Page 119 of Sloth: The Fallen Earl
“No. He won’t have me as his mistress.”
“Then why are you here, girl?”
“He was…” Cressida caught the twinkle in the older woman’s eyes. She realized what she was suggesting.
“It isn’t because he cares about me, Trudy,” she said, setting the other woman straight. “He was worried that I’m with…”
She abruptly stopped herself. Cressida already knew what conclusion Trudy would reach when she heard the rest of that.
“What was that, girl?” Trudy prodded unrelentingly.
“He’s concerned I might be with child.”
“Ah, I see, then.” Trudy said. “He’s such a terrible gentleman. The kind who’d be angry with you and not the fat baron at this moment, but is also one who… What is it? Worry about the possibility that you’re with child?” Trudy let out another snort. “Child, do you know how many noblemen would’ve walked away from you that night without another backwards glance or thought? How many of those immoral bollocks go about planting their seed in the bellies of their mistresses and whores and never even think about whether they sowed a child?”
“He’s not like those men.”
“Aye, I know that, girl,” Trudy said. “But are you sure you do?”
Cressida exploded to her feet. Her heart pounded.
“He believes I’m in cahoots with my brother. He stormed off earlier today, and he stated blankly and boldly, numerous times now, that he doesn’t trust me.” Cressida’s voice shook with the force of her emotion.
Trudy, God love her, remained stone-faced through Cressida’s display of emotion.
“And I’m sure you were about as honest discussing your actual lot in life as you were with those good friends of yours. One of whom even went toe to toe with the fat baron—”
Emma, the Countess of Scarsdale.
“Now, even the Earl of Scarsdale had roughed Stanley up. But you didn’t tell them, did you, Cressida? You didn’t let any of them in, not really. If the countess hadn’t come herself looking for you, you’d have hidden in obscurity and been in an even sorrier state without any of the reprieve you got when you went to those Mismatch Society meetings. But that’s what you do, girl,” Trudy said, her tones gentler, her words just as piercing for the truth contained within them.
“You suffer in silence. You refuse to share anything with anyone. What’s your pride got you?” Trudy asked bluntly.
“I know,” Cressida said tiredly.
Trudy drew back. She gave a little guffaw. “Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting that. Figured it out yourself, did you?”
Cressida nodded.
“I’m going to venture sometime during your short stay here with his lordship.”
Closing her eyes, Cressida nodded.
Trudy made a gentle clucking noise and drew Cressida into her arms, holding her in the gentle way she always did.
“After a sparing beating, you gone and fell in love with the fella, did you?”
Sniffling, Cressida nodded miserably against her nursemaid’s bony shoulder.
“He…” Her words emerged muffled by the thin-patched wool fabric of her serviceable dress… The only dress she owned.
“He courted Anwen.”
“Ah,” Trudy said in understanding.
Trudy knew all the names of everyone whom Cressida had met, called a friend, acquaintance, or spoken about. “Well, that doesn’t mean he—”
“And before her, he was desperately in love with the Viscountess Waters.”
