Chapter 24 #2
“So you have entirely given up on your plan for revenge?” Charlotte asked, looking almost pained.
“Yes, and I beg you will come to think of him kindly in time, as well. For my sake, if not for his. I’m finally learning how to be happy.”
Charlotte smiled, but there were shadows in her eyes. “I want nothing more than your happiness, Alice, dear.”
“Then, shall we drink to that?” Alice raised her glass of wine that Frederick had brought her; there was very little left at the bottom, yet enough for a sip. But Charlotte put out her hand.
“It’s hot and you look thirsty. Let me bring you another drink, and then we can toast to it properly.”
“Lemonade?” Alice asked, mindful of the last time she’d had too much wine. One glass was well enough, but there could be danger in more than one.
“Lemonade? Truly? Wine will slake your thirst far better, sweetie.”
“I would rather not risk losing my head today, when I am supposed to be reminding the ton that Frederick and I are happy together, with no suggestion that we were forced into marriage.”
“But you were,” Charlotte said with a light laugh. “You can make the present anything you would like it to be, but you cannot reshape the past.”
“His intention to marry me was shaped far more by my actions than his,” she said. “He would not have acted in such a way to preserve my reputation if I had not behaved the way I did. Let bygones be bygones, Charlotte.”
“Very well,” Charlotte said with a huff, smiling to soothe the sting of her words. “Lemonade it is. I shan’t be long.”
Alice rested on her hands and closed her eyes at the sun just brushing her cheeks.
Soon, she would have to move, but for now, she was enjoying the softness of the warmth, and the knowledge that soon Frederick’s reputation would be restored and they could go back to living their life as they wanted to, without having to concern themselves too much about the opinions of others.
Not long now.
She couldn’t wait.
By the time Frederick began making his way up the hill to where Alice awaited him, he felt as though he had made excellent progress with his fellow lords.
A dull set of conversations, to be sure, and he had been forced to explain himself and his reasoning far more times than he would have preferred.
Still, as he made his way to Alice’s blanket, a lightness overcame him.
Until, that was, he felt the whispers.
At first, he just noticed a few glances from behind fans. Eyes cast his way. Murmurs in ladies’ ears. Only the ladies—he felt as though he had successfully convinced most gentlemen he was not a waste of space—but that was enough to unsettle him.
“Don’t say that,” Alice said, too loudly, her words slurring slightly. Her eyes didn’t seem fully focused, and her face was flushed. “You don’t know.”
A blonde lady he wasn’t familiar with stood with her hands on her hips. “I know enough. You told me enough. We all know how things stand with you. Why deny it now?”
“I don’t—” Alice shook her head, looking confused, as though she was struggling to follow the conversation. But Frederick knew. A weight sunk to the base of his stomach. Oh yes, he knew precisely what they were discussing.
He hurried over, the accusing glares like knives to his skin. What had Alice said?
At his approach, the blonde lady stepped in front of Alice. “Don’t come near her. Haven’t you done enough?”
His patience snapped thin.
“Alice,” he muttered, keeping his tone measured. “Come here, please.”
“You do not get to order her around!” the lady snapped.
“Lottie,” Alice mumbled, then shook her head. It looked as though she had drunk far too much. How much had she had? Was she trying to humiliate him? The thought congealed inside him. Of course that had been her intention. Had she not done the same before?
Alice looked at him and attempted a sweet smile that didn’t stay in place on her face. “There you are,” she rasped. “I wasn’t expecting you back yet!”
“So I see…” Frederick frowned.
“Did you or did you not blackmail her to the altar?” the blonde lady demanded, and whispers flurried out from around him.
All the work he had done to protect his reputation ripped to shreds immediately, right before his eyes.
“You ruined her, then forced her to marry you in the most heinous way imaginable. Everyone knows it. And now we have the truth of it.” She gestured at Alice.
“Stop it, Charlotte,” Alice said, sobering up a little, and in a too-loud whisper, added, “Not here.”
Ah yes. Not here. Not while he was around.
“Alice.” A cold note entered his voice, but he couldn’t help himself. He had thought they’d moved past her attempts to ruin him—he had gotten her wine with that understanding in mind.
How could he have been so wrong? How could she have smiled in his face and told him she would help him, then enlist the help of this lady to destroy his reputation?
Alice pushed past Charlotte, every movement sloppy, and flung herself in his arms. He caught her—just. “I don’t feel well,” she mumbled. “Can we go home?”
“How much wine did you have?”
“Wine?” Her brow furrowed, and he could practically see her thoughts passing sluggishly behind them. “Only the glass you gave me.”
“That alone could not have made you drunk.”
“Drunk?” She laughed sloppily. “I’m not drunk, Frederick. I had lemonade.”
“Don’t speak to her in that way,” the blonde lady chided, but Alice waved her aside.
“Leave us alone, Charlotte. That’s enough.”
He had to get Alice away before she said anything more incriminating. The worst of it was, she clung to him as though none of this had happened. As though she had not been venting his sins to everyone who stood nearby.
He beckoned a footman closer. “Take Her Grace to my carriage,” he murmured, already searching for his aunt. “Use as many men as you need. I will be there shortly.”
“Frederick?” Hurt crossed Alice’s face as she understood he was leaving her, however briefly. “But you just came back.”
People were staring. Tittering behind false smiles and fluttering fans. He felt the hot press of the sun on his head and the sickening twist of shame in his gut. More foolish of him for thinking he could so easily move past everything that had happened.
So much for restoring his reputation.
Frederick dragged himself away from Alice’s clutching hands as he went in search for his aunt, but to his relief, she found him first.
“Oh, there you are!” she greeted, before taking his arm and glancing around them. “What have you been saying? Everyone is talking about the way you forced Alice to the altar and brutalized her into agreeing to marry you?”
The dread coalesced into something far more horrifying. The pain punched him in the gut, stealing his breath.
If people were saying that, it meant Alice had told them so.
No one else knew of their situation; they knew about the rumors, and that he had married her to save her reputation, but not that she had been so utterly opposed to the marriage at the beginning.
And even if they had suspected such a thing because of her behavior when she first became his wife, there was no reason for it to be brought back up now.
“Is this revenge?” he choked out. “To pay me back for how I wronged her?”
“Frederick, take a moment, dear.” His aunt’s hands gripped his wrists, her hold surprisingly strong, even with her ruined hand. “Think this through. Why would she do that when you have finally been getting along?”
“I—I don’t know. I thought—” He had trusted her. Thought that she would never hurt him like this.
The part of him still dipped in guilt whispered that he deserved this. If she was to ruin his reputation once and for all, it was the least he deserved for ruining her life.
But she had made him feel as though she might think otherwise about him now. And he had come to rely on that knowledge.
Heaven help him, he had come to love her, and this was how she repaid him.
“Take a breath,” his aunt said. “You don’t know anything.”
“She’s drunk,” he muttered, reality burning him, a match to a wick. The flames scorched his very soul. “Why else would she drink so gratuitously here and now if not to destroy me? She knew how much this meant to me—she knew it would—” He couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Take her home,” his aunt advised. “Let her sleep it off and see what she says in the morning. For now, I will ask around and see what is being said.”
Frederick turned his back and strode blindly for his carriage, ignoring everyone who called after him.
In one fell swoop, Alice had wrecked everything he had worked toward, and he did not think he could ever be the same again.