Page 26 of Dallying with the Diamond
Do not come for me.There is nothing you can do. I suspect I shall be married in the next few days so there truly is no point in your riding to my rescue. I cannot tell you how much our time together has meant to me. In another world perhaps we might have been more to each other. I am glad you have my portrait to remember me by. I hope every time you look at it you smile.
Your Honoria
He didn’t wantthe bloody portrait. He wanted her, dammit. Leo ran down the stairs into the foyer of Albany. A footman held open the door and just outside sat CB’s carriage with the man himself lounging against the squabs.
“I’ll fetch you to your Mama’s. Nothing more.”
“You’re anarse,” Leo said. “Hurry up before I change my mind.”
* * *
He had not beenin the Atherton family’s London residence in eight years. The butler, Evers, recognized him at once and sent a footman to fetch Mrs. Atherton at once. Leo had been shown to the blue drawing room to wait. He and CB had discussed what he might say once he confronted the woman he considered the architect of his ruin. Now that the moment was at hand, he didn’t know what to say.
Cheddars had sent a boy with a message to meet them in front of the place Leo still considered his mother’s home. Apparently, his valet and CB had hatched this plan to force Leo to confront his mother and Cheddars expected their arrival in time to receive the message.
Mrs. Seaforth had discovered that Honoria would be leaving London that very night by the Great North Road. They were to stop only to change horses. The young widow had sent Leo a personal note as well.
If you hurt her,I will hire someone to kill you.
She sent me the rest of your journal. I burned it as she asked.
Leo had crammed allof his money into CB’s hands and sent him to Doctor’s Commons to procure a special license. CB had a number of connections with the archbishop, but he’d still have to pay bribes to have a license issued in the middle of the night for the daughter of a powerful duke to marry the Atherton Bastard.
“Bring her back,” CB had said. “Ill get you married to her by means foul or fair.”
And now Leo waited to beg a favor of the last person he’d ever imagined himself speaking to again.
“Leonidas?”
He turned to find his mother, her hand at her throat. She took a step towards him and then stopped. At nearly fifty she was still a beautiful woman. Though there were lines about her eyes and streaks of white hair at her temples. She was dressed simply in a blue dress with no adornment of any kind and no jewelry. She looked like someone’s governess. Or a nun.
“I am so pleased you have come. It has been so long and I—”
“I need the travel coach, our fastest team, and some money,” he said abruptly. “I am in love with a young lady and her father does not approve. He is sending her to Scotland to marry someone else. I intend to stop her coach and marry her if she’ll have me.”
“I see.” She sat down on one of the blue and gold striped chairs before the hearth. “Do I know the young lady?”
“Lady Honoria Eveleigh, the Duke of Avonlea’s daughter. Does it matter?”
“Not at all. Although you could not have chosen better. Especially as the Duke of Avonlea and the Dowager Duchess of Bitworth are two of the people I would most like to see receive their comeuppance. He’s an utter pillock and she’s an insufferable bitch.”
Leo coughed to keep from laughing. He didn’t want to like her dammit. “Then I am happy to be of service, madam. I am in a hurry. Will you—”
“Of course. She tugged the bell pull and quickly rattled off instructions to Evers who appeared immediately. “Will you sit?” she asked Leo once the butler went to dispatch her orders.
“I don’t really have time. I appreciate the loan of the coach and the money. I may have to impose upon you once I am married. I cannot bring a bride back to Albany. And—”
“Do shut it, Leonidas. This is your house. You will be taking your coach, your horses, and your money. Whether you like it or not you are Atherton’s legal heir. It is about damned time you took advantage of the only thing he ever did for you.”
“And what was that, Mother?”
“He died. Did us both a favor. I know now I should have told you. I lied and I am sorry. Atherton and I made your life a misery. I do not know what to do to make up for it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” His anger rose, but so did his pain.
“When you were young it was too big a burden for you to bear. By the time you were grown it was too big a burden for me to bear. You loved me then. You were the only one who did. I was selfish.” She shrugged. “I was afraid you would never forgive me. I was right.”
“You were able to hide. I was not. Do you have any idea what the last eight years have been like for me’ The Atherton Bastard?”