Page 68 of In Compromise with the Earl
“Then I do not understand why you would do this. You have to understand, I could have easily chosen someone else but I chose Aphrodite, not because of any burgeoning scandal, or because she inveigled me into it, I did it because she makes me feel alive again.”
“I do not know any other who would have had the patience to dust of the rust around my heart and warm it again. Did you know that Aphrodite cried herself to sleep last night, fearing that you will never accept her?”
She glanced down to her desk. “I did not.”
“Aphrodite’s mother passed away when she a child.” Oswald came closer. “In all things, you could be the mother she never had. You could step into the empty place, bond with her, teach her, help her grow and become the Countess that will take your place when you’re gone.”
Henrietta looked long and hard at him before she stood and rounded her desk to stand before him. “You truly believe that?”
Her tone was subdued, and Oswald wondered if he had finally won a battle with her, that he had finally made a breakthrough with her stiff beliefs.
“Yes,” he said. “I want you two to live in peace, but you must make the first step. She has tried many times, but you brushed them off as if they were nothing. This time the onus is on you.”
“And if I don’t?” she asked.
“Then I have no other choice but to ask you to move to the Dowager House,” he said. “It pains me to say this but I will not live in discord with anyone, not even you.”
Her lips thinned. “I see.”
“Do not make this harder on any of us,” Oswald said. “Do the right thing. I know you will.”
With a nod, Oswald headed out to his chamber, but rounding a corner, nearly ran directly into Leo. His cousin laughed and stepped back. “Slow, Oswald. You’re running like a bull—”
“Into a teashop?” Oswald laughed. “Don’t worry. Why are you here?”
“I heard that there was a big disruption last night at Aunt’s dinner,” Leo replied, his expression dipping to somber.
Raking a hand through his hair, Oswald sighed. “Perhaps I should talk to you first. Mother is not in the best frame of mind to tell you what happened. Actually, I do not think I am either, but I’ll tell you what happened and when you speak to Mother, you can decide how to put the pieces together.”
“Fine, lead the way.” Leo gestured down the corridor to one of the many drawing rooms and sitting rooms the Hall held.
Inside a quaint room, they sat and Oswald launched in. “Mother threw a celebration party for Aphrodite and I last night, that included her father. It also so happened to include the man Aphrodite had kissed when she was young, Lord Westlake, who is currently Amalie’s intended husband. Her father, Kingsley, oh so casually, let that secret out to the whole room.”
The faint widening of his cousin’s eyes was the only indication that Leo was shocked, as the man kept his placid composure through it all.
“I thought it was a conspiracy at first,” Oswald said. “But it was all horrible coincidence.”
“Are you sure?” Leo asked. “I know Aunt in not a malicious woman but maybe she decided to dig deep enough to embarrass your wife.”
“I know she did not agree to the marriage but is past the pale,” Oswald replied. “And she did not only embarrass my wife. It cut me too. I know why her father would let her secret out at the worst time, because he wanted her to marry that rakehell Strathmore.”
“It is not that horrible of a secret, to be fair,” Leo said judiciously. “We’re all human and a kiss is not the depth of depravity.”
A flash of the time Oswald used to go to the bawdy houses and lay with courtesans ran through his mind, but he brushed it away. “Secrets are secrets for a reason,” he said.
“I suppose they are,” Leo sighed heavily while rubbing his face. “It is a troublesome situation.”
“That might be understatement,” Oswald added. “But at least you know now. I told Mother that she needs to apologize and then, find a way to make a bond with Aphrodite. If not, if she keeps this animosity going, I will have her move to the Dowager House. I know it sounds ungrateful, but she must understand. I must move on with my live somehow.”
“I’ll speak to Aunt too,” Leo vowed. “And you’re right, you have every reason to move on from the lackluster situation you were in to a happier one.”
“Thank you,” Oswald said. “And God forbid any other secret gets out.”
“God forbid,” Leo added.
* * *
Aphrodite woke again to find the sheets cold beside her. A cold lance of panic rushed through her before she remembered that Oswald had not disappeared, he had only left the chamber, but she did not know how long ago.
