Excerpt of When the Earl Was Wicked
E ven after five years as a courtesan, Evelina Comerford didn’t take comfort in sparkling balls, the wicked masquerades or the erotic dance of the chase.
No, she was, at heart, still a simple woman.
And tonight since her longtime protector, Harold Talbot, the Duke of Southwater, had left her early, she was indulging in equally simple pleasures.
She’d had a decadent chocolate tart, taken a long, hot bath sweetened with orange essence and now she sat tucked into her bed in a flannel nightrail, reading the latest gothic masterpiece she and her sisters had been sharing. And it was not even nine at night. Bliss.
It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy it when Harry stayed with her. She’d been with the duke for nearly two years, his mistress, but certainly more than that. He was the love of her life. She told anyone who asked the same and she knew he loved her, even if he rarely said the words.
They had made promises to each other, and he always treated her gently. There was value in that. She enjoyed his touch, they made love twice weekly at this house and he often stayed and shared breakfast with her. Life was perfectly fine.
Well, perhaps not fine. She set her book aside with a little sigh as thoughts troubled her.
The same thoughts that had been bothering her for the last few months.
Ever since her beloved older sister, Arabella, had nearly been killed after their estranged father had kidnapped her.
That awful night Evelina had begged Harry to help, to go with Arabella’s now-husband, Silas, to find her.
Harry had refused. There had been no bending him. He didn’t wish to be part of a scandal and he had left her behind when she refused to depart with him. That night had shifted something between them, no matter how much she tried to forget it. To wish it away. To pretend it away.
It was a scar on the otherwise smooth history of their affiliation and it still hurt.
Still made her angry even though she tamped both reactions down with all her might and never spoke of them to him or to her sisters.
She just had to work harder to overcome those pesky emotions.
Harry was, after all, otherwise a good companion and he had made a great deal of promises about her future.
Even when he married to make his heirs and spares, he had promised her a life as his beloved companion, one filled with comfort and his affection.
A courtesan didn’t just walk away from something like that just because a gentleman didn’t rush to her aid every time she requested it. That was foolishness.
There was a light knock on her door and she started from her spiraling thoughts. “Yes?”
“I beg your pardon, Miss Comerford,” her maid, Deborah, said as she entered the chamber. “There’s been a message delivered, from the Duke of Southwater.”
Evelina caught her breath as she set her book aside and rushed to receive the note.
It wasn’t like Harry to reach out after they’d been together for a night, but he had been a little odd that evening.
They’d eaten supper and were supposed to go to the opera, but he had cried off.
They’d made love and then he’d left her.
Perhaps something was wrong.
She nodded to Deborah. “I’ll ring if the duke intends to return or if I require anything else. Thank you.”
Her maid bobbed out a nod and left her. Evelina rushed to the seat before her fire and sank into the comfortable cushion to break the seal on the folded sheets and read whatever was within.
Dear Miss Comerford.
Evelina blinked at the address. Miss Comerford? Harry hadn’t addressed her so formally for years. It was always Evelina or perhaps Evie if he was a bit in his cups. Her heart raced and she had to force herself to read the next line as the sense of impending doom filled her.
I cannot express to you my appreciation of our time spent together these last two years. You have been a fine companion. However, these sorts of arrangements always have their end and I’m afraid that is where we have arrived.
Now Evelina couldn’t breathe at all as she stared at Harry’s even, careful hand and those hateful shocking words written in it.
The home I have let for you will remain available to you for the next month so that you may take your time in vacating it.
And I have arranged for my solicitor to settle you with one thousand pounds, to be delivered in four payments of two-hundred fifty pounds a month for four months.
This should provide for any gap in protector you may find, as well as provide you with an investment for your future.
Please accept it, along with my thanks for the time we have shared.
Yours Respectfully,
Southwater
Evelina couldn’t stop staring at the words swimming before her eyes, blurring in and out as she tried to make sense of them. But she couldn’t.
She stood and staggered to her door, pulling her bell with a shaking hand. Deborah reappeared in what could have been only a moment but felt like a lifetime.
“Yes, Miss-” Her servant stopped. “Oh, Miss Comerford, you are pale as paper. Please let me help you, I fear you’ll fall over.”
She caught Evelina’s elbow and helped her back to her seat at the fire. Evelina tried to find her breath to speak.
“My-my sisters,” she gasped out. “I need you to send for my sisters. Tell them I’m-I’m well, not ill, but I need them to come to me. Now. Please.”
There must have been something in Evelina’s face, because her maid didn’t ask questions or say anything else, but rushed from the room to do as she was told.
She knew Arabella and Julia would come to her side right away, assuming they were each home when her message arrived.
Since neither lived very far away, they would likely be with her soon.
So all she could do was wait, reading and re-reading Harry’s words, trying to find an explanation in two short paragraphs that ended two years of partnership and, she had believed, affection.
But she could find nothing. She folded and unfolded the letter, as if reopening it would change what was to be found inside.
She rubbed her eyes in the hopes she would wake from this nightmare.
But the letter remained unchanged, as did her shock and horror at its contents.
She was startled when there was a knock on her door again. When she glanced at the clock, she realized nearly an hour had passed since she received this horrid news. She hadn’t even reached the door when it flew open and Arabella and Julia rushed in together, faces pale with worry.
“Oh, Evie,” Julia said as she tugged Evelina in for a hug. “You look terrible. What is it? What’s happened?”
Evelina opened and closed her mouth, trying to find words and coming up mute instead. She extended a shaking hand at last and gave over the letter that had blown up her world and all her future and paced to the window so she wouldn’t have to see her sisters’ expressions when they read it.
“Poxy bastard!” Arabella gasped out after a moment’s silence.
Evelina did turn then, watched as Arabella threw the letter aside, her blue eyes bright with righteous anger. Her older sister had always been like that. Certain and ready to go to war if she felt someone needed it.
Arabella was coming toward her as Julia bent to retrieve the discarded letter and read it again, her face as pale as Evelina’s felt.
“I don’t understand,” Julia said softly. “Harry loves you. He loves you.”
Those words pierced Evelina’s breaking heart and she bent over just as Arabella reached her. Her sister shored her up as she let out a long, pained wail that echoed in the room.
“How could he love me, have ever loved me, and end things this way?” she sobbed. “How? How could this happen?”
She sank down then into the settee, Arabella’s arms coming around her, Julia rushing to flank her on the opposite side as she sobbed out her confusion and heartbreak and the loss of every dream she had apparently foolishly allowed herself to have.
Every dream that had been ripped away in a few cold words from a man whose heart she had so deeply misjudged.