Page 30 of The Lady in Pearls
“What?” Moira’s voice cracked. “You brought her here for that? Lachlan, I want her gone, I can’t have her here, not when...” she choked on a sob and wiped her eyes. “She’s a sweet girl and she doesn’t deserve to suffer your vengeance. She’s not her father, can’t you see? Living with a man who despises her isn’t fair to her, not when she’s innocent of her father’s crimes. You must send her back to London. Annul the marriage.”
“It’s too late for that,” he whispered.
His mother stared at him, horror filling her face. “Then you must live apart.”
Lachlan was silent for a long moment. “No. I can’t send her away. Because… I love her. I love herwildly, Mother. I don’t care about her father, not anymore. I want to look forward, not dwell in the past. She’s the only thing that matters to me now. William would not have wanted me to forsake my love if he knew how happy I could be.”
Moira rose from the chair, her blue eyes dull and her lips trembling.
“You should have told me.” For a long moment they stared at each other, a chasm growing between them, one that he feared he could not repair. Then she turned her back on him and left.
For a long while he didn’t move. He stood behind William’s desk, thinking back to the day he’d ridden up to the house and saw his brother in the window, heard the shot that rang out across the grounds, and the awful silence that followed. His heart had frozen in that instant as he had tried to reach his brother. Too late. Always, too late.
“I’m sorry, brother,” he whispered to the silent room. He could almost feel William there, as though he paused on the other side of an invisible veil. The hairs on the back of his neck rose and he closed his eyes, speaking again. “Iloveher. I can’t cling to both love and hate. She fills my heart, so there’s no room left for anger and pain and hatred.”
He thought for a brief moment that a hand touched his shoulder. An infinitesimal pressure, one of reassurance and comfort. He reached up and placed his hand where he felt the slight weight.
“There is nothing to forgive,”the words came in William’s voice.
His mother would need time to heal, to understand. Right now, he needed to speak to Daphne. She deserved to know the truth. But first he had to prove his love for her. Only then could he confess the truth behind his original intentions in marrying her.
As he exited the study, he heard something roll along the wooden floor. He glanced down and saw two dozen white beads that had scattered when his foot brushed them. He knelt and picked one up. They were pearls. Not his mother’s, because she hadn’t worn any.
With a gasp, he frantically tried to retrieve the pearls, clutching them in his palm. Blood roared in his ears as he reached into the nooks and crannies of the hall, desperate to reclaim every precious orb. But Daphne had gone upstairs, so how…?
“May I help you, my lord?” The young maid, Mary, knelt beside him, cupping her hands to receive what he’d collected so far.
“Take these and put them somewhere safe. We must find every one,” he said. His voice began to fill with panic, trying not to think about the implications of this moment.
The maid tucked the pearls into her apron pocket. “My lord, the countess is gone.”
His stomach grew heavy as his fear began to materialize, but still he refused to believe it. “Gone?”
“She was crying, and I feared you didn’t know. She called for a coach and left.”
There was no more denial left in him. Daphne must have listened at the door. He stared at the floor where the pearls had fallen. She always touched them when she was anxious. She must have ripped them from her neck before she fled, when she heard the awful truth behind their marriage.
“How long ago did she leave?”
“Half an hour?” Mary guessed.
“What? Why did no one summon me?” He stumbled to his feet.
The maid stepped back but was brave enough to answer, “She was most upset when you were in the study and begged the staff who saw her not to say a word. But when I saw you come out, I knew someone had to tell you.” Her gaze shot to the open door behind him and he understood. No one bothered him when he was inside his study. They believed he went in there to seek peace, to feel close to William, and it was true.
“I’ll take care of the pearls, my lord,” Mary promised, one hand touching the pocket of her apron.
“Thank you.” Lachlan sprinted down the corridor and called for the nearest footman to have a horse saddled. He donned a coat and gloves as he rushed down the steps to the drive. He studied the road leading away from Huntley Castle but saw no sign of the coach carrying Daphne away from him.
Lachlan nodded at the groom who brought him his fastest gelding and mounted. He prayed he would not be too late to reach the other half of his heart before it, too, was lost forever.
Chapter Ten
Daphne could barely breathe.
She lay curled up in the coach, a fisted hand pressed against her mouth to mute the sound of her sobs. Why had she gone back downstairs? She had hoped to render aid to Moira in some way, who had clearly been distressed, but then the words she’d overheard had stopped her cold and eventually broken her soul.
Until that moment, she’d survived everything. Her father’s scandal, the loss of her former life, her home and friends, but none of it hurt quite like losing her heart. Everything had been a lie. Every kiss, every look, every vow to love and cherish each other. All she’d had to hear was that her marriage to him was a lie and she’d fled the house.
