“I ’m not going to hurt her.”
Maximus stood in the sitting room as Peggy’s mother sat before the crackling fire.
She placed her painted teacup down carefully and stared at him. “Words are very easily spoken, my lord. I don’t have to believe them. I used to say things with utter conviction too, upon the stage. Is this not a stage for you?”
“No,” he said. “This is my home, and I don’t lie in it. Even if some people might. Your daughter is an excellent liar, but that’s because society has made it so that she needs to be. She doesn’t lie to me now. I know that.”
“How do you know?” she said.
He kept his stance gentle but determined, knowing he had to win her over. If he did not, he was certain he would lose Peggy. “She can be herself with me, and I can be myself with her. I need you to understand. I’m not going to hurt her.”
Peggy’s mother’s mouth tightened. “I’m listening to you.”
“I want to marry her.”
The teacup clattered in the saucer in her hand. “I beg your pardon?”
“I want to marry your daughter,” he repeated with utter conviction. “I’ve already asked my father’s permission. My father and mother will give it. I’m going to ask the Duke of Westleigh for a special license. I want to marry her quickly because I think—”
“You think she’ll say no?” Peggy’s mother cut in.
“Yes, I think she’ll say no, and I think she’ll try to run away too. I think she’ll run quickly because of what’s happened to her all her life.”
“You’re blaming me for what’s happened to her.”
“No, of course I’m not,” he rushed, standing before her, taking her judgement without judging in turn. For Peggy’s mother had suffered dearly, and yet she had still managed to raise a strong young lady, even if she was wounded inside as he was wounded without. “I didn’t understand before what she was trying to tell me about how my class is guilty for so much pain, but I understand now. Her father was a lord, wasn’t he?”
Her mother nodded.
“And he abandoned you without giving you a single bit of assurance that all would be well.”
Her mouth twisted and tears filled her eyes. “You’re correct about that. There was not a single bit of assurance or care. We were cast out like rats.”
“So I understand now what she meant when she said that I’m part of something that has caused a great deal of ill, but…” He squared his shoulders, determined to make his case. “I can also be part of something that causes a great deal of good. And you may need to help me help her see that.”
“Why should I do that?” she said.
“Because you want her to be happy,” he replied. “I think that’s what you want more than anything in the whole world. It’s why you convinced her not to follow in your footsteps. That’s why you allowed her to go into a life of stealing because you didn’t want her heart to be broken. I’m not going to break it. She’s an incredible gift in my life.”
She sat up straighter. “People break gifts all the time. They break things for fun, my lord.”
“But not me, not this family.”
“I grant you that your family is very special, but so is my daughter, and I do not wish to see…”
“She makes me happy.”
She stilled. “I made someone happy once too, or so I thought.”
“I cannot go back in time and stop what happened,” he said softly. “I can only go forward from this moment and promise you that I will spend every day of my life making your daughter safe, making our children safe. But I need you to see it, because she sees the world through your eyes. Please, please, consider it before she throws this chance away. She’s going to run from this place and try to go somewhere new because she thinks if she leaves here, she’ll be in control, but she won’t be. Though she is very capable, she will be like flotsam and jetsam tossed upon the sea, hoping that some good circumstance awaits her in America with a little bit of money. But here, she could be a countess.”
“People will make fun of her,” her mother warned, clearly worried.
“Who cares what people say?” he demanded, realizing exactly how privileged he sounded, but he was damn glad he was. He was glad he had the money and power to tell the world to go the devil, so he could have the woman he wanted. “People will act like idiots all over the world. We must be stronger and bigger than that. I know I can be, but your daughter doubts. If you will just give her the permission to do it, I know she will choose a life with me.”
She sat up a little straighter. “You truly love her and wish to marry her?”
“I do,” he said. “I’m sure of it now.”
“I won’t promise you anything,” she ventured slowly, even as her frosty demeanor began to melt slowly, oh so slowly, “but if you can make my daughter happy, I could not take that from her. But everything that we all know predicts that you will…”
“What?” he asked carefully, understanding he was not just handling Peggy’s future but her mother’s past pain too. “Let her down?”
She nodded.
“Life is impossible. I never would’ve predicted that I’d lose my eye. I knew that I chose war and all the possibilities it brings. Yet, I never would have guessed I’d be marching about with an eye patch, aches, and a change in self that stuns even me. But your daughter? She has brought me back to myself. All we can do is take a chance, isn’t that true? And hope?”
Peggy’s mother twisted the teacup in the saucer, studying it as if the color was the most important thing in the world. But he noted the way her knuckles had gone white and how her lips trembled.
“Perhaps I can’t convince you. Perhaps you’ll convince her to do the opposite of what I hope. Perhaps you’ll see something good and still insist that it’s bad. But I want to give her a home and life freer than any life she’s ever known.”
He pulled out a bag of coins from his pocket, and he crossed to her.
She blew out a harsh breath. “Is this a payment for the relationship?”
“No,” he said gently. “She and I are both free. She chose to help me with little in return.” He gestured to the leather purse that was full of guineas. “This is her freedom to do whatever she wants. She owes me nothing. Give this to her if she insists on going, because I will not rest if I think she is ever in want of anything.”
She nodded. “I will.”
“Will you go to America with her or will you stay?” he asked.
She lifted her gaze to his, then said with a heavy sigh, “I cannot go to a new country. I am too old. This is the world that I’ve known, and your grandmother was right. If I can save but a few women from the fate that I have known, then I must stay and save them.”
He leaned down and passed the purse of gold coins to her. “Then save her too.”