Chapter 6
Chapter Six
An Unspeakable Solution
Lizzie knew she had misheard.
“Anna?”
Eleanor’s gasp filled the room. “Tyrell de Warenne is the father?” she cried in astonishment.
Anna lifted her head, her expression pleading as she gazed directly at Lizzie. “I’m sorry,” she began, hugging herself.
The floor tilted beneath her feet. Lizzie staggered from the shock, too stunned now to even think.
“Elizabeth? Leclerc! Bring salts!” Eleanor demanded.
Abruptly, Lizzie sat down.
And in that instant, Lizzie’s mind began to function. Tyrell de Warenne was the father of Anna’s child? No, this could not be! This was a mistake, because she was the one who loved him—her sister had a dozen other suitors—this was a huge, monstrous mistake.
The room came back into focus. Lizzie saw Anna standing beyond Eleanor, staring at her, ashen.
Lizzie wet her lips. It was hard to speak, as if she had lost her voice. “Anna?” This had to be a mistake—her sister would never do this to her.
Anna’s gaze had filled with tears. “I’m so sorry!”
And it hit her then, the brutal, cruel truth. Anna had been in Tyrell’s bed and now she was having his child.
The pain that stabbed through her breast was indescribable; there was so much hurt, but there was also the acute knifing of treachery and betrayal. All this time, while she had been mooning over Tyrell, madly and foolishly, Anna had been his lover.
Lizzie cried out, her hand on her heart, and Anna looked away. Heartache consumed her entire being—how she understood the real meaning of that word now. She closed her eyes, but unwelcome images invaded her mind, heated intimate images of her sister and Tyrell.
Yet how could this be? Tyrell de Warenne was a gentleman—he would never seduce an innocent young lady.
“I am calling the physician!” Eleanor cried in alarm. “Leclerc! Summon Dr. FitzRobert instantly!”
Lizzie tried to tell her aunt that would not be necessary, as no doctor could heal her broken heart. Instead, the words tumbled forth, heated and accusatory. “How could you?” Lizzie cried, staring at her sister. And suddenly she was outraged. “You had a dozen admirers! Why him?”
Anna shook her head, her mouth trembling, but she had folded her arms protectively around herself. “You would not understand. Oh, Lizzie, I have rued the day!”
Eleanor stood up slowly and glanced back and forth between the two sisters.
“I am not well,” Anna cried. “I will go lie down!” She turned to flee the room.
Lizzie leapt up. “No! How dare you run from me now? You will face me! I insist upon an explanation!”
Anna froze, her back to Lizzie, her shoulders shaking with tension.
Lizzie did not move, trembling with her rage. Every man adored Anna. Why would Tyrell be any exception? And Lizzie felt the tears tracking down her face. Of course Tyrell would want Anna. But surely he would offer marriage—surely he would not ruin her this way.
“What is happening?” Eleanor asked very quietly. “What am I missing?”
Stiffly, so stiffly that her lips failed to move, Lizzie said, “I wish a word with Anna—alone.”
Eleanor hesitated. Then she left, closing the door behind her and Leclerc. Anna turned. “I never wanted you to find out. I can’t explain—it just happened. Lizzie! Don’t look at me that way!”
Lizzie shook her head. “All this time I have been so in love with him, acting like a fool, and the two of you have been lovers?”
“No!” Anna cried. “It wasn’t that way! There was only one time, Lizzie. It was that night at the All Hallow’s Eve ball.”
And that entire night replayed itself with astonishing speed in Lizzie’s mind.
Tyrell’s smoldering stare, his determined approach, his bold proposition, his staggering desire. Meet me in the west gardens…at midnight.
Anna in her rum-soaked gown, begging her to change costumes so she could stay to enjoy the rest of the evening. Surely you don’t mind, Lizzie? Surely you do not wish to stay?
But even at night, even with switched costumes, Tyrell could not have mistaken the sisters. Lizzie knew it for a fact. Anna was too beautiful and bewitching to ever be mistaken for anyone.
“Does it even matter? You never had a chance with him, Lizzie. It is all in the past, isn’t it?
Lizzie!” Anna suddenly pleaded. “I know now that I should have gone home when Mama told me to. I have dreaded this day so much! I never wanted you to know. Can’t you please forgive me?
I have suffered enough!” She sank into a chair, tears falling now.
Lizzie didn’t care about her sister’s feelings. Her temples throbbed so badly she was afraid her skull might split. “What happened?”
Anna hesitated.
Lizzie clenched her fists, trying to breathe, but the room was hot and airless. “Anna, you must tell me. I insist!”
Anna avoided Lizzie’s eyes. Her cheeks remained flushed with shame.
“I walked into the gardens for some air because I was so warm from dancing all night. He was there. I knew who he was immediately. And he came directly to me! I was so flattered. He did not even speak. He pulled me into his arms and began kissing me without a single word.” Anna looked up, her eyes glistening.
“I had never been kissed like that before! I was stunned—and then I thought he had been secretly admiring me. I was certain he had been admiring me for some time!” Suddenly she was anguished, looking down at her lap.
“But then he demanded to know where the real Maid Marian was.”
Somehow, her anger vanished. He had gone to the gardens to wait for her. When Anna had appeared, in Lizzie’s costume, he had pounced upon her without a single word—and if Lizzie had gone, he would have seized her instead.
But hadn’t she known when she left that night that fate was handing her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?
“I told him the real Maid Marian was gone,” Anna whispered, not daring to meet Lizzie’s eyes now. “Lizzie, I was so overcome with his attention I could not think. I didn’t think about you. I thought he admired me.”
Lizzie somehow spoke. “You must have realized he was waiting for me!”
Anna shook her head. “I thought he wanted me,” she whispered.
And Lizzie then understood. Her sister was accustomed to being pursued and admired, so why would she have thought any differently?
Anna had been swept away by Tyrell’s passionate kisses.
“He went to the gardens to meet me, not you,” Lizzie managed to say, her own eyes burning with tears.
“And the two of you made love.” The mere speaking of the words caused too much pain for Lizzie to bear and she staggered from the weight of it. Her knees buckling, Lizzie sat.
Anna appeared torn, as if she wanted to rush to her sister and comfort her.
“I have never regretted my foolish behavior more. Lizzie, I have never been sorrier about anything. It was only one night, and it was a long time ago. Please, Lizzie, let’s just forget about it!
” And finally she went to Lizzie and reached for her hand.
Lizzie jerked away. “I can’t forget about this.
” Suddenly she could see them, almost in each other’s arms, there in the moonlight.
She spoke through the tears that choked her voice, avoiding looking at her beautiful sister now.
“No man has ever looked at me before Tyrell. He is the only man who ever saw me as a woman,” Lizzie said bitterly. “But of course he would prefer you.”
Anna closed her eyes briefly. “He didn’t want me, Lizzie. Not the way you are thinking,” she whispered.
Lizzie somehow stood. “I don’t understand. You are carrying his child.”
Anna stared at her shoes. “He is heir to the earldom of Adare,” she said.
“He is wealthy, powerful, handsome. I’ve had so many suitors, but never anyone like him.
After he realized I wasn’t you, he became very angry.
I still don’t know why I acted as I did.
I don’t know why I didn’t let him walk away!
I wanted him to kiss me again. I wanted him to fall in love with me.
I wasn’t thinking about you, Lizzie. Not even once!
All I could think about was being with Tyrell de Warenne. ”
Lizzie stared, still seeing the two of them entwined. “Are you saying he decided to leave…but you somehow made him stay?”
Anna suddenly lifted her head high. Her eyes sparkled with tears. “Yes, that is what I am saying, Lizzie. He was going to leave, but I threw myself at him.”
Lizzie gasped.
“I am not good, sensible or moral, like you and Georgie. I made the worst choice of my life that night. I have spent night after night regretting what I did—and praying you would never discover the truth. I am reprehensible, Lizzie. I know it. But I am your sister. That will never change. Will you ever be able to forgive me?”
Lizzie closed her eyes. She still loved Anna and she always would, but that did not ease the pain of her treachery.
And nothing would ever change the fact that Tyrell was the father of her sister’s child.
But how could he have behaved this way? Lizzie had a disturbing sense of dread.
“The one thing I feel certain of is that he is a gentleman—that he would not pursue an innocent.”
Anna sank into a chair, holding her swollen belly, her expression one of misery. She looked away.
“You’re right,” she mumbled.
Lizzie stiffened as if shot. And suddenly the spiteful gossip and jealousy of the other ladies in the county came to mind. There’s that Anna Fitzgerald, the wild one.
“What do you mean?” Lizzie cried, disbelieving.
Anna began to choke on her tears. “My character is a defective one, I fear,” she muttered.
Lizzie was reeling. “Anna!”
Anna bit her lip, and after a long, terrible moment, she nodded. “He was not my first lover, Lizzie.”