Page 64 of Eliza and the Duke
Mr. Hathaway opened his mouth to speak, but Eliza charged ahead. “We’ve asked you here so that I could tell you in person that I will not be honoring the betrothal agreement. I won’t be marrying Lord Mainwaring.” She had spoken to her father, but the man himself was there, so she should tell him to his face. “Lord Mainwaring, I am sorry, but I can’t marry you.”
“What? Why? This is preposterous.” Mainwaring gripped the arms of his chair and looked from her to Mr. Hathaway for confirmation.
“Out of the question,” Mr. Hathaway said immediately after. “You cannot break the agreement.”
Eliza tried to hold her temper. Her announcement had no doubt been shocking, and they were entitled to their reaction. She decided to answer Mainwaring’s question. “I find that I do not love you.”
“But I love you very much, Eliza.”
She hated how he had resorted to her first name. It implied an intimacy that didn’t exist. “I do not think that you do.”
“But I do.” He sat forward in his chair, his expression earnest and fierce at the same time.
“You do not know me any more than I know you. You do not love me.” He started to protest and she held up her hand to stop him. “If you did love me, then I sincerely hope that you wouldn’t have spent your time in Europe visiting all of those…coffeehouses.”
“Coffee…What do you know about…How do you know that?” He looked from her to Mr. Hathaway and back again.
“It’s common knowledge, from what I can tell. I’m toldwith some authority that there was even a bet at the Montague Club about how many of those you would visit and how many different…coffees…you might sample at your stops.” Eliza savored the way he squirmed in his chair as she confronted him.
“E-Eliza…that is hardly a subject that someone should be discussing with you. Whoever told you that…they did not have your best interest…that is not something one talks about with a young lady.”
“Did you not engage in intimate congress withthoseyoung women?” She tried to remember the names she had seen on the blackboard. “Are you denying there was a Lucia, a Paolina, or a Giulia?”
He blanched and he whirled to look at Mr. Hathaway beside him. “Do something.”
“Eliza, please, calm yourself. There is really no need for this. Even had this happened, every young man is entitled to a few days of freedom before his wedding. You were not married,” Mr. Hathaway pointed out. “Besides, I don’t believe a word of it. Lord Mainwaring is a brilliant and upstanding young man. He will make you a satisfactory husband.”
“I’m certain that he will make someone a…” She couldn’t saysatisfactorybecause that would be a lie. She pitied the poor woman who would be saddled with him. “A husband, but it will not be me. I am withdrawing my consent for this marriage.”
“You cannot withdraw your consent. Once given it is binding,” Mainwaring argued. His tone had gone from pleading to demanding.
“That is decidedly not how consent works, my lord. It can be given and taken away at will, which is what I have done. I will not marry you.”
“Eliza, this will not do.” There was a warning in Mr.Hathaway’s voice. “He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone,” he paraphrased the Bible verse. “Let us not discuss your own transgressions. Let us let bygones be bygones.”
But she did want to discuss them. That was the entire point of this meeting. “You’re right. I am in love with someone else, and I will marry him,” she said.
Her father only shook his head. His lips were twisted in a sneer. “I won’t accept anyone else. You do that and you’ll lose your inheritance.”
“I’m well aware of your propensity for heartlessness. I don’t care. I don’t want your money. I will marry him whether you agree or not. That choice isn’t up to you.” It felt good to say that to his face. She despised that he controlled so much of their future. Well, he wouldn’t control her anymore. She was finished with him.
“This will not stand.” Mainwaring rose to his feet, and for the first time Eliza wished that Devonworth was home. She did not know the viscount or what he might do. Two hundred fifty thousand dollars was an awful lot of money to lose. “You will marry me, Eliza, whether you agree or not. There is a written contract and I will not allow you to break it. I will see to the arrangements. Hathaway, I fear we must accelerate the timeline for this wedding.”
“Oh, we won’t be doing that, Mainwaring.”
The voice came from the threshold. Lord David stood there still in his hat and gloves, walking stick at his side as if he’d only just arrived. She hadn’t even heard the doorbell. The entire room stood at his entrance.
“Lord David?” Mr. Hathaway found his voice before anyone else. “I didn’t hear you come in. Please don’t concern yourself with this foolishness. Eliza is simply having a case of—”
“I’m afraid this foolishness does concern me.” Lord Davidwalked casually into the room as if he was here for a social call.
Beside her, Jenny hadn’t said a word and hadn’t moved a muscle in the moments since Lord David had arrived. “What did you do?” Eliza whispered.
Jenny’s face had a look of unrepentant guilt. “I am fixing things for you,” she whispered.
“What does that mean?”
“Shh. Watch.” Jenny pointedly turned back to the men, and Eliza had no choice but to follow suit. She feared the situation had quickly moved out of her control.
