas see so much deeper into her soul, she feared facing her mother alone even more.
The butler led them up the stairs to the small parlor. He pushed open the door, and Iris stepped into the room.
Her mother was sitting on the sofa. The moment Iris and Phineas came into the room, she stood up.
Lady Carfield, to Iris’s astonishment, smiled. “Iris!” she gasped. “My daughter, you look so beautiful!”
She hurried across the room to Iris. As she approached, Iris took her in.
Her mother looked much older than the last time she had seen her. Her once blonde hair was now streaked with gray, wrinkles lined her face, and there was a weariness to her that Iris couldn’t help but note. But still, even after more than ten years apart, there was so much that was familiar—the warm, laughing eyes; the easy smile; and the way she smelled, like flowers in a spring garden.
Lady Carfield made to pull her into a hug, but Iris flinched and pulled back. There was an awkward moment where her mother stood with her arms outstretched. Then she dropped them to her sides. To Iris’s embarrassment, her mother’s eyes filled with tears.
“I have missed you so much,” Lady Carfield murmured. “After all this time, here you are. My little girl, my firstborn, all grown up… it’s unbelievable.” Tears began to stream down her cheeks, but she didn’t bother wiping them away. “I know it has been too long, and that you probably cannot forgive me for?—”
“You abandoned me.” Iris surprised herself with the venom in her words. “You abandoned me, you abandoned Violet, and you abandoned Rose. How could you do that? You left us at the mercy of Father’s whims, when you should have protected us from him. How can you ever justify that?”
Lady Carfield’s mouth opened slightly, and the tears continued to fall from her eyes. Iris felt nothing but disgust at the sight.
“I would never try to justify it,” her mother began quietly. “I can only explain why I behaved the way I did, even if I can never forgive myself for what I did.”
“Oh, it’s been hard to forgive yourself, has it?” Iris spat. She was so angry that she was shaking. “And what about me and my sisters? Have you even spared one thought to consider how hard it has been for us to forgive you?”
“Yes, darling, I know, and I want?—”
“Do not call medarling!” Iris screeched. “I’m not your darling. I’m not even your daughter. Perhaps you are my birth mother, but you have not acted like a real mother to me in more than ten years.”
Lady Carfield hung her head. There was a long moment of silence, then she looked back up. “I know, Iris. And I want to explain. All of it. You don’t have to forgive me?—”
“Good, because I never will.”
“—but I do hope that you can listen to my explanation and, perhaps someday, understand why I did what I did.”
“Is that what you came here for?” Iris demanded. “To explain why you left me? Or did you hear I married a duke and decided that now was a good time to reingratiate yourself? Did the money that was set aside for you when you married run out, andyou thought you should try and get a loan from your daughter, the Duchess?”
Lady Carfield was shaking her head, a horrified look on her face. “No, Iris, that isn’t the reason at all. I would never?—”
“Or is it my husband’s protection you want? Did you think he would protect you from Father’s wrath after all these years?”
Behind her, Iris felt her husband shift. Very softly, he laid a hand on her shoulder. He was probably trying to comfort her—or to tell her she had gone too far—but she didn’t care. She didn’t want to be comforted right now. She wanted torage.
“I don’t want to hear your feeble excuses for why you left,” she snarled. “And I don’t want to hear your explanation for how you could spend the next ten years never reaching out, never writing, never trying to see me, never even checking up on your daughters.”
“But—”
“I will not demand that you leave tonight, as it is already late and it would be inhospitable to make you pack your things and go. However, first thing in the morning, I want you out of here. Do you understand?”
Lady Carfield had stopped crying, but her eyes were full of tears as she stared at her daughter. “I understand,” she murmured.
“Good.”
And without another word, Iris turned on her heels and stormed out of the parlor. She half expected Phineas to follow her, and she was relieved when he didn’t.
For the first time since she’d met her husband, she’d found something he couldn’t protect her from—her own rage.
