Chapter 3
“What!” Adrian snapped. “How? How is that possible?”
Mr. Watley leaned away. “I am not sure, Your Grace…”
“Call the entire staff, now!” he barked at Mr. Watley. “Someone has been speaking where they ought to know better. I want to find this sneak.”
Adrian’s entire body shook with rage.
While he was known to be a frightening character, rarely did Adrian allow himself to rise to such extreme anger.
The type of fear that he preferred to instill was done through silent menace.
A sharp word spoken here. A glower given there.
The constant threat of fury without actually succumbing to such a thing.
In this instance, Adrian felt that the not-so-silent fury was justified.
How is this happening? After all I have done to avoid scandal and rumor-mongering. A lifetime spent never once finding myself on the wrong end of gossip. And this is my reward.
Adrian did not do scandals. That was why he lived alone, as he did. That was why he rarely went outside, why he avoided social functions, and why he coveted the image of a man best left alone for fear of what might happen was he disturbed.
Now, in one fell swoop, his reputation was ruined…
“Well?” he barked at Mr. Watley. “Why are you still here?”
“I…” Miss Ophelia’s voice cracked from behind him.
Adrian turned, his glower still fixed squarely on his face. She winced under its gaze, and Adrian almost felt guilty because of how he was treating her.
She cut an impossibly tragic figure. Curled up in bed.
Her skin pasty. Her auburn hair matted and lifeless.
In another setting, she might have been a beauty.
With her big green eyes, those freckles that peppered her button nose, and a round face that was innocent and soft. But that hardly mattered now.
“What?” Adrian barked, unable to control himself.
She winced and looked away. “I think that I… there is a chance that I know how word spread of my arrival so quickly.”
“What do you mean?”
She grimaced, and she spoke into her chest. “Last evening as I tried to find my way through the storm I…” She swallowed. “I came cross a farmer, he must have been. I asked for directions to your home and where I thought that he did not notice Harriet, somehow, he must have done…”
Adrian groaned.
“I am so sorry,” she hurried. “I did not think – I thought the child was yours! I did not stop to consider that it would make a difference if anyone found out. Please, I did not mean…”
“You have ruined me,” Adrian groaned again, the anger starting to dissipate in place of the dread that loomed. “You have come here without cause. You have forced me into…” He groaned again. “I need you gone.”
“No!” Her eyes widened and she looked at him. “You cannot do that!”
“Do not tell me what I can do in my own home.”
“She is right, Your Grace,” Mr. Watley spoke up. “Now that her presence is known here, if she suddenly disappears, it will only make things worse.”
“As if things can be worse.”
“Word will spread quickly,” Mr. Watley continued. “No doubt, tomorrow’s scandal sheets will make this story the center of their news cycle. People will start to pay attention. People will wonder at what you might do next.”
Adrian’s world slowly crumbled around him.
He massaged his temples as he tried to clear his head and come up with a plan that would not ruin him.
He might not have been well-liked in the ton, but he was not one to be mocked or thought lowly of.
That was on purpose, of course, a promise he’d made to himself years ago that he would never be found in a scandal.
He knew from firsthand experience what that did to a man, and he would not have it happen to him.
What then? What can I possibly do that won’t make this worse?
“You will remain here for now,” he said, speaking more to himself than Miss Ophelia. “The child too –”
“Harriet,” she spoke.
“Excuse me?”
“Her name…” She affected a soft smile. “Her name is Harriet.”
He glared at her in warning. “You and Harriet will remain here until I can think of what to do next. The child is not mine, and that needs to be made known to me. This Lord Delacourt…” He nodded his head as an idea came to mind.
“He might not like the fact that his wife had an affair but that is his problem, not mine. Yes, he is the one who will deal with the consequences of his wife’s –”
“No!” Miss Ophelia cried out.
He looked at her with warning and this time she did not look away. She might have been softly spoken. She might have been a meek little thing. But there was fire burning behind her green eyes, enough of one that it made Adrian pause… even reconsidering his first impression of her.
“Lord Delacourt was stricken with rage when he learned of the child, and it only grew worse throughout the pregnancy. If you send Harriet back to him, there is no telling what he will do.”
Adrian wanted to laugh in her face and tell her that he did not care. It was not his problem! What did the fate of some random child matter to him?
Only… can I do that to a child? It is not the baby’s fault…
It might have been easier if Adrian was who people thought. Sadly, such things were rarely that simple.
“How do I know this is not some trick?” Adrian accused Miss Ophelia, desperation taking over now. “How do I know that you are not some… some farmer’s wife or daughter trying to hand off a child that you want nothing to do with?”
“I would never do that!” she cried.
“And I am just to take you at your word?”
Her expression hardened on him, no doubt in anger at his accusation. But then he saw something pass behind her eyes, a decision being made.
“I am not lying,” she said carefully. “And I can prove it.”
“And how would you do that?”
“There is something else you should know,” Miss Ophelia said with a grimace. She looked away again, and her breathing turned heavy. “I was not lying when I said that I have spent the last three years working as a maid to Lady Delacourt. That was the truth.”
“So you claim.”
“Before that…” She took a deep breath. “My full name is Ophelia Turner, daughter to Lord Warwick…”
Adrian started in surprise and he did not try and hide it.
He looked at Miss Ophelia again and the pieces started to fall into place. She had seemed a little too well-spoken for a maid. Intelligent also. And how she had stood up to him constantly where most would shy away had seemed strange… until now.
“Earl Delacourt…” the Duke said.
“The very same. You can send for him, if you must. You can learn for yourself who I am. But I am not lying to you. Not about me. And not about Harriet.”
Adrian started to pace as his world continued to crumble. Being caught in a scandal was one thing, but dragging a lady of the ton into with him was another entirely.
How had this happened? And why to him? After all he had done… how careful he had been… he might complain about it not being fair, but when had life ever been fair?
“The rumors did not mention her name, Your Grace,” Mr. Watley said. “Perhaps such a thing can be kept a secret.”
“No.” He shook his head. “It will be found out eventually. And then, not only will it be said that I had a child out of wedlock, but that I seduced the daughter of a baron. This will ruin me…”
His mind turned as he searched for answers, anything that might save him from the scandal that threatened to crash into his world and leave it in tatters. As it did, he looked at Miss Ophelia, the child in her arms, and the answer came to him as if it was the rising sun.
It was not an answer that brought Adrian any joy. Was there any other way… anything else that he could do, he would not have hesitated. But he looked at Miss Ophelia further, and he saw the future of what might happen if he rejected this idea and took his chances with the rumor mill of the ton.
If only my father had it so easy…
“There is only one thing that we can do.” He stopped his pacing and fixed his gaze on Miss Ophelia so that she would know that he spoke seriously. “And I ask that you not fight me on this because you are a part of this problem now, Miss Ophelia, as you are going to help fix it.”
“What…” She leaned back as if she could read his mind. “What are you saying?”
“I will find the child’s father in the hope that might quell the gossiping that is sure to come. But until that happens, we must do all we can to convince the ton that this is not the scandal they wish it to be.” He held her gaze and let the silence build. “You and I will marry at once.”