Page 84 of The Wise Daughter
“Wanted?” Air fled from her lungs. Her stomach seized with piercing pain.
“It is as you once said.” It was Aaron’s voice she heard, but it was devoid of all his usual tenderness. “I was too hasty about our engagement. I did not yet know you. It is now clear to me that our lives must follow different paths. You and your father must leave as soon as possible.”
“Aaron, I don’t understand. Leave? But why? Why the sudden change?”
He shook his head. She didn’t know if he wouldn’t give her an explanation or couldn’t.
Finally, he spoke again. “I don’t think I can allow you to stay in the castle any longer. I’ll permit you to stay in Raven Manor until youhave secured for yourself a position somewhere else, but I would prefer you leave within a fortnight.”
He wouldpreferit? “Aaron, I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I.”
“Please, Aaron, it pains me to–”
“It pains me as well. Under the circumstances, Miss Lacy, it would be more appropriate for you to address me as my title demands.”
She had to fight her own shock to finish her sentence. “It pains me to see you like this, Your… Your Grace.” Those last words, once spoken with ease, were heavy on her tongue like too much salt on her meat. “I beg you to explain what has happened.”
He finally held her gaze. His eyes were so full of heartache, but it quickly turned cold. “I hate the thought of you and your father once again being reduced to ridicule and poverty, but the terms of our marriage settlement are clearly broken by what I have discovered tonight.”
“And what have you discovered?” Her voice dwindled. Was her father’s gambling so terrible that Aaron no longer wanted to be connected with her family?
“Were you ever engaged to Lord Newberry?”
A wave of nausea rolled over her. “Whatever you heard, it isn’t true. My father arranged it before I could even share my thoughts on the matter, but I adamantly refused.”
“Did he give your father money?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it’s possible, but I–”
“And what can you say about Mr. Hunt?”
“Mr. Hunt? How did you learn about him?”
“It doesn’t matter, but those men are not my only complaints. I have discovered a letter.”
“A letter? What letter? You must explain it to me!” Her insides grew frantic as she struggled to maintain control over her voice.
A similar struggle warred across his face. “Do you have the signet ring I gave you?”
“Yes, of course.” She held up her hand and showed him the place where it rested on her thumb.
He took her hand gently, but as she curled her fingers around his, he loosened her hold and removed the ring. He might as well have plucked her heart out. She felt herself sway like a ship in a storm.
“Aaron,” she dared whisper.
“I am not so hard-hearted as to send you away with nothing. If you needed more than what I offered, you should have come to me. I thought you understood that. I’d rather give knowingly than have my wealth taken behind my back.”
“Aaron, I do not know what has happened, but I would never–”
He grimaced. “Blast it, Nora! It hurts too dreadfully to even talk of this! Take whatever you want! Anything in the castle. Just leave! What care I for any of my wealth when I know you want it more than you want me?”
Her insides shook. “I don’t know what absurd lies you’ve been told, Aaron, but there’s been a dreadful misunderstanding. You’re speaking nothing but nonsense!”
He would no longer look at her. “I don’t think I am, Miss Lacy. No one regrets what has happened more than I. Please leave as soon as you are able, for both our sakes. I can no longer abide your presence.”
She dropped to the stone bench as if she had just been hit, her legs no longer able to support her. Confusion and hurt overwhelmed her into a numbness that froze her to the spot as she watched Aaron walk away. How had the distance between them stretched so quickly?
