Page 65 of The Proposition
Connors threw up his hands but ceased his pacing, turning to him with a splotchy, pale face. “He has already done it. Miss Fry had no choice but to marry him, to protect her sister, to protect you and your family.” Connors pinched his mouth shut as well as his eyes. “To protect me. Oh, he is a fat, contented spider abiding in his web, a ruinous scandal his prized clutch of eggs.”
Audric heard onlyto protect you and your family.
Delphine. Perhaps they had found the forged documents too late. Perhaps Boyle was already in possession of the child. If not, then only Clemency’s decision to marry might have kept him from procuring the boy.
“In the late and lonely hours so many unkind thoughts have come to me,” he whispered, not caring if Connors heardhim or not. “I allowed myself to imagine Clemency as the worst sort of person, unfeeling and callous, deceitful, cruel…”
Connors grunted. “Boyle holds the axe above all our heads, sir. Clemency is keeping it aloft with this marriage.”
“And I can do nothing.”
“But, sir—”
“My sister’s past, her secrets, are not mine to share, nor her pain a plaything to be toyed with carelessly.”
Connors riffled for something under his jacket, then produced a pistol, boldly aiming toward the wood below the balcony. “Now that I have come to my senses I just need one shot. One chance…”
But Audric gently lowered the man’s pistol. The hunt was over, no blood would be spilled. “We both know Boyle is cleverer than that. He will have put contingencies in place. There are others in possession of his secrets, powerful, rich others.”
Hell and damnation. Boyle was going to win after all. Audric could forget his pride, but not the knowledge that Clemency was sacrificing her happiness to save them from Boyle’s wrath, to protect Delphine’s innocent child from him.
“Then there is nothing we can do,” Connors murmured, holding the gun in his hands and staring down at it.
“Nothingyoucan do, perhaps.”
Audric set his jaw, slowly swiveling to regard his sister in the open doorway, her black gown and shawl ruffled lightly by the morning breeze.
“How long have you been listening?” Audric asked, glaring beyond Connors’s shoulder.
“Long enough,” his sister replied with a shrug. “I havemade up my mind, Audric. This has gone on long enough. I refuse to let Boyle control all of our lives like this. Word will be sent to London. All the scandal sheets may know of my past, of what Boyle did to me, of the child it created, and the loss I endured. If he wants a fight, then so be it, I will contest his right to take that child.”
Audric pushed past Connors and met Delphine at the doors, taking her by the forearm. At once, she eased out of his grasp.
“I forbid it, Delphine. You will be ruined, any future prospects—”
“What future prospects?” She laughed. Her big eyes shimmered with tears, but strangely, she smiled and pulled the shawl closer around her arms. “There is no man I love better than Ralston. I have no intention of aiming higher, for I know he can protect and love me as no one else could. A man is not his fortune or his breeding, he is his word and his actions. He has shown me all the love, protection, and loyalty a woman could ever desire.”
Audric glanced around for Ralston, but the man was nowhere to be found. Perhaps he had foolishly missed what was right in front of his eyes. It would not be the first time. And that conversation could wait, Delphine’s heart was not in question, but her safety was.
“Delphine, you will not do this—”
“ ’Tis already done.”
“What?” Audric recoiled. “How—”
“The messenger has been dispatched,” Delphine told him calmly. “My past is one less card in Boyle’s sleeve.” She breezed by her brother to join Mr. Connors at the railing. Primly, she set her hands on the bannister and drew in a deepbreath. Her eyelashes fluttered shut briefly before she opened her eyes to survey the grounds as Audric had done.
“Let the whole world say what they will about me. I will be here, where I am safe and loved, and you…” Here she turned to face her brother, though she gave Connors a look in turn too. “You will mount your horse and go to that church, and you will not let Clemency marry the architect of all our misery. Because you love her, because she deserves better.”
Audric did not know if the lump in his chest was from pride or fear. He did know, in that moment, that his sister had never looked so lovely or so strong.
“Because I love her,” he repeated, his right hand curling into a fist.
“Go,” Delphine whispered. “Now go to her.”
Audric did not hear her, he was already gone.
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