To Love a Tormented Earl - Bridget Barton Page 0,47
physical distress.
‘We must wait,’ she told Alice, and they moved closer to the wall to allow people to pass them by.
Randall came to the door. It was too far away to hear the exchange, but Randall’s face became thunderous and Mr. Snell’s face turned bright red. The butler stood with his chest out, glaring down his nose at the debt collector. Mr. Snell shook his fist at Randall. Then, after another few moments, the debt collector stormed off.
Emilia let out a long breath, pressing her gloved hand to her collarbones.
‘I suppose’tis safe to go home now,’ Alice said.
But to Emilia, nothing had ever felt further from the truth.
***
Max charged down the stairs to the foyer a few moments after Emilia exited.
Roberts followed, saying, ‘By Jove, Milton, you don’t mean to attempt to stop her!’
Max did mean to attempt to stop her, but as he burst out of the door he saw the carriage rolling away already. With half a mind to run after it, he hurried to the pavement.
‘Milton!’ Roberts protested, a few steps behind.
Max let out an exhalation and stomped back to the stairs, then turned and headed as if to follow the landau again.
‘It’s rotten luck, old chap,’ Roberts commiserated. ‘I don’t suppose one might have foreseen that she would read the letter—and certainly that if she had, she might believe the wretched lies within—’
‘I was a damned fool not to tell her!’ Max exploded. ‘I should have laid myself bare. Imagine the shock of learning the sordid details of the entire affair from the words of that letter, Roberts.’ Max covered his mouth with a hand, overwhelmed with horror.
‘I still haven’t had the dubious pleasure of reading it myself,’ Roberts pointed out.
‘And now, it seems, you shan’t,’ Max said with a groan. ‘She has not delivered it to me.’
‘Has she kept for herself?’ Roberts wondered.
‘I cannot say,’ Max said, shaking his head regretfully.
Would that I might have that infernal letter in my hands so I might burn it to cinders!
Roberts grimaced, then placed a hand on Max’s shoulder. ‘Come along, Milton, we’ll have a glass of brandy.’
What a horrid predicament. Miss Whitmore, incensed and disgusted with me, and I am no closer to acquiring the source of all of this detestable trouble.
With a sense of defeat, Max allowed Roberts to steer him back to the townhouse. Halfway up the steps Max stopped again, however. ‘All is lost, Roberts,’ he said. ‘Emilia found the letter, but she has not delivered it, and she has said we shall never meet again. How am I to know where it is?’
Roberts frowned as he returned Max’s gaze. ‘Tis a problem, I will own.’
He patted Max’s shoulder, and with gently pressed him to continue into the house. Max trudged up the stairs and into the foyer without another word, allowing his friend to direct him up the stairs there to the first floor and the drawing room, where Roberts made good on his offer of brandy.
Max stared unseeing at the glass of Calvados in his hand as he leaned on the sill of the window. ‘I believe Charlotte wishes to find the heir in line for the earldom after me,’ he said.
Roberts did not reply, but sipped his brandy.
‘If I do as I was threatened to, and return to the continent without revealing myself, she will thereby guarantee her hold on the estate.’
The alcoholic scent of the apple brandy pricked his nose and Max took a sip.
‘If, instead, I reveal myself, and force her hand, I am certain she will ruin us both with that detestable story. Hell and damnation, Roberts. I never considered Charlotte to be such a treacherous, grasping jade.’
Feeling wretched, Max swallowed the rest of the brandy at once, relishing the burning it caused to his mouth and throat.
His circumstances had become more impossible with Miss Whitmore’s defection, but he found that his distress did not primarily lie in that fact. Instead, his mind returned with obstinacy to the loss of her good opinion of him. He felt he could not bear the knowledge that she thought him some sort of irredeemable, violent ape.
Crossing the room, he poured himself another glass without concern for the amount.
What could be done? The lady had made herself very clear. He was not to contact her. How could he acquit himself of the accusations against him if he mightn’t speak with her? No contact meant not even a letter. It was an injustice not to be born.