Page 81 of Tempted By the English Marquis
“I know you and I have been at cross purposes, but I am still your son. And I am a man. If he has hurt you in any way, you can tell me. This stays between us or if you feel the need to get the relevant authorities involved, I can do that as well.”
She gave him a tearful smile. “You are a good lad, Gideon. A credit to your father.”
And you.
He wanted to say those last words, but silence seemed to be called for in this moment. Lady Anne had to be allowed to speak. To tell her story in her own words and time.
“I’m beginning to form the opinion that I have been a rather silly woman. I’ve behaved in a naïve fashion, thinking myself far more worldly than I actually am.”
Gideon gripped the side of the chair. He was ready to go to war if Signore Arosio had laid a finger on his mother and those advances had been unwelcome. “Go on.”
“It turns out he invited me to his estate in Tivoli purely with the intent of seducing me. He thought since I was making no move to leave Rome, that I might wish to become his mistress.”
For a moment, Gideon feared he might be the next member of the Kembal family to cry. That another man could not only covet his father’s wife but feel that he was entitled to make her such an offer put a dagger in the middle of Gideon’s heart.
He paused, taking the time to choose his next words carefully. “And what did you say to him? I am assuming, since you are back at the palace, that you didn’t find his offer . . .” He couldn’t finish the sentence. Nausea roiled in his gut. His mother might think herself naïve but even he hadn’t seen this coming.
His mother’s fingers went to her wedding ring. Gideon hadn’t noticed it before this afternoon. He couldn’t be sure as to whether the duchess had been wearing it when he’d first arrived from England. It was there now, and that gave him hope.
“Of course, I have received those sorts of offers in the past. The Prince Regent himself and the Duke of York have both expressed the desire to make me their bedmate.”
I think I might actually be sick. Who the devil thinks they can try and make a whore out of my mother?
She sat, slowly shaking her head. “Of course, your father found it rather outrageous. He went to Carlton House one night to have it out with Prince George. The fact that Prinny had taken himself off to Brighton likely saved you from becoming the Duke of Mowbray at the age of fifteen. But I digress.”
Lady Anne lifted her head and when her gaze met Gideon’s, he saw his mother in a new light. She was afraid. Vulnerable.
“In the past, I would tell Clifford about these things. He would go off and have it out with the blackguard who had spoken to his wife in such a disgusting manner, after which he would come home in a stinking foul mood, and we would have a frightful row about it. Then when we were both at the height of our furious passion, he would seize me and carry me off to bed. And . . . well, you can figure out the rest. As you say, you are a man.”
With no husband to protect her, the duchess had finally come to realize how defenseless she was and possibly how much worse it could be once he and Augusta were gone.
Gideon rose from his chair. “Would you excuse me for a moment, Mama? I need to fetch something from my room. I shall return shortly.”
He wasn’t sure whether he was doing the right thing or not, but if there was ever a time that was fitting for him to give his mother the box of letters, it was now.
His feet carried him quickly to his room where he retrieved the box. When he returned to the duchess’s suite, Gideon found his mother still patiently waiting.
“Papa asked me to give this to you. It contains some letters he wrote to you just before I sailed for Italy. He said that if after reading them you are still set on not coming back, he will arrange to have funds sent to you each year.”
Lady Anne cradled the chest in her lap, her fingers resting gently on the top of it. She didn’t make a move to open it, but Gideon could understand that this was a private matter between husband and wife. He didn’t know what was in the notes; he simply knew his father had poured his heart into each and every one of them.
“Do you want to know why I left?” she said.
He did. Gideon wanted nothing more than to understand how it had all fallen apart. “Of course, I do. It had never occurred to me that you were this unhappy. I want to hear your story, and I am prepared to listen, but on one condition.”
The weeks at sea had given him ample time to rehearse this moment. He had left the ship ready for a knockdown row with his mother. Seeing her like this, Gideon was glad that it hadn’t happened. His temper had cooled.
“What is your condition?”
“Before Augusta and I leave for England, you give me your own silent attention. Father and I are not the only ones whose thoughts and opinions you should be made to hear. Victoria, Coco, Matthew, and Richard have a part to play in this as well. We were—I mean, we still are a family.”
Tears glistened in his mother’s eyes. Lady Anne nodded. “Agreed. That’s fair.”
She poured them both a cup of tea. Gideon didn’t want the drink, but he could appreciate his mother needing a moment in which to compose herself. The familiar action of drinking tea was something to calm her nerves.
“Your father and I have always had a passionate marriage. Our rows have involved brutal language at times. But we always made up.”
The duchess lifted her cup to her lips and took a drink. Gideon left his own tea alone.
