Page 26 of The Baron's Return
She straightened. No, she thought. She couldn’t give up. She wouldn’t. Cranston was here, and she’d seen how he was with Gemma. He loved her and he had no qualms about showing it to the world, which meant that his heart wasn’t as hard as he wanted her to believe. Perhaps he thought his words were true, but they were already on this path, and she needed to see it through.
“Will you believe me if I explain what happened all those years ago?”
He considered her words. Finally he lifted one shoulder. “I’m willing to listen.”
She nodded and took a deep breath. “Father knew about my fondness for you. What I told you that night—about how someone who would one day be a baron was far beneath the daughter of an earl…” She shook her head. “Those were his words, not mine.”
He remained silent, his arms folded across his chest.
She continued. “He went out of his way to ensure I married someone else. I think he had his heart set on me capturing the attention of a duke or a marquess. When that didn’t happen, he decided that a wealthy viscount would suffice.”
“He didn’t care that the man he chose for his daughter was older than him?”
“Apparently not. When I protested, he told me it was likely that I’d be a widow soon. At any rate, he came to me and told me that he’d learned about your father’s gambling debts. Told me that he’d been successful in collecting them. That individually they didn’t amount to much, but when taken together and held by one person…” She shuddered at the glee her father had displayed. “He told me that your father was on the point of losing everything. That if I continued to entertain your suit, he would call on your father and demand immediate payment of all the notes.”
“I don’t think they amounted to that much, Abigail. He had, on occasion, lost more than he should, but never so much that he’d be ruined. He wasn’t that reckless.”
She closed her eyes briefly, agony stabbing her again at everything she’d lost because of her father’s lies. “I didn’t know that. I couldn’t have known. The way he described it, I feared you’d be left with nothing. I couldn’t be the reason your family lost everything.”
“So he insisted that you end things between us and accept Holbrook’s suit instead.”
“Yes. He told me that he would destroy the notes if I followed along with his wishes.”
“There was no guarantee he’d do that. If my father had lost more than was wise, it was possible your father still would have demanded repayment of the debt after you married.”
She let out a soft sigh. “I know. My father can be a vengeful man when he’s thwarted. He would have enjoyed taking away whatever he could from your family. But on the day of my wedding, I confronted him about it. I threatened to break off the engagement with Holbrook—to do it at the cathedral if need be, in front of all our acquaintances. I demanded that he burn the notes he’d shown me. I waited and watched him do it. I knew I’d done the right thing when he refused to speak to me for the rest of the day.”
Cranston was silent for a full minute.
Her shoulders drooped. “You don’t believe me.”
He shook his head. “On the contrary, I do. From everything I’ve learned recently, your story doesn’t surprise me.”
She tried to hold back her tears. “Perhaps we can start again…”
“I can’t, Abigail. We can still continue as man and wife and be there for Gemma. Perhaps give her siblings if we’re so blessed. But the life we’d both foreseen having together…” He shrugged. “I’m not that man anymore.”
Chapter 15
He left Abigail in the drawing room, telling her he’d ask the housekeeper to give her a tour of the house.
And after asking his butler to relay that message, he escaped to his study.
Their conversation left him feeling unsettled. He was steadfast in the knowledge that he would never again risk the pain of heartbreak, but he felt an undeniable measure of relief at knowing his judgment about Abigail all those years ago hadn’t been totally wrong.
He supposed they’d both suffered. She in a loveless marriage and then banished to the countryside where she knew no one, and he when he’d entered military service.
He would have to proceed with caution. He could no longer blame her for harm that had been done to the two of them, but neither could he allow her to get too close.
Which was why he remained in his study, distracting himself by going over the reports his steward had sent him, until it was time for dinner.
When he didn’t find her in the drawing room or any of the rooms on the main floor, he asked his butler to let her know he was ready for dinner.
The man coughed discreetly. “Lady Cranston made arrangements for dinner to be brought to her room.”
Cranston frowned. “She won’t be joining me then?” He hadn’t foreseen that she might also have decided it was best to avoid him. But surely she didn’t mean to hide in her bedchamber forever.
“No, my lord. She asked me to let you know you should join her there.”
