The Footman and I - Valerie Bowman Page 0,69

It makes me ill to look at you. I never want to see your face again.”

It took all her strength to climb that staircase without running, but she did it. She didn’t know how she did it and she had no earthly idea how long it took, but by God, she never once looked back.

By the time she made it to the end of the corridor and her bedchamber, she was a quivering mess. She opened her door, stepped inside, shut it behind her, leaned back against it, and slid all the way to the floor in a crumpled heap. Sobs racked her body and she cried until she had no more tears.

Albina came tiptoeing into Frances’s room from the adjoining bedchamber. “Are you all right, Miss?”

“I’m fine, Albina,” Frances said, grasping the door handle and forcing herself to stand. The last thing she needed was that tell-all Albina running off to inform her mother that she was laying on the floor crying. “I’m just going to lie down for a bit.”

“Yes, Miss,” Albina said before tiptoeing back out.

Frances walked to her bed on wooden legs. She’d no idea how much time had passed. It could have been moments, it could have been minutes. She pulled herself atop the mattress, and sat on its edge, staring numbly at her sodden handkerchief.

How? How could Lucas, the footman, the man she’d met the first day—no, nearly the first moment she’d stepped foot on this property—be the Earl of Kendall? How could he be the man she’d detested since learning last year that he was the sponsor of the Employment Bill? How was that possible? And more importantly, how had she managed to not know it? She’d always thought of herself as reasonably intelligent, but somehow, she’d failed to see what was happening. She was an utter fool.

No. That was not true. She was perfectly intelligent. The man had lied to her. He’d deliberately deceived her. Any normal person might have been duped if they’d been placed in her position. But why? Why had he lied? And why to her? Had he singled her out? The other young ladies at the party obviously knew who he was. Why had he chosen her to deceive?

The questions just kept coming, one after another rolled through her mind like waves upon the seashore. Why would an earl pretend to be a footman? What good did it do? What purpose did it serve? He’d mentioned a bet with his friends. That implied it had been a jest. A lark. She swallowed yet another painful lump in her throat. Had she just had her heart smashed into a thousand little pieces by a group of noblemen trying to outfox each other for a few lousy coins? Dear God, Kendall was even more of a bastard than she’d guessed. He could rot in hell as far as she was concerned.

Anger at herself seeped into her thoughts next. She’d been far too emotional downstairs. She should have told him she didn’t give a whit who he was and given him a piece of her mind about the Employment Bill. She’d told him she never wanted to see him again. She wouldn’t have another chance to tell Lord Kendall precisely what she thought of his abominable bill. In addition to having her heart broken, she’d missed her only opportunity to rail at the bastard. She ripped at her handkerchief with both hands. Life was so unfair.

Then the conversations they’d had in the library came back to haunt her, one-by-one. Oh, God! The things she’d said to him about the ton, about nobility, about gentlemen of the Quality. And all the while he’d smiled and nodded and pretended as if he agreed. He was a liar and a fake! The lowest of scoundrels.

What sort of man did something like this? What sort of man took advantage of a young lady the way he had? Why, she should have Papa call him out. Lord Kendall deserved no less. She quickly discarded that notion. She didn’t want Papa to die. Besides, she’d had a part to play in this turmoil, too. She’d never had any business meeting with a footman in the library each day. She would accept that much of the blame. But she wasn’t the one who’d lied about her identity. He was.

Dear heavens. He must have been laughing at her the entire time. And their kisses. Their kisses! Were they even real? Or had he merely been pretending to want her