with Finn."
Heat bloomed on Evie's cheeks just as a footman knocked on the door, entering with the silver tea tray. Molly bit back her grin as she pulled off her gloves, setting them aside. "I do not know what to do, and I need your guidance."
"Anything, dearest."
"I saw my aunt and uncle, and they have confirmed what I imagined the worst. They do indeed believe the gentleman who seduced my cousin to her downfall was Hugh. He, of course, is adamant that he was not to blame. I do not know whom to believe."
"Does knowing that perhaps Hugh made a mistake in his youth change the way you feel about him? I know what he is accused of is very bad, the ton talk of nothing but his downfall and flee from England, but that will be nothing if you love him."
Evie's face swam as the tears Molly had been so stoically holding at bay, burst free. She sniffed. "I love him still. So much that it hurts to think of not being with him, but Laura was my cousin. I was sent away to France because of my family's fear of future rogues taking advantage of me, as poor as I was."
"You are very beautiful, Molly. I can understand your family being worried after such an event."
"I want Hugh, but to love him, despite what he has done means I lose my family. It would mean that all I've ever thought about the situation, my ideals and morals are worthless because I have chosen the very man who created the whole mess." An impossible choice and one she did not wish to make. "I know that Laura was not innocent in all this, she chose to give herself to him, but he could have married her, instead of taking the easy way out and fleeing the country. Hugh could have shouted from the rooftops that his brother had wronged an innocent young woman and be damned the consequences."
Evie stared at her, her eyes full of pity and concern. "I think you just made your decision, my dear," she said, clasping her hand. "But before you do, remember that Hugh was young, a boy of twenty. To go up against one's family, his brother a duke no less, would indeed be very hard. He fled, but that may have been because there was little left for him to do. No other option given to him."
Molly stared at her friend for a long moment, thinking over her words. His choice had he been innocent of the crime would not have been easy, that was true. But if Hugh was the gentleman who had ruined Laura, there was no forgiving of that fact. She would be lying to herself, going against everything she ever believed if she forgave such a sin.
The lump in her throat burned, and as much as she tried to swallow past it, it would not shift. However, was she to leave the man she loved behind? Commence a life where it was only ever half-lived?
"Remember, we're always here for you, my dear."
Molly nodded. She would need her friends more than ever in the coming months. Oh, who was she fooling? Years to come.
Hugh looked up from his desk, the many letters to staff at St. Albans Abby before his brother's death scattered before him. He would chase down every last servant in England who worked here and the many estates he owned if it meant that he could find a single one of them who knew of his brother's liaison with Miss Cox. His life, his ability to keep his wife, depended on it. He could not fail her in this as well.
He'd failed her once before, he would not do it again.
Molly knocked on his door, waiting at the threshold before coming into the room. Hugh stood, striding over to her and pulling her inside. "You're very pale. What is wrong? Is the baby well?"
She didn't say a word, allowed him to place her onto the settee in front of the fire before he went back and shut the door, giving them privacy.
"I was unable to find Laura's diary, as I had hoped. If she had it with her in London during the time of her child's birth, it is no longer there." She shrugged. "Perhaps it never was."
He sat beside her, the pit of his stomach in knots. Would Molly believe him, or continue to think ill of him? How could she not trust him to