Page 146 of Harpy of the Ton
“Iremembernow!” She lifted her hand to her forehead. “I remember thinking how strange it was that you’d not mentioned a wife when you first arrived at Brackens Hill. Then, after you brought her here, you said she’d disappeared before…”
She shook her head. “I-I thought at first she’d run off with a man—abandoned you and the children—and you’d taken her back, until I saw that she really had lost her memory. But it was all a falsehood—a story to deceive us. And I believed her lies.”
“She never lied to you,” Lawrence said.
“I-I don’t understand.”
“Bella deceived no one, Sophie. It’s I who deceived Bella. Made her believe…”
Horror sparked in Sophie’s eyes.
“You made a lady believe that she was your wife—mother to your children? Why would any decent man do such a thing?”
“For Justice,” Lawrence said, wincing. How weak that sounded!
“Justice?”
“Her fiancé, the duke, employed me in his garden. In a fit of spite, she burned all my possessions and refused to pay me. So when I saw a chance to make her work off her debt, I took it.”
“Holy mother of God,” Sam whispered.
Sophie stepped forward. Lawrence caught a blur of movement before pain exploded in his chin, his head snapping back with the force of her blow.
He staggered back, nursing his jaw.Bloody hell, that hurt!
“Sophie!” Sam said. “What the bleedin’ hell do you think you’re doing?”
She shoved her husband aside and advanced on Lawrence again. He retreated until his back came against the wall.
“How dare you speak of justice! There’s no justice in what you did—only vengeance. Cold, calculated vengeance against an innocent woman.”
“She wasn’t innocent.” Lawrence winced.
“Shewas,” Sophie said, shaking off her husband’s restraining arm. “I don’t care what she’s supposed to have done! No woman deserves to be abducted and deceived—’specially one who’s lost her memory. Can you imagine how frightened she must have been? Alone in the world, ripped from all that she’s known, and placed at the mercy of a man determined to ruin her for his own gratification.”
“She had no loved ones,” Lawrence said. “I saw her fiancé disown her with my own eyes—”
“So, you stole her for your own? That’s not collecting a debt—it’sslavery.”
Slavery…
An ugly word, but was he so dissimilar to those who indulged in the flesh trade? What made his lies any different to the shackles that a slaver used to affirm his ownership over another human soul?
“Had you killed her with your own hands, you wouldn’t have committed a worse crime,” Sophie snarled. “And your children—did you deceive them also?”
“No,” he said. “They never knew their mother—she died bringing Jonathan into the world. But they came to see Bella as their mother.”
“Why, you…” She raised her arm, and Sam caught it.
“Don’t be distressin’ yourself,” he said. “Come away before you do any real harm.”
“Why should you care for him after what he’s done?” Sophie asked.
“I don’t, Sophie, love, but I don’t want you upsetting yourself. Think of our child.”
Tears rolled down Sophie’s face, and she let out a cry. “Bella…” She buried her head in her husband’s chest while he held her in his arms, rocking her to and fro. The tender gesture of a gentle-hearted young man caring for his beloved clawed at Lawrence’s heart. Their love was plain to see—a pure, abiding love founded on honesty, mutual adoration, and respect.
And for a shining moment, he’d deceived himself into believing that he and Bella shared such a love.
