Chapter 26
Calling Card
“Are you sure you’re done?” Edwin asked.
“I know I am done for the day,” Leo said.
“Someone is in a hurry to leave.”
“I am always in a hurry to leave this place,” Leo put on his jacket.
“Not to go home, though,” Edwin said with open innuendo.
“The destination has nothing to do with my aversion of this place.”
“With the aversion no. But the eagerness has a lot to do with the destination, does it not?”
“You’re trying to tell me something. Say it and be done with it.”
“I am just happy that you’re happy.”
“This is not what you wanted to say, but I will accept it because I really have to go.”
Edwin looked at Leo in his office in Westminster. It was a hectic day, and they had been working for hours. Now, both of them were looking forward to going back home. Which sounded natural for everybody else except for Edwin and Leo, at least up to the recent past.
“You know how much I like Prim,” Edwin commented.
“I am extremely grateful for this insightful sharing of emotions. If that is all, I will take my leave.”
“I like Prim, and I like the effects she has on you.”
“What kind of effect are you talking about? I’m the same man I always was.”
Edwin laughed a hearty laugh that made his whole body shake, obviously amused by what Leo was saying.
“It is different, isn’t it?” Edwin said seriously.
“What is?”
“Going home because you want to. Because there is someone waiting for you.”
Leo didn’t answer that, not that he had to.
Edwin had a way of always knowing what he had in his mind without having to say so explicitly.
But admitting what Edwin was saying was right, it meant it became real.
Leo was dealing with a lot of things, yet not all of them were real.
It was a rare occasion for him, and spelling it out loud here in Edwin’s office, with his best friend and sober, made the fact that he really wanted to go back home, extremely true.
“Is this a poetry session or a philosophical discussion?” Leo checked his watch. “Just so I know how much time this nonsense will take.”
“More of a practical advice. Urging you to focus on the things you have, and that for many people, those things are not granted,” Edwin said seriously.
“Perfect. A little bit of nonsense never harmed anyone in the afternoon.”
“I find that it encourages digestion.”
Leo chuckled and left the room, walked briskly through the corridors, and made his way to his carriage.
Edwin was not wrong. Spending the evening at home with the same woman was not something that Leo was used to doing.
Miss Byrne still looked at him with disbelief every time he entered the house and got ready for dinner.
Or it might have been the fact that his own housekeeper was officially more loyal to Prim.
The carriage hurried through the streets of London till it reached the outskirts, where his mansion was. He used to hate seeing the towers of his house, their size bringing more sad feelings of confinement rather than sanctuary and safety.
But this was not the case anymore. There was a strange feeling inside him each time he saw the iron gate outside his estate, a sweet anticipation as they rode to the entrance.
There was a logical explanation, and deep down, Leo knew exactly what it was.
The house was the same, the staff was the same.
There was only one new variable. Prim. In a sense, the house was not the same anymore, and the staff treated him differently.
It should have felt like an intrusion. But it didn't. It had all the makings of an upgrade.
That eagerness came over him when he saw the towers of his estate.
There was a weirdly fresh routine established between them.
He and Prim would have dinner, and they would talk about every mundane thing that happened in their life.
Things that would have had Leon cut off his ear rather than listen to not so long ago.
But when it was her narrating these little nothings, he couldn’t help but stare at her.
And he noticed every little detail, her expression, her face, and her clothes.
“Welcome, Your Grace,” his butler welcomed him.
“Where is Her Grace?”
“You will find her in the Chinese drawing room.”
Leo smiled. His little wife had managed to make the Mildenhall Estate a vibrant and fashionable residence, pouring life into the cold walls, keeping the essence but adding her own. Like a real Duchess.
Leo was proud of her, of how she had grown from the girl he had met to the woman that she was now pursuing her own impossible goals while guarding his name and legacy.
As he approached the drawing room, he could hear two voices coming from inside.
That was not strange. The almost obscure bachelorette that she was had bloomed into a social flower with strong roots and an intoxicating smell.
And though she didn't feel ready to host any balls, an invitation for tea in that particular drawing room was much sought after by the ladies of the ton.
The door was open, and Leo walked right through, ready to dazzle any guest Prim was trying to impress. Only to freeze on the spot. There in the middle of his estate was Bridget.
All his excitement and anticipation evaporated in a second.
It was replaced by a profound sense of something that he had never felt before.
Violation. This woman, his mother, had been the center of this household while he was growing up.
And after his father died, she chose to leave it and him behind.
And now she was back visiting as if this were a simple social call?
It wasn't just his abandonment. That he could begrudgingly attribute to sorrow and mourning. But she deliberately conceived and executed a plan to destroy him, her own son, and eventually his wife. That made her a persona non grata in his household.
He didn't even look at Bridget, because she really didn't matter to him.
But he did turn his attention to Prim. She had been warned twice about his feelings when it came to his mother.
He thought that he had made it abundantly clear that he didn't want to have any connection to her anymore.
His only goal was to have in his hands the proof he needed to reveal this vile scheme and end this charade once and for all.
Yet, somehow, here she was, in his home, hosted by his own wife. Prim should have known better than to follow protocol and good manners when it came to Bridget.
“Explain this. Now.”
To her credit, Prim didn’t shrivel and diminish herself. That would mean that you felt unsafe in his presence and in their house. At the same time, Prim did not ask for forgiveness, and that told him one thing. Bridget did not come uninvited. Prim had allowed her in.
“Leo,” Prim started.
“This was all my fault, Leo.” Bridget intervened.
“I will address the subject of uninvited and unwanted guests in my house in a minute,” Leo cut off his own mother.
“It is not Prim’s fault. I used the fake excuse and burst into the room, forcing her to cater to me till you came.”
“I dislike being lied to, so I would suggest you explain yourself now, Prim.”
“I invited your mother for tea.”
“Why?”
It felt as if a volcano was trying to contain itself. When he looked at her with that look that said she made the decision that affected him without consulting him first, he was ready to erupt. He would have if Bridget hadn’t intervened.
“You wouldn't talk to me and wouldn't answer my letters,” Bridget said, taking a step his way.
Leo lifted his hand to cut her advance short. It's been years, too many years since his mother had touched him like a son. It was quite suspicious that she wanted to do so under these circumstances.
“Please, Leo, you must hear me out. I know you think I plotted against you with Aaron. I promise you, I had nothing to do with any of this. Until you pointed it out at dinner, it hadn't even crossed my mind that Aaron would do such a thing to you.”
“You have said your piece, and now it's time to go.”
“Leo, I am your mother. I would never do anything to hurt you.”
Leo chuckled cruelly at those words. That might have been true while his father was alive, but not anymore.
“Then you have nothing to fear, Lady Covington. The truth, you see, has the annoying ability to always surface in the end, no matter how hard some people try to bury it.”
“I am begging you, believe what I'm saying is true. It pains me to think that you have this opinion about me.”
“Then take that pain and imagine how it would be to know that your mother and her son would go to such great lengths to smear your reputation and destroy you.”
“I see that you are angry, but-”
"I am not angry,” Leo cut her off, his voice dangerously calm. “I am rightfully indignant. There is a difference. One is an emotion. The other is a verdict.”
Bridget faltered against his resolve and took one small step back, as if Leo had attempted to strike her.
The blow was more devastating than any physical harm.
The message was clear. Leo would not stop his pursuit.
He would find the evidence he was looking for, and he wouldn't hesitate to lay it before a judge, a jury, or all of London.
“Leo, please.”
“You have made your plea, even if you had to use a ploy for this audience. Now, please leave my household and never come back here. Do not contact my wife or me ever again.”
The Duchess lost her posture, her shoulders slumped, her eyes fixated on the ground. Perhaps she was hiding her frustration, perhaps she thought that a few tears would change his opinion. Whatever she had in her mind, she must have now just realized that she was going back empty-handed.
Without saying anything else, Bridget turned to Prim, touched her lightly on her hands, and left the room. The sound of the front door closing echoed throughout the state.