Page 50 of Stolen By the Cruel Duke
“I’m not angry, Anna,” Iris sighed, although she couldn’t promise that her husband wouldn’t be. “I simply want to know why you did it.”
Anna looked up. Her face was blotchy, her eyes were bloodshot, and her cheeks were swollen from crying. Tears were still streaming down her face, but she managed to brush them away before she spoke again.
“It’s my brother,” she explained. “He’s very sick. And I can’t afford the hospital bills. Your father offered me money if I just brought him information on how the marriage was going, if you and His Grace seemed to like one another. I didn’t understand the need for it, but I didn’t understand the harm in it either. Of course, coming from His Lordship, I suspected it wasn’t a good reason, but I couldn’t fathom what it might be. And then he started demanding more and more information, and suddenly I was in over my head.”
“But if it was money you needed, why didn’t you come to the Duke and me?” Iris asked, unable to keep some of theastonishment from her voice. “You know that His Grace is a wealthy man, and I believe I have always been generous to you.”
“I wanted to, but….” Anna’s eyes filled with tears again. “His Lordship said that if I told anyone, he’d make sure my brother suffered an accident in the hospital. I was s-scared, Your Grace. His Lordship has always been a frightening man, and… I didn’t know what to do.”
“I understand,” Lady Carfield said, laying a comforting hand on the maid’s shoulder. “I felt the exact same way. Lord Carfield has always used his power to intimidate and get his way—against all those he opposes, but especially women, whom Society has already rendered so powerless. It isn’t your fault that he did the same thing to you.”
Anna nodded, and then her eyes flicked to Iris’s. “I’d do anything to help you, Your Grace. Anything at all. I’ve looked after you since you were a little girl, and I care for you very much. I never meant for any harm to come to you.”
“I know that,” Iris said. She gave her maid a reassuring smile. “And I don’t blame you. As long as you work with us to take down my father.”
“Of course,” Anna whispered. “I’ll do anything in my power, even if I have none.”
Iris looked at her mother, her words from earlier ringing in her ears. “Even us women can have power,” she murmured, “if we work together.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Inever thought I’d step foot in here again,” Iris said as she stared up at the front door of her father’s townhouse. “After he banned me from entering any of his properties, I assumed I’d seen the last of this place.”
Anna, who was standing beside her, looked at her nervously. “Are you sure you want to go in, Your Grace?”
“Yes.” Iris squared her shoulders. “I have to do this. For my mother, for my sisters, and for Phineas.”
And for myself.
With a determination that she didn’t fully feel, Iris stepped forward and knocked firmly on the door.
Several long seconds passed, and then the door swung open. Mr. Jones, the butler, blinked at her.
“Your—Your Grace!” he stuttered, his eyes widening. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to see my father,” Iris declared, drawing herself up as tall as she could and flashing the butler her most imperious look.
“But—” Mr. Jones looked nervously over his shoulder, then lowered his voice. “His Lordship has forbidden you entry into his home.”
“Believe me,” Iris said, stepping forward so that she was halfway across the doorstep, “he wants to hear what I have to say.”
Mr. Jones hesitated, as if he couldn’t make up his mind about what to do next. Iris could see him considering his options. She even felt a little guilty. Mr. Jones’s job could be on the line if he let her into the house. And her father had probably given him permission to throw her out of it if she tried to enter. But she knew that the kindly, aging butler would not dare to harm her.
And she was right, because after several more tense seconds, he relented and stood aside. Iris smiled with satisfaction and swept into the hall, Anna following close behind her.
“I’ll go get His Lordship,” Mr. Jones murmured, and he practically flew out of the hall.
The moment he had disappeared into the interior of the house, Iris turned to Anna. “Go now,” she whispered. “This might be our only chance.”
Anna nodded, then hurried up the stairs. She had just disappeared around the corner when a door at the end of the hallway flew open and her father strode out, looking irate.
“I thought I told you that you were never allowed to step foot on my property again!” he shouted as he barreled toward her.
His face was red with anger, and his eyes seemed to be bugging out of his head. Iris felt a grim satisfaction at knowing that so far, the plan was working. Her father was so distracted by her presence that he would not stop to consider if she’d come alone, and if not, where her maid might be.
“I meant all of my properties,” he snarled as he came to a stop just inches away from her. “Including this one.”
“I was well aware of what you meant,” Iris said coolly. Even with him raging and so close to her, she didn’t feel afraid. She knew what he was capable of, but all her fear had evaporated. In its place was cold contempt. “But I felt this was important.”
