Page 87 of A Naughty Proposal for His Winter Countess
Before Ben could say a word, Daniel cut in, “I'm leaving but you should know that there is more to the story than you think. Believe it or not, I do love Harriet and I never did anything to hurt her.”
Spinning on his heel, Daniel strode away with a few ideas running through his mind. He had to get to London as quickly as he could.
With one foot in the coach, he directed his driver to go to the office of the London Times before hopping in and closing the door behind him. He was going to do what he could do to keep Harriet's mistake from haunting her more than it already was.
The hour-long drive felt tortuous as he knew time was of the essence. When he did arrive at the newspaper office on Printing House Square an hour before dawn, he strode into the office.
The smell of iron, raw paper and ink hit him square in the face while men in shirtsleeves were hunched over tables littered with paper and blocks of movable type.
“Who is the head newsman here?” Daniel called loudly. “This is an urgent matter!”
A door to the back opened and a man with dark hair and cutting blue eyes came out. “I am. What is your business?”
“I need privacy,” Daniel said before walking forward and introducing himself. “It's a sensitive matter.”
“Come into my office then, My Lord,” the Editor gestured. “We're preparing for the morning run you see, and it's a bit busy.”
As the door closed behind him, Daniel said, “In a few hours or so you will receive reports about a Miss Harriet Bradford, and perhaps a paper with very scandalous passages that were illegally taken from her private diary and printed to disgrace her. I'm here to tell you that if you print such accounts on any medium, I will have you fired and fined.”
“Are you saying that these statements aren't true?”
“True or not, these passages were obtained illegally and if you publish a word of it, I'll have you sharing a cell at Newgate with the original thief,” Daniel said. “It would be best to send word to your fellows on Fleet Street, newspaper, periodicals, and gossip pages, that they must not publish a word of this, or they will find themselves in trouble with the law they would rather not have to deal with. Am I understood?”
The man's face soured at the loss of a salacious tidbit that would have had papers flying off the shelves. “Yes, My Lord. I agree.”
“I need a sheet of paper and a pen,” Daniel requested, and after both were handed to him, he wrote out an agreement, then had the man sign it.
Nodding, Daniel folded the document. “Good, now alert the other Editors before they find themselves in trouble with me. Good day.”
Walking out, Daniel prayed that he had done the right thing. The situation in Canterbury might have gotten away, but he was not going to let it spread throughout the rest of the country like a cankerous sore.
The moment Daniel closed the door behind him, he felt fatigued. The night had been one of the worst ones of his life, just second to the night of his ill-fated wedding. As the coach started up for home, Daniel found himself thinking about what more he could do to help Harriet.
The only thing he could think of was to find the traitor in Carrington Manor, but that couldn't be handled by him. He was also banned from contacting Harriet, and it split his heart in two as Heaven knew that this was the time she needed him the most.
Feeling tired and lost, Daniel allowed his eyes to close for a moment. A wild, unexpected urge to go back to Canterbury and demand to see Harriet nearly possessed him, but Daniel knew it wouldn't help his cause.
He had done all he could do at the moment and to push might do more harm than good. He would let this hubbub die down first, and then hoped that Harriet would reach out to him. He loved her, and couldn't help but want to be there with her.
I'm sorry it turned out this way, Love. It was never to end this way. We should be at the church saying our vows, and then I'd steal us away and spend the rest of the day and night loving each other. Now I fear we've lost it all.
He arrived home in the early morning and after thanking and telling his driver that he wasn't going to be needed later on, Daniel went inside an empty home.
Disrobing, he sourly noted that it was his wedding day, another day that instead of ending in bliss, feltblistering. Moving off to his bed, he all but collapsed on it, more exhausted and heartbroken than he even believed he could be. Nothing was right in his life; and Daniel felt as if he were cursed. Damned to go through life alone and unloved.
Just as he was about to sink in despondency, his jaw went tight. Was he truly going to give up on what could be the best thing for himself? After he had climbed out of the pit of despair because of his love for Harriet? No, this wasn't the end. He was going to fight for as long as he could. He meant what he'd said, that he wasn't going to give up on her, and decided to prove it.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Harriet saw no reason in moving away from her bed. What was the point; after her life had been shattered was there any sense in trying to attempt normalcy?
Any chance of happiness and love she could have had, had vanished last night.
Tugging the blanket higher over her head, Harriet tried to navigate the pain in her heart. She couldn't handle the shame that came from everyone knowing her deepest secrets.
Instead, she chose to think about Daniel and felt herself sinking in the depths of heartbreak. Daniel was gone and would probably never come back. Despite his vow to stand by her, Harriet knew that he wouldn't. After a disgrace like that, who wouldn't want to distance themselves from a pariah?
The worst thing was that Harriet knew she wouldn't stop loving him. Daniel had branded himself on a part of her heart that would never be erased. They would never be together, but she would never love another like him.
