Page 40 of Stolen By the Cruel Duke
Lady Carfield leaned forward, and it seemed for a moment as if she would take Iris’s hand, then she thought better of it. “I know now that I was wrong to leave you and your sisters. Even if living with your father was torture, I never should have left you alone with him. And I’m so sorry, Iris. I can’t tell you how deeply I regret it, how much I want to make it up to you. But it is important that you know I never forgot you. I tried every day to contact you. And you were in my thoughts every moment of every day.”
As she looked deeply into her mother’s eyes, Iris realized she was crying. She reached out and took her mother’s hand. Her mother looked surprised, but then she smiled gratefully.
“I’m so relieved to hear this,” Iris whispered. “All these years, I thought you just didn’t love us.”
“I loved you so much,” her mother whispered. “More than anything on earth. I still do.”
“Don’t leave again,” Iris pleaded. “Please, just promise me that. Promise you’ll stay and get to know me as I am now. You can even stay here if you want.”
She glanced at her husband, who nodded in approval.
“Nothing on earth could keep me from you again,” Lady Carfield reassured her. “And that’s a promise. But…” Her eyes slid to Phineas. “There is another reason for my visit. And this one concerns His Grace.”
Iris blinked and looked at Phineas. He seemed taken aback.
“What is it?” she asked quickly. “We already suspected that Father had forced you to sign the contract, so if that’s?—”
“It’s not that,” Lady Carfield interrupted. Her eyes were still fixed unblinkingly on Phineas. “It’s about the Duke’s parents. They weren’t killed during a robbery, as the world was led to believe. They were murdered on Lord Carfield’s orders.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Not only were they murdered, but I have the correspondence to prove it.”
A ringing silence followed these words.
Moments before, all Phineas had been able to think about was his concern for his wife. Seeing her cry at her mother’s story had filled him with sadness and anger on her behalf. It had made him want to leap to her rescue. Now, he couldn’t think at all. A white-hot, searing pain was filling his chest, as if he had been stabbed in the heart.
From somewhere far away, he thought he heard his name. He thought it might be his mother, calling out to him. Then he blinked and realized it was Iris.
He had stood up. His whole body was rigid, frozen. Iris was staring up at him, concern etched on her face, calling his name.
“Phineas, can you hear me?” she called. “Are you all right?”
He tore his gaze away from his wife to stare at her mother. The Viscountess was watching him carefully. She should have looked frightened, considering the level of anger that was now pulsating through him. He wanted to flip over the table and send all their dishes scattering across the floor. The strength of this hatred and violence scared him, and he tried to take a deep breath before speaking.
“How long have you known this?” he demanded. His voice thundered through the room, shaking the teacups in their saucers.
Lady Carfield remained calm. “I’ve known since shortly after I signed the forged bill of sale. There is a safe behind the portrait in Lord Carfield’s study. After weeks of searching the house, I finally found the key, and inside the safe, I discovered a letter between him and the man he’d hired to kill your parents. The moment I read it, I knew I had to leave him.”
“Leave him?” Phineas stared at her incredulously. “You should have gone to the authorities and had him arrested!”
“I know,” Lady Carfield said, “but you have to understand. My husband is and was a very powerful man. He pays off men in the Bow Street Runners. I didn’t know where to turn, or who was safe to tell. And I was so scared that he would hurt my daughters. I felt trapped and powerless.”
Phineas was shaking his head. He didn’t care about this woman’s excuses. His parents had beenmurdered.The searing hot pain throbbed in his chest, and he clenched his fists to keep from crying out. After all these years, he never thought that his parents’ deaths could cause him any more pain than they already had. But here was evidence that he could feel even worse than he ever thought possible.
“I was the one who was trapped and powerless!” he shouted. “I was fifteen, and Carfield was stealing my family’s ancestral land! I was all alone in the world, without family, because your husband had murdered them.”
Phineas knew he was being unreasonable, but he couldn’t stop. He was so angry that he wanted to burn down the world.
“I know,” Lady Carfield said, truly meaning it. “But the murder was the one thing I had over my husband. He didn’t know I knew, but I could use it against him if he ever tried to hurt the girls. If I told people but no one believed me, I’d lose my one chance to protect my daughters.”
“I can’t hear this anymore,” Phineas snapped, turning and striding to the door. “I’m leaving.”
In the doorway, he paused and turned back. “Do you have the letter in your possession?”
Lady Carfield nodded.
“Good. Then give it to Iris, and she will make sure it is locked in my study. And Lady Carfield…”
