Page 67 of Finding Hope
“Rotham! What are you doing here?” She was hardly dressed to receive visitors!
“I have Westwood’s permission to speak with you. May I come in?”
She looked both ways down the hall, then stepped back to admit him.
“Forgive the presumption, but I needed to speak with you.”
The look on his face was more akin to pain than amour, and instantly Hope feared the Duke had died. “Is it your father?”
“No.” He shook his head. “He is stable for now.”
“Thank goodness,” she said with genuine relief.
“May we sit down?” He indicated the chairs flanking the fireplace, and she took one. He sat opposite and then seemed reluctant to speak.
“What is it you wish to speak of?” It was so very unlike him to hesitate.
“My mother,” he began before closing his mouth. “Forgive me, this is difficult to say.”
“Take your time,” she said as she longed to reach out and comfort him. But that would only make the parting worse, so she clasped her hands together in her lap.
He swallowed hard before speaking again. “I believe my mother may be responsible for the notes and the mishaps you have suffered.”
Hope was shocked that he had realized it.
“You are not surprised, are you?” he asked, noticing her lack of reaction.
“I fear it is so,” she said carefully.
“Why did you not come to me?”
“How does one say, ‘I believe your mother dislikes me so much that she might have tried to kill me?’”
He closed his eyes as though in pain.
“She confronted me last night at the ball. She tried to pay me to leave and never have anything to do with you again. It was the vitriol I saw in her eyes that convinced me. Then I started to consider each incident and knew it had to be someone withintimate knowledge of the estate and grounds. No one else has the motivation to see me disposed of.”
“Did she succeed?”
“In purchasing my acquiescence? How can you ask such a thing?”
“Because, my love, I can see why anyone would be hesitant to align themselves with madness!”
“You fear insanity?” She shook her head. “This is passion, delusion. I would have nothing to say to that…” She could not finish what she wished to say aloud. “However, she will never change her mind, and I will not be the cause of division in your family.”
“You are not the cause, Hope. The Duchess has already severed the connection. The Duke has banished her. The mistake he made was not putting her under guard. I have already rectified the matter and after the Duke’s death, she will no longer be at Davenmere.”
Hope bit her lower lip and closed her eyes. To think that she had been the cause of such a thing. How was she to live with it?
“Please talk to me, Hope,” Rotham pleaded.
“What is there to say? I never wanted this to happen.”
“None of this is your fault. Every action and every thought are entirely her own, as are the consequences.”
“If you married as your family wished, would this not be avoided?”
“How can you ask that of me? Would you rather see me enter into a loveless marriage? My mother has never cared for me as a person, only as a title. I will never give my allegiance to that. I will honour my duty to the country and the people I am responsible for, but to ask me to enter it into a white marriage when I loveyou, is something I find impossible.”
