Page 61 of Scandalous Nights With the Earl

Horror flooded through her. She should never have trusted him to allow her the month.

‘But I am here to tell you today that I am tired of this cat and mouse game.’ He laid the deeds of Belton Park on the table before her. ‘Now sign the damn thing for I have run out of patience. You have had two years of income from the wealth of the land as well as all the money my cousin saved up across the years. His bank account was empty when I looked into it.’

‘I think you might understand why,’ she gave back, anger now rising. ‘I was your cousin’s legal wife for over ten long years.’

‘You were a miserable wife with your lack of progeny and constant sadness, and Lionel was tired of you after the very first year. He told me so again and again. Now sign it. I will have Mr MacDonald bring you back a copy.’

‘No. I do not wish to see him.’

He smiled. ‘The evils of the past have a way of coming back, Mrs St Claire, and a loose woman like you would probably enjoy an extra bit of male companionship when it is offered.’

Fear flared inside her at the leer Lionel’s cousin gave her as he reached out to run a finger along her cheekbone. ‘You are a widow and alone. Would any man at all do?’

‘Get out.’

He laughed.

‘You are almost beautiful when you are angry. Did you know that? And no one at all would come to help you if you screamed. Lionel was a fool not to enjoy you more but he always had his head in the stars, whereas I…’ He stopped. ‘I have alwaysappreciated a shapely woman.’ His hand cupped her breast and squeezed hard, the shock of it making her shake.

‘The only way I will sign this paper is if you wait outside.’

He looked uncertain for a moment.

‘I shall give you to the count of three. One…two…’

He was gone before she reached three and she picked up his pen and signed the document, knowing that if she did not everything would be far more dangerous. She had done this to herself by leaving London. She had not thought out this plan at all and now was paying the price for her stupidity.

If Simon came back she knew he would assault her, for she could see his evil intention in his eyes, and so without thinking more she ran through the back door, along the row of trees that sheltered her from the front of the house, and down the lane across the fields.

Once in the small village she relaxed a bit and walked more slowly towards the cottage of the McAllistair sisters. She could not stay and involve them further but she would say a quick goodbye. Everything was perilous and nowhere was safe.

She knew Simon St Claire would not keep to his word either. Her name would be bandied around before long and tagged with all the horrible things he had accused her of. There was only a small amount of time for her to disappear entirely but before she did she had one last thing to do.

Willa knocked at the door of Phillip Moreland’s town house just before the hour of three the next afternoon. Her heart was beating like a drum in her chest and she felt clammy but she made herself stand still and take in a breath.

The butler took her directly through to the library and then the Earl was in front of her, beautiful and smiling. He was dressed today in dark blue.

Rising from the seat behind his desk, he walked towards her. ‘I wondered which day you would return, Willa, and I must say that I am very glad to see you back.’

Her heart broke again as she swallowed, waiting until his servant closed the door behind him. Phillip had stopped now just out of reach, a frown upon his brow, as if he could tell she was upset about something.

‘While I was gone I have been thinking…about our relationship.’

The blue in his eyes silvered.

‘I have been thinking about all the things that would be impossible to accomplish should we keep on going the way we are. For one I think that you should have your own heirs and to do that you need to be married. It seems the problem of infertility is seldom the man’s fault and it may have been Gretel’s sickness that stopped her from conceiving. I know that you may say now such a thing does not matter to you but there will come a day when you will wish differently.’ She had rehearsed this but the words that spouted out sounded wooden and strange even to her ears.

The Earl stood very still, his face unreadable.

‘What has happened since I have been gone, Wilhelmina? Why are you saying these things?’

‘Because I don’t wish to stop you being happy. I am barren and I do not care to ever be married again. But you…’ She took stock and made herself go on. ‘Everyone in Society will expect you to take a wife. Our relationship is a more transient one and in a year or in two, when delight fades, what happens then? What happens when being lovers lessens us both?’

‘You honestly think all of this?’

She looked him directly in the eye and lied. ‘I do. I believe it has been a lovely interlude and a time that I will never forget but I don’t want scandal and I need my independence.

‘I am thinking of leaving London after the sale of Belton Park has been finalised. I want to travel and see Europe and I want to be free.’