Chapter 21
When Evelina turned into her drive at eight-thirty the next morning, she wasn’t prepared for what awaited her.
She’d meant to come home after her night with Arabella and Silas, prepare herself in her best armor, force herself to eat something to settle her stomach and then wait for Southwater to call.
What she would do when that happened, she still didn’t know. But she thought she’d have time to ponder as she waited for their ten o’clock appointment.
But his carriage was already there, sat in the circular drive. Her heart throbbed as she smoothed her skirt and forced a smile for the footman who assisted her down when she arrived.
Southwater got out of his carriage just as she did and gave her what looked to be a slight expression of annoyance before he wiped it away and smiled. God, had his smile always been so cold? Had she simply been blind to it and to everything negative about him?
Now that she had a point of comparison so fine as Vaughn, this man didn’t live up to even a fraction.
“Your Grace,” she said as she nodded at Parsons as he opened the door. “I-I didn’t expect you until ten.”
“I decided we needed to have this out earlier. Where have you been?” Without asking her leave, he took her arm and guided her up the stairs. When Parsons took a breath to greet them, Southwater waved his hand. “We need nothing, don’t disturb us.”
When he tugged her into the parlor, she yanked her arm away at last. “This is not your home, Southwater. You’ve no right to speak to my servants that way.”
He arched a brow. “I’ve the right as their better to speak to them any way I desire, my dear. And this isn’t your home, either. It’s Arabella’s. I wonder why she didn’t sell it, why Windham didn’t force her to do it to erase her sordid history, but here we are.”
She folded her arms. “Silas loves my sister. He doesn’t see her past as something that requires erasing. He accepts her in every way.”
Southwater’s brow wrinkled and it was as if he didn’t speak the same language she did. He sighed. “Well, that is very good for them. I’ll give them my most sincere felicitations once we have worked all this out. But I’m here now and so we should focus on us, don’t you think?”
“Us,” she said softly, the word tasting bitter on her tongue. She had spent so much time in the last two years thinking about them as an “us”, planning for them as an “us”. She’d taken great pleasure in the stability those dreams had falsely created.
But now, staring at him from across the parlor, she didn’t feel anything when he said the word. Nothing except the question of what she could leverage for Vaughn with whatever happened next.
“If Windham can forget Arabella’s past, certainly we can forget the recent unpleasantness, can’t we? Especially if my apologies came with an increase in your pin money and a return to your home.”
She tilted her head. “You would evict Lady Blackburn so easily as you did me?”
He shrugged. “She’ll find her way.”
“Jesus,” Evelina whispered under her breath as his casual cruelty wrapped its icy tendrils around her.
“You know, I think I’m glad you have been so selfish as to spring this conversation on me early.
I think you must have believed that taking me off guard would make me more likely to fall into your traps, but instead it only makes me more capable of seeing through your act. ”
He scowled. “My act?”
“You don’t want me,” she whispered. “I think now that you never did. Not truly.”
“Of course I did,” he said, and sounded confused. “Arabella had a protector at the time and that made you the most sought-after courtesan in London. Having you on my arm was a point of great pride for me. I’ve always wanted you.”
She blinked. Even now he was so selfish that he could only couch this declaration of desire in terms of himself.
What she brought to him, what he wanted, what he’d looked for.
Nothing was about her and her heart. Christ, he made it sound like he might have even gone for Arabella rather than her if that had been an option, because at the time her sister had been the more desirable option.
“And yet you threw me away like rubbish in the gutter,” she said softly.
“Even now, you only ask for me back because your cruel machinations have destroyed any semblance of respectability you had. And you see that the ton somehow supports Vaughn and I coming together. You think you can regain something of your reputation by returning your so-called affection to me. You’d probably blame Lady Blackburn for the whole affair and let her burn without you. ”
“Well, she did make convincing arguments,” he said.
Evelina held up a hand. “Stop. You forget one thing, Harry. What the ton sees, what is real and true, is that Vaughn and I were the two injured parties in your betrayal. We came together with certain goals in mind, but we always offered each other support, solace.” Her eyes filled with tears as she thought of how Vaughn looked at her.
“Peace. You can’t manufacture that. And even if you could, I don’t think I could ever forget what you did.
Not to me. I’ve come to accept that. But I would never be able to look at you and not see what you did to him. ”
Southwater’s glare darkened further. “Him. You are so protective of him.”
She smiled a little. “Oh yes. I would do anything to protect him. Well, almost anything. Not this. Not you.”
“Good,” a voice said from the door, and she pivoted because she knew it. Vaughn leaned against the jamb, his green eyes bright as they held hers, and he smiled. “I cannot tell you how happy I am to hear that.”
* * *
If Vaughn had feared what he would find when he came to Evelina’s house that morning, all his anxieties were washed away when she turned to find him at her door and her entire being seemed to light up.
There was no denying her joy to see him, her relief at his presence and her love that seemed to turn on every light in his dark life.
She was so perfect and lovely and he was shocked that he hadn’t fully recognized his feelings for her sooner.
How could one be anywhere near her and not fall head over heels in love?
“Get out!” Southwater sputtered as he took a long step toward Vaughn. “This isn’t about you!”
He shifted his stance, just in case his old “friend” was about to try to start a physical fight. “No. Nor is it about you. This is about her.”
“Vaughn,” she whispered.
He put his attention back on her. “Evie, I know all this went so badly. I did it all badly, from the very start. But if you’ve even once considered returning to this man who never deserved to look at you, let alone call himself yours, in order to protect me, I must beg of you not to.”
“See here,” Southwater said.
“You don’t have to choose me,” Vaughn continued, as if Southwater wasn’t even in the room. “I would fully understand if you didn’t, couldn’t, after how I began all this. But please don’t lose yourself, not for him. Not for me. You are far too precious.”
Now Southwater snorted. “Please. As if you care for her. It was always obvious that she was only a means for revenge.”
Vaughn never looked away from Evie. “It started that way. My strongest emotion was anger and hatred for Florence and for you. But the longer I spent with Evie, the more she captivated me. The more I forgot about living for what I hated and started moving toward what I-I—” He took a step toward her.
“I don’t want to say this in front of him, but I will.
I started moving toward what I love, Evie. ”
Her gasp cut across the short distance between them. She lifted her hands to clasp them before her chest and they trembled.
“I love you, Evelina Comerford.”
* * *
The room was spinning as she stared into the eyes of this man, this glorious, wonderful, utterly perfect man who had just declared his heart was hers. For a moment all she could feel was the pure joy of knowing her feelings were returned.
“He doesn’t mean that,” Southwater snapped, and broke the spell. “How could he?”
She turned toward her former protector and looked him up and down. “Just because you never did?”
The truth fluttered across the duke’s face. Of course he never had. He’d said the words a few times. He’d made promises like a man who did. But when it really mattered, like that horrible night her sister had been taken, he’d shown the truth of himself.
“Evelina,” he began.
She motioned to the door. “Get out, Southwater. Go back to your scandal, I won’t save you from it. Go live with your choices.” She smiled at Vaughn. “And I thank you for them.”
Southwater looked stunned and for a moment there was only silence in the room between them. Until he erupted. “You think you have the right to try to humiliate me, you little bitch? You think you have the right to even look into my face? I’m the Duke of Southwater and you’re nothing but a—”
He didn’t get to finish. Vaughn leapt forward, cocked his fist back and hit Southwater so hard that the duke careened backward and hit the floor, skidding backward on his arse.
“Finish the sentence,” Vaughn growled as he towered over him. “And I will make certain you lose teeth with the next punch.”
Evie staggered toward him, let her hand rest on his forearm. Disgust lined Southwater’s face, but there was also fear and there, somewhere amongst the ugliness, regret. Not enough. But just a little.
He got up and smoothed his jacket before he pivoted and started for the door. “Good riddance to you both then. You deserve each other.”
Evie sighed and went to the parlor door as he departed, shutting it so they wouldn’t have to hear him shouting in the foyer.
“Should I go out and help Parsons eject him?” Vaughn asked.
She shook her head. “Arabella always hired the kind of servants who could handle themselves if need be. I think Parsons used to be in the military, he can handle one stuffy duke.”
“Good, because I don’t want to leave you.” Vaughn stepped toward her again and took her hand.