Page 5 of The Devil and the Heiress
Violet clutched the papers to her chest all the way to her bedroom where she hurried to her small desk and dropped them. The envelope fell out of the stack to lie on the polished wood surface. Funny how two weeks ago that letter would have meant everything to her. Now, it was a pleasant way to spend the next few minutes. Taking a seat, she turned toward the window and opened the letter.
Dear Violet,
Your words have caused me so much distress that I believed it best to answer your plea in a handwritten letter. When I last touched my lips to yours, my darling, I never dreamed that it might be for the last time. You are the sun, moon, and stars of my sky. Without you, my world has turned gray.
My love for you shall go on into eternity, ceaseless in its quiet ferocity, but even I know my limitations. I haven’t the capability to compete with a British noble. My God, a duke of the realm and you, a duchess! Violet, my fair and clever girl, though it causes me great pain, I will release you from our childhood vow of matrimony. It was foolish of me to believe that I could dare hold your hand for more than a moment.
Go to your brighter destiny with my blessing but know that I weep for myself. I have thought of nothing but holding you in my arms again since you left, and it seems that longing will never be assuaged. However, it is a burden that I gladly bear for your happiness.
Please give my highest regards to your parents and give your father my thanks. He will understand the reason.
Forever yours,
Teddy
Childhood vow? Childhood vow! It was only last summer when he had proposed to her. She was hardly a child, and he would be graduating from university soon followed by law school. He made it sound as if they had made a foolish agreement as a pair of adolescents.
She read the letter over again, convinced that somehow she had misunderstood. But no. He was turning down her pleas for help and even encouraging her to accept anothersuitor. A stranger! What a toad! Did he even miss her? Had he already moved on to some other woman?
His declaration of love and subsequent proposal had seemed so sincere. It hadn’t been a formal proposal. There had been no ring, and he had not asked her father’s permission, but to Violet it had been no less real for the lack of those things. They had been sitting on the beach on a piece of driftwood, and he had quietly spoken his heart to her.
I love you, Violet. When I imagine my future, I only see you. Will you promise to marry me?
She read the letter yet again, unable to believe this was written by the same man. Each florid stroke of his pen seemed more like insincere babble with every pass. How had she not noticed his terrible writing voice before? This time she fixated on his closing.And give your father my thanks.
Thanks for what, she would like to know. Had Papa gotten to him? Had Teddy’s affections been so easily bought? He couldn’t possibly need money, so what favor had Papa performed for him? Her parents had been so set on her marrying Rothschild that perhaps their desperation had pushed them to it. She didn’t want to believe that, but the idea had been planted.
She wouldn’t accept Teddy now if he pleaded on his knees for her, but she had to know if her parents had interfered. Stifling the urge to throw the letter into the nearest fireplace, she folded it and placed it in her desk drawer. She was too angry to be sad.
Was she even sad? Shouldn’t she feel devastated? To be honest, she hadn’t spent very much of her time in London missing Teddy. She had told herself that it was because she didn’t see him much during the year anyway, but could there be more to it? Could it be that she had only felt mild affection for Teddy and had seen him as a safe way to thwart her parents while continuing her writing?
She didn’t like what that said about her, but she also couldn’t deny there was some truth to that.
•••
Pasting a smile on her face, Violet knocked on her father’s study door several minutes later.
“Come in,” he called.
“Good morning.” She closed the door behind her and made her way to the carved rosewood side chair at the end of his desk where August usually sat.
He glanced up, spectacles perched on the end of his nose. “Yes, thank you, darling. I have a few letters that need to be sent out. You know I don’t have the patience for letter writing.”
Or the penmanship, she silently added. “Of course, Papa,” she said, reaching for the parchment and pen he had set out for her. “Oh, I received a letter from Teddy today.”
“Teddy?” He muttered, distracted by the papers scattered in front of him.
She stared at the gray wave of hair artfully arranged above his ear, idly wondering if her anger would be enough to ignite it. Keeping her voice light, she said, “Theodore Sutherland of the St. Louis Sutherlands. We know him from Newport.”
“Sutherland... Sutherland.” He repeated the name as if he didn’t know it. “Aha.” Picking out the piece of paper he had been searching for in the assortment before him, he placed it before her. “This letter is the one I dashed out this morning.” It was a combination of chicken scratch meshed with dangerous ink slashes. August had taught her the secret of deciphering his nearly illegible writing. “I’ll need it to go out in tomorrow’s post along with the ones you will write now.”
Accepting it, she said, “About Teddy. He sends you his thanks.”
Papa finally looked up at her, confusion still clouding his expression. Dear Lord, could he have truly forgotten that he had paid a man to call off his proposal so easily, or was he simply a good actor?
She smiled. “He sends his highest regards to you and Mother, and then specifically writes to give you his thanks.”
The fog cleared the very moment he realized who Teddy was. “Ah yes, Sutherland.” A satisfying flush rose to the apples of his cheeks. At least he had the grace to be a little ashamed of himself.
