Page 62 of Scandalous Nights With the Earl

‘You sound like Arabella Montague when you talk like that.’

‘Perhaps I am more like her than I realised.’

‘Perhaps you are.’ The words were not complimentary.

‘We never wanted permanency, my lord. We both stressed that. No legal binding. Nothing to regret. An affair that would ultimately have an ending, a way of growth for us both before we moved on to other things. More sensible choices.’

‘Then why did you make love to me like you did if you were thinking like this a week ago? It did not seem like an ending at all to my mind.’

‘Because you are a good lover and I have appreciated our delight. But I think it unwise to continue something that can only eventually hurt us both, and the longer we go on the harder it will be to simply stop. Then we will hate each other. This way we have a chance to remain friends.’

He turned away, his hands fisted at his sides. Angry. She should have expected that.

‘You love Elmsworth Manor. You have recovered the damaged relationship between you and your brother. You have a place here in Society and a way to ensure your future. With me it would be harder, I would just be in the way…’

‘Stop. This is your decision, Wilhelmina, not mine. Stop telling me what to think.’

‘You are right. It is my decision.’

She couldn’t say anything else because to qualify this ending with more would leave them both in limbo and in peril. She needed to be strong.

He looked every inch the Earl again now, his face bland and his bearing prickly. He gave the impression of simply wanting her gone. ‘You have my address in Hampshire, Mrs St Claire.If you wish to get in contact with a more honest explanation I would appreciate it, because I do not believe this one.’

She felt her teeth clench together as she pasted a smile on her face. And then she left. She simply turned and opened the door and went through it.

The end. Of her. Of him. Of delight.

Her name was all over the city.

Wilhelmina St Claire. Murderer. Whore. Liar. Cheat.

And her continued absence reinforced the rumour.

It was Oliver who gave Phillip this news when he arrived at Elmsworth Manor from Nettleford Park late one afternoon two weeks later.

Phillip had spent much of the time since being back in Hampshire with his brother and he’d told him a little of his relationship with Willa because his hurt was so huge he could not keep it all in and because being close to Oliver was such a relief after years and years apart.

‘Mr Simon St Claire, Lionel St Claire’s cousin, has presented papers to a court of law with witnesses for his serious allegations against Wilhelmina St Claire. Your name is in the broadsheets, too, Phillip. It seems someone was following your every movement and recorded all the places and times that you met with her. At your house or at hers and always overnight. Scandal has a certain fervour to it.’

Phillip ignored this. ‘What do we know of the man?’ His voice was furious.

‘Nothing much yet but we can easily find out. Do you believe this gossip?’ Oliver framed the question with care.

‘No. I believe Simon St Claire wants the house and land back in the family and he sees this as the way to do it. Wilhelmina implied the man had been threatening her and obviously thiswas how. He found an assortment of witnesses who have a vested interest in lying and slammed her with the threat of legal action.’

‘Why the hell would she run, then?’

‘I hope it was because she was trying to protect me.’

‘From rumour and conjecture? Surely she knows you have dealt with that all your life, just as I have. You’ve been together for weeks now. My question is, why the hell wouldn’t she know that you’d protect her?’

‘Because our relationship was complicated.’

‘How complicated?’

‘There was never meant to be any permanency. It was completely physical and that was all.’

Unexpectedly Oliver began to laugh. ‘God’s teeth. You don’t know the ways of women, brother. No lady would simply bed a man without it meaning more. Ask Esther. Women simply do not work like that.’