Page 31 of Miss Hawthorne’s Unlikely Husband (The Troublemakers Trilogy #3)

Melbroke House, London

F or all her words, Elodia didn’t know what she would do if her father didn’t approve of her match with Richard.

There was a seething resentment inside her that she was still afraid to give voice to.

As if speaking it would make it real. If he didn’t support the match, she would fight him until he gave in or gave her up.

If that happened, she would truly lose her father for good.

She was angry enough to walk away, but even in her anger, she knew she didn’t know what it would mean to not be his daughter.

She wasn’t ready to orphan herself entirely.

Perhaps she wasn’t ready to lose the happy memories of the life she’d had in Trinidad, joyful and safe with her parents, surrounded by warmth, love and goodwill.

Would it be easier to leave him behind with Richard by her side, or would it still rip the heart from her chest?

Yesterday still seemed like a fever dream.

She spent the entire morning reminding herself that it had happened.

Richard had sought her out and kissed her in broad daylight in the middle of her aunt’s garden.

She could still remember the feel of his mouth moving against hers, his arms around her holding her close.

It had been better than any dream she could have had and it was only the beginning, she promised herself.

She needed to be available, but still, she didn’t want to encourage too much conversation between herself and her father.

So she decided to wait in the music room and play the piano until Richard arrived.

She dressed in a silver day dress with a wide neckline and gathers at her shoulders and added two pink roses to her hair before leaving her bedroom.

She headed straight for the music room, made a few selections to occupy her time and began playing Beethoven’s Tempest in D minor.

Her fingers bounced and glided over the ivory and ebony keys, all her concentration taken up by the music in front of her instead of the encroaching battle she was about to face.

“Oh, hello, sweeting,” her father’s voice came.

She looked up to see him standing in the doorway holding a newspaper. “Hello, Papa.”

“You’re here.” He frowned in confusion.

“Is that so surprising?”

“Well, yes, lately. But I suppose it’s not too strange considering the timing. We have both been busy with our own affairs this season.” He sat down in one of the chairs and crossed his legs.

“Yes.”

“Go on with your playing, Ellie, I haven’t heard you play for yourself in some time.”

She nodded and resumed the piece, trying to ignore the sudden anxiety in her stomach.

It was strange how different she felt. He still treated her the same, with the same freedom and easy affection, but nothing within was warmed by it.

Instead, Richard’s warning was at the forefront of her mind.

It was like watching a wolf wondering if and when it would strike.

How much of his true self would make an appearance when she was no longer playing by his rules?

As she played the last notes, she glanced at the clock in the room.

Ten fifty. Ten more minutes and he would be here.

She picked up the second piece, Schubert’s sonata in B flat Major and began to play.

At ten fifty-five, the bell rang, and despite her apprehension, her heart swelled in her chest. He was here.

Punctual and wonderful. She had never doubted him, but it was gratifying nonetheless to be proven correct.

Richard had never let her down and never would.

He, at least, was a man who stood by his words.

“Was that the door?” her father asked.

“Yes.”

A few moments later, there was the murmur of voices, and then Ingsley, the butler, was there.

“A Mr. Thornfield here to see you, my lord.”

Her father dropped his newspaper with a bemused look on his face. “Thornfield? I had no expectation of him calling today.” He looked at her, “Did you, Ellie?”

She clenched her hands together. In for a penny… “I did actually.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. Mr. Thornfield and I are… well, he has asked me to marry him.”

The answering silence was as nerve wrecking as the lack of expression as he folded his paper and laid it on the table beside him. “I beg your pardon.”

“Shall I turn him away, my lord?” Ingsley asked, looking nervously between the two of them.

“Don’t you dare!” Ellie snapped, shooting to her feet. “Ask him to wait, Ingsley, my father will be out to greet him directly.”

“Very good, miss.” He nodded and left, no doubt grateful to be far from the line of fire.

“Let me make sure I understand this,” Lord Melbroke finally said, his blue eyes hard and piercing. “Thornfield, a manufacturer, has expressed his interest in you, a daughter of the nobility.”

“Yes, and I have accepted him.”

“The devil you have,” he grumbled, rising to his feet.

“It is true, Father.”

“No. I refuse to believe that my daughter has given herself away to a mere tradesman.”

She rounded the piano and came to stand before him. “Why must you refuse to believe it. I love him and he loves me.”

“He loves the connection you will give him. I should have thought you were old enough to know that.”

Her outrage at his assessment of Richard’s character left her breathless. “How dare you.”

“How dare I? Adverse to the facts of life, my darling? First it was his sister and now him.”

Elodia crossed her arms over her torso, a sneer curling her lip. “Are you implying that he got himself kidnapped so Ada would be forced to marry Mr. Thompson?”

He rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You are managing that very well yourself.”

“Elodia, you cannot, you will not marry that man.”

“Why, sir?” she gritted out.

“Because he is not right for you!” he shouted. “Because he is unworthy.”

Her hands curled into fists as her eyes widened. Unworthy? The utter hypocrisy of the man. “He is more worthy than you.” Her voice was low and utterly unrecognizable even to her.

He stared at her in stunned silence, his body utterly still. “What did you just say to me?” he whispered.

For a moment she faltered, seeing the hurt she had caused, but then she remembered what he’d done and who she was fighting for. “He loves me and he has never been afraid to claim me and love me openly which is more than I can say for you.”

Then the temper came. The temper he had shared with her. “Have you lost your mind, young lady? I have raised you and claimed you as my own flesh and blood since before the day you were bloody well born.”

“And?” she cried, taking a challenging step forward. “Am I supposed to congratulate you on having more morals than a stray dog?”

“Have you forgotten me?” he asked, rising slowly to his feet.

She lifted her chin to meet his eyes and squared her shoulders. She wouldn’t cower before him no matter what he did. “No, my lord. Although I wonder if you remember my mother at all.”

He squinted in confusion and shook his head. “What are you talking about now?”

“My mother,” she said, taking a step forward even as her voice cracked, her eyes burning. “I’m talking about the woman you lived with since before I was born but didn’t deem worthy enough to marry.”

“What nonsense, of course I married your bloody mother,” he snapped.

“Then why does the entire ton believe that I am your bastard ?” she screamed past her tight throat. Her entire body was shaking.

It was the second time she had rendered her father speechless that morning, but his incomprehension only fueled her rage. Malicious or incompetent. From the utterly baffled expression on his face, she now had her answer but there was no comfort in it.

“What?” he whispered.

“I believe that you heard me.”

“Elodia—”

“She gave her life’s blood to give you a child and you allowed them to believe that she was your mistress.

No better than a whore, easily discarded.

” Her voice sounded alien to her ears, low and harsh, full of contempt.

“She gave you me and your incompetence ruined my reputation. Such incompetence is a sin.”

He was shaking his head in denial. “I didn’t know. I would never—”

“No, of course not. You were so confident of your own brilliance that you never wondered how you had managed to keep all your clout while parading me around London. You said I was your daughter to anyone who would listen, but the things that would truly legitimize me in the eyes of the ton, you conveniently forgot, like having me introduced to court when you returned to England.”

“I didn’t think you would want to deal with the bother.”

“You didn’t even bother to register your marriage to my mother with your lawyer or our parish.

There is no proof of my legitimacy anywhere on this cursed island.

In all these years, how could you have overlooked that?

And now you have the audacity to say that a man of good family and character, a man who loves me, a man with the courage to stand up and do what you would not, is unworthy of me?

Are you even qualified to make such a statement? ”

Unable to bear another moment in his presence, she strode out of the room.

At the top of the stairs, she saw Richard standing near the banister at the foot of the staircase.

His arms were folded, a bouquet of flowers in his hand, and he was staring down at the lacquered parquet floor.

His face was somber, and far more composed than she was expecting.

It wasn’t likely that he had been spared a word of their conversation.

She started down the stairs, and at her footsteps, he looked over and up in her direction. He didn’t smile, but he didn’t seem angry either.

“Did you hear?” she asked, laying her hand on his arm as she reached him.

“It was difficult not to,” he replied with a small smile.