Page 56 of Miss Hawthorne’s Unlikely Husband (The Troublemakers Trilogy #3)

She had been so smug every time she caught Elodia and Richard together, so revoltingly presumptuous.

At the opera house, he had clearly been uncomfortable.

Was it because of his alleged distaste for her, or for the revolting spectacle of her behavior while he was with his wife?

He’d said his reason for keeping silent was respect for Elodia as his wife and discretion.

It was true that gentlemen of the ton didn’t inflict their mistresses on their wives, not even to speak their names.

It was considered the polite and gallant thing, to keep a lady’s secrets to the grave, but surely there was a point when that ignorance no longer served.

Once again, she had been left in the dark while members of the ton were privy to information about her life. How many of them had known that she was his mistress? If it had been another open secret, she would be ill. How could he let her be humiliated like that?

“Ellie,” Richard’s voice came from the doorway and she looked up from her angry, tangled embroidery to see him standing there, wearing his jacket and holding his hat and gloves. Was he going out or had he only just arrived? “Are you taking visitors?” he asked.

“Why?”

“Your father,” he said, “he is downstairs for you.”

Papa… Yes, he would have answers for her. “I will see him.”

He nodded and turned to leave.

“Will you be receiving him with me?”

He turned back to her and shook his head. “I have business in town. I will likely be gone most of today.”

She nodded, turning her gaze down to her needlepoint.

He lingered there for a moment then let out a sigh and walked away.

The next time she heard footsteps, her father was there, watching her with an almost amused expression.

Before she could stop herself, she stood and ran to him, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist.

“Papa,” she murmured.

“Ellie, my sweetheart.” He squeezed her tightly with his free arm and kissed her hair.

“I am so sorry for what happened.”

“What on earth do you mean?” He rubbed her back briskly.

She leaned back to look up at him. “That business with Lady Tremaine and—”

“Richard.”

“Yes.”

He let out a deep breath and rubbed her arm before leading her to the sofa for them to sit down. “Thank you for that, although it is hardly necessary.” She snuggled beside him, still wanting to be in his arms.

“I can’t imagine why not. I am very cross with him, Papa. I would not blame you if you were cross with him as well.”

“He has already come to see me. He told me what had happened.”

“You mean that he and she were lovers at one time.”

“Yes. Suffice to say, Lady Tremaine is no longer in the picture.” He glanced down at her with a small smile. “Don’t feel the need to pretend to be disappointed.”

“I won’t. She was a common shrew and I wish us all to be well rid of her.”

“Yes. I believe she means to go abroad.”

“Good. She should stay there, or I’ll give her another walloping.”

He chuckled. “Of course this now places the issue of your dowry in real jeopardy.”

She was so sick to death of hearing about that money. “I do not care about that blasted dowry, Papa. I meant it then and I mean it now. What I wish for is your happiness.”

“Either way, I am sorry for it.” They sat there in companionable silence for a moment before he spoke again. “I don’t mean to interfere, but why exactly are you cross with your husband?”

Elodia glanced up at him. “Are you not angry with him?”

“Whatever for?” he asked.

“For withholding the true nature of his relationship with Lady Tremaine.”

“Well, I’m assuming their relationship did not overlap with your own?”

“No, of course not. But he should have said something.”

“It is not something that a gentleman would discuss. Not with another man and certainly not with his wife. You cannot hold that against him.”

“Even to the point of letting you marry her?”

“Ostensibly, her relationship with him shouldn’t preclude her having one with me. If it were anyone else, his withholding of the truth would be a mark of respect for her agency as an adult to live her life as she sees fit. Discretion is something to be admired, Eloida.”

She rolled her eyes. “No accounting for taste, I suppose.”

He laughed again.

“What? She is a monster. I confess to being disappointed in him.”

“Have you forgotten that I was also involved with her. I would have married her, Ellie.”

“That is different, you didn’t like her.”

“I don’t believe he did either.”

I was lonely. His words echoed back. His stricken face was visible as he confessed the darkest truth of his life. “It is still different.”

“Why? Because I’d already fallen from grace?”

“What?”

He looked down at her, a patient smile on his face. “Darling Ellie, do you think part of your reaction to his past is based on your unrealistic expectations of him?”

“Unrealistic?”

“I think you see him as flawless.”

“He—” Damn, she’d nearly confirmed it. “Regardless, I cannot pretend that this hasn’t changed the way I see him.”

“Mmm, a little less perfect?”

“Yes.” Was it her?

“My darling girl, he was never perfect. The things you admired about him are still there. He is a good, loyal, honorable man who loves you deeply.”

“Why are you defending him? His silence resulted in your humiliation. I had to listen to her shameful nonsense not knowing that it was based on firsthand knowledge instead of cruel conjecture.”

“From what little I know of her, she would have said those things out of malice, not out of a need to be helpful. Cruel conjecture would still apply.”

“It was still embarrassing. He should have told me.”

“Yes, he should have.”

“And he could have told you.”

“Well, yes, but it’s not as if we were close and I’m not certain I would have believed him if he did.”

She glared at him.

He rolled his eyes. “Alright, you little bully. He should have told me. But I will say that as a gentleman, I can understand why he did not.”

“Am I wrong to feel this way then?” she asked.

“No. You cannot be wrong to feel anything, but just because you feel it doesn’t mean you should discredit everything else. Do you still love him?”

What a ridiculous question. “Of course I still love him.”

“Do not let that all go because of someone who, by your own decree, is not worthy of your confidence or your notice.”

She sighed and closed her eyes, trying not to pout.

It was true. She wouldn’t trust Lady Rachel Tremaine as far as she could throw her.

She wasn’t a woman that Elodia would take advice from.

She was so tired, and she hated being angry.

But most of all, she hated the idea of allowing someone like Lady Tremaine to ruin her marriage with Richard, a man she’d loved.

A man who defended the defenseless but rarely had anyone to defend him.

If he had been lonely enough to turn to her, hungry enough to eat poison, as he’d suggested, didn’t that deserve her sympathy instead of her judgement?

Her father was correct, of course; she did see him as perfect.

Before, it had been a compliment, but now she wondered if she hadn’t treated him unfairly.

*

Giltspur Compter, London

It was the final victory, or very near to it.

This place of hopelessness where he’d been sent via conspiracy lived only in his nightmares.

Now he was here again, for what he promised himself would be the last time, finishing a task that he hadn’t relished.

Even if he was well within his rights. As Richard walked through the dismal little courtyard, he recognized some of the men but not all of them.

Finally he reached the room where his uncle would be staying.

Where he would likely spend the rest of his life.

He was sitting at a roughhewn table in a dim room just below ground level.

A far sight from where he’d lived most of his life but still not as bad as the small supply closet Trent had thrown Richard in only two years ago.

When Richard entered, he squinted up at him, a fading yellow bruise on his thinly bearded jaw. He’d lost weight as well. He was pitiful, his inner lack of strength now fully on display.

“Hello uncle,” he greeted him, closing the door behind him.

“You,” Simon hissed as he finally recognized him, “You little—”

“Yes. Let’s skip over all that. I have no interest in staying here longer than I must. I promised you some time ago that if you continued to cross me, I would return the favor you paid me.”

He slammed his fist on the table and rose to his feet. “You have no proof that I was involved with that.”

“I do, in fact, just not enough for a judge.”

“That is impossible. I never directed Trent to send you here.”

Richard smiled and tilted his head. “It’s interesting. I never mentioned Trent.”

Simon blinked, his face going grey. “Yes, you did.”

“No, I didn’t. I mentioned a debtor’s prison.

There are quite a few in London. But I never mentioned Mr. Trent.

” Satisfaction at last, but it left him even colder.

“Thank you for confirming. I didn’t have the evidence before, and even this won’t be enough to press charges but I like knowing for certain.

You could have gotten away with it, you know, but you had to keep pushing, and now you have destroyed yourself. ”

“You are the one who destroyed me. It is your duty to settle my debts, damn you. Your father—”

“—It was,” Richard agreed, “when I still felt an obligation to you and your wellbeing. Thanks to your behavior, I no longer feel such an obligation.”

“You would throw me and my family into ruin?”

“Not your family uncle, just you. Not that you would have done that for me. You would have disappeared me off the face of the earth and disposed of my sister at the earliest convenience without a thought to her happiness or dignity. You’ve been lying to more than yourself, it seems. Aunt Cordelia, Bethany and Winifred will be well looked after by me, if that gives you comfort. ”

“I should have been able to inherit, not you. You are an unworthy child. You do not deserve to bear my family’s name.”

“That is your opinion. Not that it matters.”

“I’ll get out, you know. I still have friends. People of influence who won’t allow me to be here long. It’s a paltry hundred pounds I have left to pay.”

“You attacked the daughter of a viscount. Who do you know that would be willing to cross a peer of the realm for someone like you?”

“You don’t even know how many enemies you’ve made with your arrogance. Lady Tr—”

“Lady Tremaine is gone, sir,” Richard interrupted.

So they had been in league as well. “Her reputation is lost. She will not be in England for a good long time. She no doubt used you for her own ends and left you twisting in the wind when it suited her.” He watched the horrified realization settle onto his uncle’s face.

He staggered backward until he collapsed into the empty chair.

“There will be no help for you, from me or anyone, you made sure of that. You will rot here as long as it takes for the world to be rid of you. It is a rare thing indeed to be the kind of person who improves this cruel world by leaving it.”

“Richard.” He grasped at Richard’s hand, his face growing paler by the minute. “You cannot mean to leave me here. I am your uncle. I am the last link to your dear father.”

“Don’t.” Richard snapped, jerking his hand away, his eyes burning with angry tears that he refused to let fall.

How dare he invoke his father’s name? “Did you ever try to be family to me? Did you ever think that I would have wanted someone to help me when my parents died? I was twenty-three years old. Ada was fourteen. Did you ever think we needed someone to fill that space for us? Did you ever think that we would have traded that fortune you coveted so badly for another day with my father and mother?”

The tears in the man’s eyes only filled him with disgust. He could cry and plead now for himself but he never imagined what it felt like to be attacked when one already felt like they’d lost everything that mattered.

“You are right. We are family. We can still have each other, Richard—”

“Did you think of those things in the last thirty years? The past decade? The past month? Think on them now, as you have the time. I have my own family now, and you, you are already dead. Goodbye uncle.”

He turned and left him behind in the nightmare, walking into the light.