I was a few years younger than Laura, when her fall from grace occurred, I was sent away to France to school. To remove me from the scandal and to keep my reputation safe."
"We were both sent away. I'm sorry for what happened to Laura, but let me explain my side of events. You will see that I'm innocent in all this."
Molly strode to the door. A chair scraped behind her, and before she could open the door but an inch, Hugh was behind her, slamming it shut. She turned, glaring at him. "I married the one man my family and I swore to curse for the rest of our days. How can I return home and tell my parents, aunt, and uncle, that I have slept with our enemy? The very man who ruined a woman's life. You left her to die. For days she suffered in childbirth, and not one word from you."
"You do not know what you speak," he said frowning. "I cared for Laura as a friend, but that is all. I did not do what you accuse me of."
"Really, then tell me, Your Grace, who did? Your elder brother, perhaps? You cannot think that I would believe that your mother would go about society as she did, sorrowful and apologetic for her younger son's actions. No mother would throw the blame on one child over the other, especially if they were innocent of the charge."
He scoffed, running a hand through his hair and leaving it on end. "You did not know my mother." The words were self-derogatory, and she hated that this was what was happening to them.
"You go by the name Mr. Armstrong?" she asked, needing clarification.
"It's my mother's maiden name and not commonly known. A vicar's daughter would not know the intimate details of a duke's marriage that took place years before, now would she?"
The words were cutting, and Molly felt the nick of his tongue's blade just as severe as if he'd cut her with the physical object himself. So, now she was not good enough for him? Not high enough on the social ladder to circulate and know the Duke of St. Albans intimate details?
"I will pack my things and be gone by the morning."
"The hell you will." He glared at her, his eyes narrowing in anger, and yet fear, not hate lurked in his dark depths. Not that it would change her mind. He could not keep her here, no matter what he said or thought. She would return to England and forget her few weeks in Italy.
Or at least try and forget her time here.
Her heart ached at the very thought of it.
"You cannot stop me, Hugh. I will leave you and be gone by morning. Nothing you say or do will change that fact." The thought of their farce marriage near crumbled her resolve to remain strong. “We’re not even married. All this time I’ve been living in sin and with a man I do not even know.”
“We are married. I signed the register St. Albans, not Armstrong.”
“That does not make it legal,” she seethed, blinking to stem her tears. “In a court of law, I highly doubt that would make our marriage legitimate.”
A muscle worked in his jaw as he thought over her words. “We will marry again. Without the guise of Armstrong.”
She shook her head. Who was this man? “I will not marry Lord Farley, not now or ever. I’m returning to England.”
"And so that is all I deserve. You choose to believe I am capable of such a crime and do not believe me when I tell you otherwise."
Molly crossed her arms. She wanted to go to him, to soothe the hurt in his voice, the pain etched on his handsome visage. But she could not. Her cousin's image, cold in her coffin, her little child laying in her arms, put paid to that notion. "What is your side, then, Your Grace? Do, please, enlighten me."
He growled, stalked to the fire where he fisted his hands on the marble mantle. "I never touched Miss Cox. My brother courted her during her first Season, made her believe she was loved and his favorite. Henry had many favorites, your cousin was merely one of them."
Molly listened, not liking that he sounded like he truly believed the words coming out of his mouth. Had she married a madman? A liar? Society would certainly say she'd married a rogue who had ruined an innocent woman and left her to