Page 105 of A Cinderella to Redeem the Earl

After long and hard reflection during his sojourn at Rake Hall, he had returned to London having decided that punishing the Longs would be revenge enough, since it was Long’s father who had been the chief instigator of the fraud. That he was still alive to see his only son ruined made it doubly sweet. Pamela’s father, on the other hand, was long gone, so would not know the sting of shame.

He had felt as guilty as hell, coming to such a conclusion, but had been able to rationalise it as justice, a fair punishment for a guilty man, rather than revenge on an innocent woman.

But, despite his best efforts, he had failed to save Pamela from his own machinations, because some drunken lout had taken a fancy to seeing her unmasked. If only he had let Pip in on his decision, all might have been well, but truth to tell he’d been somewhat ashamed of his weakness when it came to Pamela. He’d thought she would simply slip away as she had planned and that would be an end to it.

To Damian’s astonishment, the following morning, Long had come up with the money he owed and demanded that Damian let everyone know he had not reneged on his debt of honour.

Although Long was one day late, no one among the upper one thousand would fault him for that and so Damian had been forced to spend the last two days making sure the damage was undone.

The fact that Pamela had been unmasked and that the Longs had got off scot-free after all had been a bitter pill.

Knowing Pamela would have been pleased Long was not ostracised, did not make it any easier to swallow. To make it worse, she and everyone associated with her had been turned into pariahs.

And he’d thought he’d had it all under control.

He hadn’t felt like such a failure since the day his mother died.

He’d been too much of a coward to save his mother and now he’d all but destroyed the woman—he had to face it—the woman he loved. This time, no matter what it took, he was going to set things right.

The moment he could break free of the Long nonsense, Damian had set off for the cottage she had purchased. Only to discover she had not purchased it at all. Another family had moved in.

Where the devil had she gone?

He had tried her mother’s house, but she had been shocked when he asked about her ‘wayward daughter’ as she called her and denied any knowledge of Pamela’s whereabouts and never wanted to see her again.

Clearly all she could think about was salvaging her own reputation by distancing herself from her child.

And so, here he was back at his town house, trying to guess where Pamela might have gone while Pip regarded him with sympathy. ‘Have you tried the agency where you found her before?’

‘I did. No luck there.’

Pip pursed his lips. ‘Let me see what I can discover.’

‘If I have failed to find her, I don’t know why you think you would succeed,’ Damian flung at him. ‘Why the devil did she not buy that cottage? She was so taken with it. I suppose she must have bought something else.’

‘I have the answer for that,mon ami. After a few discreet enquiries, I have discovered that it was Pamela who gave Long the money to pay his debt.’

Damian groaned. ‘I should have known she would do something like that.’

‘Indeed.’

The pain in his chest felt as though a knife had pierced his heart.

And now she was out there somewhere without a penny to her name and no doubt hating him.

The pain grew worse at the thought of where she might be with no friends and no money.

Pip frowned. ‘You know, she is very friendly with her maid, Susan, who left when she did. She said she had no reason to stay, now her mistress was gone. Perhaps they are together. Or her family might know something.’

A tiny seed of hope germinated in his heart.

‘Why did you not say so before?’

‘I did not think of it before.’

‘Do you have an address?’

‘As luck would have it, I do.’