Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Victor glared at the guests. He bellowed at the servants to come and usher them away from his bedchamber and back down the hall, herding them like sheep.
The members of the peerage were speaking excitedly about what happened.
Victor felt sick. This was exactly the kind of thing he wanted to prevent, but because of that irresponsible woman, he had suddenly been thrust into a scandal that had nothing to do with him.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I regret that the evening must end earlier than intended. My staff will see you to your carriages,” Victor said, following the crowd to make sure that they left the house.
He entered the hall and clapped his hands.
He moved to where the string quarter was playing and swiped his hands through the air. The music faded.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, the party has come to an abrupt end,” he declared although he could see that the rumors were already spreading like a plague.
He cringed at the way people looked at him, as though they knew something about him that he had tried to keep secret, even though he had never tried to hide anything about his own affairs.
Part of him wanted to explain the situation, but sometimes the more someone explained something, the less convincing it seemed. The best thing to do was send them away so that he could concentrate and deal with this matter.
“Please make your way outside with as much haste as possible,” he said.
The crowd shifted like a tide. They did not seem to mind the interruption of their joy, and he assumed this was due to the nature of the gossip.
The ton thrived on such things. It lived to tear people down.
Victor gnawed on the inside of his lip, his teeth digging so deep that he started to taste blood over his tongue.
Soon enough, the hall was empty. Victor thought that Harry might have been there, ready to gloat, but he seemed to have disappeared.
The baby’s cries were softer now that he had put distance between them, but Victor could still hear them, as if something within himself had become attuned to that sound.
It made him uncomfortable in a way that he had never been before, as though something was incontrovertibly wrong in the universe, and it was his duty to make it right.
But for now, the maid was dealing with the child.
Victor needed to discover whose baby this was.
Since Lady Lydia was adamant that it was not hers, then whose was it?
He was not entirely sure if he could trust her, especially because she seemed to inherently know what to do with the child.
But if it were her child, would she have been willing to leave the baby in his care?
He gathered the maids and servants together.
“Now then, none of you are in trouble. I just want to know how there came to be a baby in my bedchamber. I know that many of you were busy with the party, but surely, one of you must have seen something. It does not seem possible that someone could smuggle a baby into the house without anyone knowing,” he said.
The maids and servants stared at him.
“They are small, Your Grace,” one of the servants said. Victor cleared his throat, and the servant was quickly silenced by a savage glare.
One of the maids peered down the line and whispered something to her colleague.
“You… what are you saying?” Victor said.
The maid looked like a deer caught in a hunter’s gaze. She stepped forward. Victor had never made an effort to familiarize himself with all the staff.
“Apologies, Your Grace, I was just asking after Liza.”
“Liza?” he asked.
“Yes. She should be here, Your Grace, but she is not, and I haven’t seen her since before the ball.”
“And you think that she might know something about the baby?” Victor asked, a thunderous tone in his voice. The maid dipped her head and looked at her feet.
“I’m not sure about that. I just thought it was curious that she wasn’t here, Your Grace.”
“Well then, let us find her. Come, show me where she sleeps,” Victor said, ordering the rest of them to stay where they were.
“I want you all to think carefully about what you saw tonight. Someone brought a baby into this house, and there must be a reason why the child was placed in my own bedchambers,” he said.
The servants and maids glanced at each other uneasily.
He feared that finding the truth would not be as easy as he hoped.
He followed the maid to the servant’s quarters. She took him to Liza’s bed, but it was stripped, and there were no belongings at all. The maid looked puzzled.
“I do not understand. This is where she sleeps, Your Grace.”
“Did she say anything about a child?”
“She did not say much of anything. She was the quiet sort. We don’t tend to pry,” the maid replied.
“Well, do you know where she is now?”
“I’m afraid not, Your Grace. She could be anywhere. Some people do move between jobs, you know. They get restless,” she said, shifting her weight between her feet. Victor stared at her, getting the impression that she knew more than she was letting on.
“If there’s something else, you should tell me now,” he said, his voice becoming a growl.
The maid gulped and exhaled deeply. Her gaze was furtive and failed to meet Victor’s eyes.
“There’s just one thing Your Grace, but I’m not sure I should…” She trailed away in a soft voice.
“I want to know everything” he said sharply. The maid lifted her gaze, and her eyes widened with panic.
“Of course, Your G- Grace,” she stammered. “It’s just that, well, I’m not sure it means anything really, but she did ask after your brother.”
The maid looked as though she had admitted something secret. Victor poked his tongue against his cheek and scowled. If Harry had something to do with this after all the times that Victor had warned him…
He whirled away without saying anything further to the maid and stormed through the house. The ache in his head had not subsided and the last thing he wanted was to still be investigating this matter, but he would not be able to rest until he gained some clarity.
After searching through rooms and studies, he found Harry brooding in the library.
Harry had a bottle of champagne on a table beside him and a book open in his lap although it did not seem as though he was paying much attention to the literature.
Victor’s shoes clipped against the floor, and the sound echoed through the silent library.
Harry glanced up and gave Victor a surly look.
“I’d ask if you have come to apologize, but I should not expect so much from you, brother,” he said, his words slurring a little. There was a haze in his eyes. Victor remained standing, his hands balled into fists.
“Are you responsible for this?” Victor asked.
“For what?” Harry asked.
“Don’t play the fool with me. You know I’m talking about the baby.”
For a moment, the drunken haze disappeared from Harry’s face. There was genuine shock upon his features, followed by confusion.
“Baby? What baby?” he asked. “Was that what all the commotion was about? I did hear a lot of noise, but I left you to deal with it.”
“A child was left in my chambers, unattended. And I have just been informed that a maid has disappeared, a maid who asked after you. Is there something you wish to tell me, Harry? Was your head turned by another common woman?”
Harry slammed his glass down and rose, meeting Victor’s intense gaze. The book crashed from his lap to the floor. Harry’s eyes were rimmed red, and Victor could smell the champagne on his breath.
“How dare you speak to me like that. If you were any other man, I would challenge you to a duel,” he rasped.
“And in your current state you would be condemning yourself to certain death. Look at you. You are wretched,” Victor said, shaking his head. “What am I supposed to do with you?”
“With me? You genuinely believe I had anything to do with this?” he asked, flailing his arms. “If you must know, no, I haven’t been dallying with any maids. The truth is that I haven’t had my head turned by anyone because I am still in love.”
Victor rolled his eyes. “Stop being a fool. That affair was not based on love. It was infatuation. You both wanted what you cannot have. There are boundaries by which we must abide although it seems you have some difficulty in doing so.”
A dark look came upon Harry’s face, and an even darker smile curled upon his lips.
“Are you sure the child is not yours, brother? Perhaps you are accusing me of the very crime you have committed. It must be hard to be so rigid all the time, holding back everything that is natural to feel. People might think that you have purged all emotions, but I know better. You still feel, right deep down in that cold, black heart of yours, and perhaps you snapped. Did a young lady look at you in a certain way? Did you feel some glimmer of attraction?”
“Silence!” Victor thundered, for it was more than he could bear to hear.
Now his hands were trembling. It hurt more because Harry was right.
Victor did keep things buried, and there were times when his true feelings threatened to break free like a caged monster.
Deep within, Victor feared what might happen if that was ever the case.
And in this instance for some unfathomable reason, his mind turned to Lady Lydia. He thought of her soft features, the determined look in her sapphire eyes, the flowing hair, and the strength she possessed. She had been fiercely protective of a child that she had only known for a few moments.
“I see I touched a nerve,” Harry said.
“You are drunk. I have tried my best with you, but I fear that you are beyond hope. Just tell me the truth. Is this child—”
“No!” Harry cried and wheeled away from Victor.
He paused and then looked over his shoulder.
“Not that I expect you to believe me. You doubt me all the time. When I say I am in love, you mock me. Now, you probably think I have brought scandal upon this house. Well, I haven’t.
I did what you asked. Things ended, and it broke me, and I have lived in misery ever since that day.
I have obeyed your wishes, and although I have thought about her, I have not sought her out.
I have not gazed upon her, nor have I come close to being with any other woman.
I have no desire to seek another. There is only one woman who means anything to me, and because of your interference, I can never be with her.
You might have saved this family from scandal, but you have condemned me to a solitary life. And now you accuse me of this…”
His words lost their vigorous energy. They became forlorn and resigned. A dry, humorless chuckle escaped Harry’s lips. He looked older at that moment, weathered by the storms of life.
“Harry, I did what was best for the family,” Victor said. His voice lost a sense of vigor as well. The air was charged with tension, and it felt as though something had to break.
“You keep telling yourself that, Victor. I hope that it helps you sleep at night. But I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and this new development has convinced me of what I must do.
I cannot stay here any longer. You see me as a nuisance, and I do not wish to bring shame to your perfect legacy.
Furthermore, I cannot abide being accused of a crime in my own home.
I want to be somewhere I feel welcome, somewhere I can be respected.
I intend to leave, and you will not have to worry about me besmirching our family name.
I think it best if we keep as much distance as possible between us, Victor. ”
“There is no need for that. Stay, and we can talk,” Victor urged. Harry might have gotten under Victor’s skin, but they were still brothers. Harry was almost everything that Victor had in the world.
“That’s the thing, Victor. You don’t want to talk.
You want to lecture. You believe you know what is best for everyone, and you can never accept that someone else might have a unique perspective.
But I suppose you are going to have to rely on your sense of duty now because you are going to have to decide what to do with the child. ”
“I intend to find the mother and get her to take responsibility.”
Harry laughed and shook his head. “It seems that the mother does not wish to be found. The baby is helpless, and you have never been one to pass duty onto anyone else. Besides, I’m sure the ton will be rife with gossip about this.
You are not only going to have to care for the baby but manage the scandal as well.
It is ironic, isn’t it, that you should be embroiled in the very thing you wanted me to avoid?
Perhaps I have never been the troublemaker here,” he suggested.
With that, he left the library, and Victor gnawed on his lower lip. He huffed as he picked up the book and slammed it shut, gripping the spine so tightly that his fingers turned white.
He had no idea what he was going to do next.