Page 45 of The Reclusive Earl's Scandal
Rebecca could have cried at that, but she only nodded, accepting the dismissal. Something hung heavily between them, but it would have to wait. They needed to secure their betrothal first. That was the priority.
Feeling unsettled, Rebecca passed Edward, feeling too far away from the man who had dived into the river to save her without a second thought.
***
“Is he in there?” Amelia whispered, sitting next to Rebecca where the two of them hovered on the staircase. Standing next to her younger sister, Rebecca felt giddy and like a little girl again, the two of them listening in on their parents’ conversations when they thought there was gossip to be discovered.
“He is,” Rebecca whispered right back, her eyes glued to the hallway ahead of them. Her father’s study door was shut, the walls heavy, but she imagined she could hear the voices from inside, anyway. She couldn’t, but after a couple more days of worry and strangeness between Edward and her, she needed something to give her hope.
She knew he was meeting with her father finally, to state his intentions to marry Rebecca and her heart raced. Amelia’s hand slipped into Rebecca’s, giving it a tight squeeze.
“Are you excited, sister?” Amelia asked, grinning.
Rebecca nodded, realizing shewas. Despite the tension while in Thornshire House the other day, Rebecca was on the cusp of hopefully doing everything she had set out to do at the start of the Season. She would find happiness and contentment along the way of saving her family.
She had sworn to herself that Edward would not enter the marriage blind, but she still believed there was time to tell him.
“You will make the prettiest countess,” Amelia gushed, giggling. “And when you make good connections through His Lordship, you must ensure I find a good husband, too.”
“I would do that regardless,” Rebecca promised her.
It seemed as though an eternity passed before the study door opened, and Rebecca shot to her feet from where she had been sitting pressed to the banister, too old to do such a thing. Her eyes immediately landed on Edward who still looked grave-faced, but there was a more relaxed curve to his smile when he saw her. He silently raised a brow before striding over to her. He bowed his head at Amelia, who squeaked and scurried off.
“I recall us sitting on these stairs when we were children,” he told her, glancing over the wide staircase. “Not a lot has changed, in some ways. Your sister, however runs fast.”
“She thinks you are very dashing,” Rebecca laughed, keeping her voice low, for her father still had not emerged. “Are you quite all right?”
“I am well,” he answered her. “Doyouthink I am dashing?”
Before she could answer, her father came out of his study, and she was grateful for it. How could she say that yes, she thought he was but with no platonic way to express such a thing? For today, her father looked clear-eyed, and her breath left her in a jagged sigh of relief even if she could not explain why out loud.
“Yes, I do,” she whispered to Edward in a moment of surprising confidence, before stepping forward towards her father. Her heart gave a skip at her confession, her intention not to outwardly acknowledge it, nor look back at Edward. “Well, Papa? What news? Do not keep me in suspense.”
Her father fixed her with that hard stare of his, his arms rigid at his side. His posture straightened, every inch the Duke of Bancroft that wielded his authority well. Like this, he was the man people spoke of benevolently. He was not the ruined, crumpled man who had admitted to Rebecca that he had woken up in tavern doorways. Like this, he made her proud, not ashamed.
“I have given the Earl of Thornshire my blessing,” her father announced. “Although it appears you neglected to tell him about one thing.”
Rebecca gasped, whirling around to face Edward, her face stricken.
But he didn’t look angry; he didn’t look like a man who’d had it concealed from him that his burden now was to financially carry a ruined family. Instead, he tucked his hands behind hisback. This was the earl she had not had the chance to formally know. This was not the boy she knew from childhood. This man… this was to be her husband.
And that didn’t disarm her in the slightest negative way.
“Your father informed me that he told you some time ago that should Mr. Harry Maudley attempt to publicly dishonour your name then you would have to marry him. I was not aware of this fact, and not knowing could have landed me in some trouble. I would have won over Mr. Maudley in terms of social status, but the accusations, as false as I believe they were, would have ruined us both.” His voice dropped a great deal of the formality, his eyes flicking to hers. “I would have liked to know.”
Rebecca nodded guiltily.There is more you need to know.“It was something I wished to tell you myself,” she murmured. “I did not get the chance.”
“I was there that day in the drawing room, so I believe you about Mr. Maudley,” he continued formally again. “But had I not been… there is a lot of bad speculation, I believe. However, it is your father’s and my own shared belief that our betrothal announcement will quell them.”
“Or it could make the tutor’s boy act faster than your wedding can happen,” her father added.
“But His Grace has generously offered to support us publicly should that happen. I do not want to rush our wedding.” Edward looked at her knowingly, and she felt a flutter of surprise, true wonder that he didn’t mind a longer betrothal. Perhaps now that they would be secure with one another there was no need for a rush. They would not be forced to dance with anybody else, at least.
Rebecca nodded eagerly. “I agree with all of this, then.”
“Your marriage will go forward,” her father said firmly, “and Lord Thornshire will receive eighty percent of your full dowry.”
Rebecca, for all her masks and excellence at pretending, could not slip a faux acceptance in time. She whirled to her father, her surprise hidden from Edward, at least. Her eyes widened, her mouth parting. He ignored her, knowing they could not discuss the reason for her surprise. Instead, he only nodded and offered his hand to Edward.
