Chapter 16 #2
“I am sure that is none of your concern,” Alice said, unable to stop the sharpness of her tone, and Hackman’s face instantly hardened. He raised a finger to point at her accusingly.
“I stood by your father in friendship and business his entire life,” Hackman snarled. “I consider his daughter's welfare my business because of that.”
“Indeed. Well, that is why you are being invited to the wedding,” Alice said, attempting a placating tone. “I do hope you'll attend, my lord.” She hoped that Hackman could not see the lie in that statement.
He stared at her for a long moment and then leaned against the drawing room doorway, folding his arms. "Why do you not call me Reginald, my dear. After all, I was so close to your father, it only seems fitting."
His request would have made sense if she had been raised by her father.
If that were the case, she would have often encountered him in his role as advisor to the Duke during her childhood.
But as she was merely a servant then, Hackman had ignored her presence whenever she had the misfortune to have a task above stairs when he visited.
She was glad that he had overlooked her at the time.
She heard many a maid complaining to her mother that Hackman had importuned them in the hallways.
He'd never bothered her mother, but she'd later discovered that was only because the Duke had warned him not to.
He'd approach them and put his hands on them, becoming enraged if they refused his advances.
He had never forced or struck any of the maids she knew of, but he had thrashed one of the stable boys for not saddling his horse quickly enough.
He had always been a terrible man, and she did not want to be on such friendly terms with him.
“I hardly think that is appropriate,” she said in a soft rebuke. Hackman’s smile widened.
“But are we not friends, Miss Fitzroy?” he asked, stepping forward.
Alice fought the urge to step back. The maid's stories of his wandering hands came back to her mind, and she shuddered to think of him touching her in that way.
It had been bad enough when she had been forced to dance with him at balls and he tried to pull her too close.
Still, this was the opening she needed to get answers.
She fought to keep a pleasant expression on her face when she said, “I suppose that depends, my lord. "
“On what?”
“If you can be honest with me,” Alice stated. Hackman stopped stalking her, and a guarded expression appeared on his face.
“Honest about what exactly?” he asked suspiciously.
Alice knew this would be her only chance.
If she backed down now, she didn't think she would ever gain the courage to ask the question.
Feeling a bit like she was making a deal with the devil, not to mention somehow betraying Marco, she reached into her reticule.
She pulled out the playing card with his name on it.
When she showed it to Hackman, his expression darkened.
“Why would Mr. Alegria have this in his possession?” Alice asked boldly.
“Because he lost a bet,” Hackman sneered, twirling the wedding invitation between his fingers absently.
“What kind of bet?” Alice pressed as her heart stuttered. Her mind whirled with possibilities, but one came to the forefront. What would she do if she learned that Marco was an inveterate gambler and was indeed marrying her for her money?
“Why do you not ask your betrothed?” Hackman scoffed, looking Alice up and down with a cruel rake of his eyes. “Since I assume you know him… intimately.”
It was the same accusation he had made at the opera.
Alice understood the implication behind those words just as she did then.
Hackman suspected she was marrying Marco to prevent her sullied virtue from destroying her reputation.
It was vile to imply such a thing, and Alice hated him even more for it.
She shook her head and carefully placed the card back in her bag, noticing how Hackman’s eyes followed it greedily.
“I suppose then that we are not friends after all,” she said primly, making one last attempt to get the truth.
“Friends do not scorn a perfectly suitable offer of marriage in favor of a stranger with no name or title," Hackman snapped, alluding to his rejected proposal.
“You rejected me; the man who helped the Duke manage his affairs for years. And instead decided to give complete control of your father’s estates to a dirty Italian nobody without even consulting me. "