Page 92 of Desperate Proposals
Selina’s eyes widened, then dropped, taking in Evelyn’s disheveled appearance.
“Goodness—what’s happened to you? You look an awful fright.” She shot an accusing glare at Mr. Hartley. “How did this happen?”
“By my own negligence, I suppose,” Evelyn said, one eyebrow arched. “I saw a rider behaving recklessly in the distance and I gave chase. Perhaps a bit too carelessly,” she added, with a gesture to her soiled garments.
“Oh.” At that, Selina cowed, her posture deflating. “I see.”
Evelyn felt her husband step forward alongside her. He placed one strong hand upon her shoulder, and blast it, but Evelyn wished to lean back into him, to rest her head against his chest. She suddenly realized she was exceedingly weary of everything.
And so, when he spoke, she closed her eyes, finding relief in his smooth, dulcet tones.
“I would have a word with you, Mr. Wright. If you’d allow us, Mrs. Wolfenden.”
Evelyn opened her eyes to see the unflappable butler, who’d solved her every problem for the past fifteen-odd years, pale and tight-faced, as if he’d eaten something that disagreed with him.
“No!” Selina screeched, sounding like a banshee as she flung an arm out before the butler, as if to shield him.
“Of course,” Wright said, maneuvering easily around Selina’s arm without sparing even a glance for her.
Her heart racing, Evelyn looked up to her husband. He stood firm, his face clouded with anger, and she couldn’t help but think how devastatingly handsome he was just then. She drew in a steadying breath, unsure of what would happen.
“Your resignation shall be tendered before his lordship sits down to supper,” Mr. Hartley said calmly, but with a quiet authority.
“Of course, sir,” Wright responded, unwilling to look up and meet their eyes.
“And,” Mr. Hartley continued slowly, “it is understood that not a word will escape your lips in regard to Mrs. Wolfenden. Ever.”
At this, Wright looked up, a gleam of malevolence in his eyes. Evelyn suppressed a gasp.
“Not ever, sir?” Wright’s upper lip curled. “And how much is silence worth to the family, then?”
This was enough for even Selina to gasp. “Herbert!” she exclaimed with a pained wail.
Wright’s name was Herbert? Evelyn frowned. It did not suit him in the least.
“Aha,” Mr. Hartley said, in the manner of someone confirming what they had suspected all along. “It’s money, then, that you were after?”
The mention of money made Evelyn want to cover her face, but she could not look away from the disaster unfolding before her. Wright flexed his hands into fists and turned his head in Selina’s direction. But he would not look her in the eye. Nor Evelyn, it seemed.
“I thought…” Selina whispered, then clapped her mouth shut and turned away, her eyes glistening.
Oh dear. It hadn’t been Selina after all. Evelyn had been wrong about the whole affair from the start. Selina’s shoulders began to shake, but still Wright did not move. Finally, Evelyn could take it no longer, and she went to her sister-in-law.
Selina jumped at her touch, then swatted her away, but Evelyn would not be deterred. She gathered her into her arms, even as her cheeks burned at the distressing scene unfolding.
“Howcouldyou?” she snapped at the butler, as Selina sobbed into her shoulder.
Wright narrowed his eyes at Evelyn. But then Mr. Hartley loudly cleared his throat, and Wright thought the better of responding to her, redirecting his ire toward her husband instead.
“What is anyone ever after, if not money?” he spat.
At that moment, Sarah, the scullery maid, returned, a crystal glass in one hand and a bottle of liquor in the other. She froze in the hallway, her eyes darting about the room, from Evelyn and her comforting arm about the wailing Selina, to the standoff between an antagonistic Wright and the steadfast Marcus.
Marcus, she said to herself, her heart skipping a beat. An ancient, noble name. Her cheeks flushed as she worried that others might have somehow heard her thoughts.
“Ma’am?” Sarah said meekly to Evelyn. And then to Marcus, “Sir?”
“Ah, thank you very much—just the thing after a long ride.”
