Page 33 of For a Lady's Lust

Chapter 19

Three days later, everyone who was anyone in society turned up to the Strandmere estate for the engagement party of Stephen and Louisa. There was much buzz among the guests that a man of such high regard was marrying a woman whose family had been so disgraced. Many guests, however, promised themselves that they had to see the couple together to believe that the engagement was real.

Louisa had not informed her parents of any of what was happening in her life, as she did not want to alarm them before she had everything under control. Thankfully, though, neither her mother nor her father went into town over those three days, and so they heard nothing of their daughter’s engagement.

Archie was doing much better thanks to the assistance of Dr Abbott, but Louisa was worried if he caught word of what she was doing, he might have another attack, and this time it would be worse than before.

And so, on the morning of her engagement party, Louisa left the house in her ordinary clothes, under the guise that she was meeting a friend in town for an afternoon together. As soon as she was out of sight of her home, however, Louisa pulled the dress that Stephen had sent to her to wear for the party out of her bag and changed into it in the bushes.

It was a stunning gown – bright blue and made of the finest fabric with a delicate lace overlay. But even so, Louisa was not excited about wearing it because of what it stood for. However, she knew that she had to in order to keep Stephen in the dark about the change of plans on her end until the very last minute.

Louisa re-mounted her horse rather more delicately in her new dress and rode with great speed towards the estate. She knew that she wanted to arrive before the guests so that she would not have to be seen by anyone. When she finally came upon the grand house, she was relieved to see that she had managed to make it there in plenty of time and that no guests were present.

Louisa put her horse in the barn and entered the house through the servants’ entrance. They were all rather surprised to see her walking through their quarters, and she apologized profusely for the intrusion. She then quickly made her way to Stephen’s study, where she knew he would be preparing himself for the party.

She didn’t even knock on the door when she got there, just striding right into the room. Stephen was indeed in there, and the shock on his face when Louisa walked in was priceless. Louisa wished that she could have captured his expression and looked at it whenever she was feeling bad about herself.

“Miss Louisa,” Stephen said, sounding very annoyed, “what are you doing here so early? I was not expecting you, especially as unannounced as this.”

Louisa had to admit that when Stephen cleaned himself up, as he had for this party, he did not make her eyes as sore as he had. He’d had his hair trimmed, and his eyes looked far less sunken than they had previously. He was wearing a fine suit and had Louisa not been well acquainted with him, she would have taken him to be quite an approachable man.

“I am glad to have surprised you,” Louisa said frankly, “for I hope that I continue to surprise you with what I am about to tell you.”

If Stephen had been a dog, his ears surely would have perked up at this sentence. “Oh, I do love surprises,” Stephen said. “And what surprise have you prepared for me for the day of our engagement, my bride-to-be?”

Louisa had to stop herself from throwing up at hearing those words. “I have decided that I am not going to go ahead with our plan,” she informed him rather plainly. “I will not be marrying you; you will not use me to take advantage of Isaac, and I shall not abuse his wealth to get the most out of him that I can for our home.”

After having got that out, Louisa took a deep breath and braced herself for the explosion that was to come. When she saw how red Stephen’s face became, she knew that she had said exactly what had been needed to infuriate him.

“I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS!” he roared at her, grabbing her by the arm and shaking her as he spoke. “YOU MUST GO ON WITH THIS, AND IF YOU DO NOT, I SHALL DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO RUIN YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!”

Louisa pulled herself from Stephen’s grasp, balled her hand into a fist, and punched Stephen square in the face. His cry was one of agony, and when he pulled his hands away from his face, Louisa saw that his nose was beginning to bleed. But all Louisa could do was smile. “Mr Strandmere, my family has been ruined once before. We can handle it.”

Louisa strode out of Stephen’s office and straight into a crowd of guests. As soon as people saw her, they all cheered for one of the two guests of honour, but Louisa knew that she could not stay and greet them, for there was nothing to celebrate.

She needed to get out of that house as quickly as she could to avoid being questioned for Stephen’s ... shall we say haggard appearance. And so she ran past all the people, saying nothing to anyone, desperately looking for an exit from the house.

Meanwhile, a heartbroken Isaac had just arrived at the party. He had been sent an invitation yesterday, and suddenly all of what Louisa had said fell into place. Though she may have loved him (although he highly doubted that), she had been set to become engaged to Stephen Strandmere, a man he vaguely remembered from his time at school. He did, however, remember not being particularly fond of the man, and so he was rather baffled as to why she was marrying Stephen over him.

He hoped that he might run into Louisa at the party so that he might ask her to explain exactly what had transpired, but he certainly did not expect to be quite literally run into by her as soon as he got there. She collided with him at great speed, and when he saw who she was, he said, “Louisa!”

She looked up at him with surprise in her eyes. “I ... Isaac,” she stammered, “whatever are you doing here?”

“I was invited yesterday,” he said sombrely. “I had to come because I needed an explanation about ... about everything.”

Suddenly, Louisa began crying. Not the great heaving sobs that she had produced in the library, but still noticeable enough. She took him by the arm and said, “Please do me one last favour and follow me.”

Louisa steered Isaac out the back door and away from anyone who might be trying to listen in. They hurried over to a sprawling willow tree, and Louisa guided Isaac beneath the branches, concealing them somewhat in its boughs. Isaac thought this was a rather brilliant hiding place.

Louisa took both of his hands in hers and began. “I’m sorry, is the first thing I am going to say. I am so, so sorry. There are no words to express the sorrow and guilt I feel for having done all of this to you, but I shall continue to apologize until the day I die, for you have been nothing but good to me.”

“You keep saying that you have done something to me, but from where I stand, I can see nothing at all except ... well, perhaps deceiving me into thinking that you might one day return the affection that I have for you,” Isaac said softly.

Louisa gazed up at him with wide, apologetic eyes. “That was not a deception, Isaac,” she said firmly. “I ... I cannot at this time express to you the depth of my affection for you, but I hope that in time it may come to light, no matter the outcome of what unfolds here today.”

Isaac was both elated and even more confused. “Depth of your affection ... unfolds here today ... what are you talking about?” He desperately wanted to seize this beautiful moment, for the love of his life had just admitted that she returned his affection, but he was so befuddled by everything else that she was saying that he could not.

Louisa took a deep breath and then launched into a re-telling of all that had transpired between her and Stephen. She did not go into more detail about how she felt about Isaac, but she certainly made allusions to it. She was hesitant to be too forthcoming when telling him about her feelings because while she still hoped there might be a chance that they could be together, she did not want to say anything and then regret it.

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