Samuel stood in the doorway, gaping in amazement at the sight of Anna and Lady Staunton standing side by side, holding hands. Neither of them appeared to be in any pain, as he’d assumed when he’d first heard the blood-curdling screams emanating from the drawing room, though their expressions weren’t particularly reassuring, either.
‘Samuel?’ Anna spoke first, the look on her face turning from anxious to determined. ‘Lady Staunton has something she needs to tell you.’
‘Wha—?’ His voice faltered as he noticed the cushion tucked under Clarissa’s arm, then her noticeably flatter stomach.
‘You’re not pregnant.’ A rush of horror slammed into him like a fist. Suddenly, he wished himself a thousand miles away, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean preferably.
‘I’m sorry.’ Clarissa looked genuinely shame-faced. ‘I never meant for it to go this far.’
‘You’re not pregnant.’ He repeated the words, as if they might make more sense to him the second time.
‘No.’
‘You’ve been pretending this whole time?’
She nodded, her voice falling to a low whisper. ‘I know it was wrong.’
‘You lied to me!’ He didn’t intend to raise his voice, but he couldn’t stop himself. Five minutes ago he’d been happily anticipating leaving Staunton. Two minutes ago he’d been running down the stairs in alarm. Now...now he felt several stages beyond furious. She’d lied! On top of everything else his family had done, she’d lied just to keep him out of the family! As if everything about him were so objectionable! Worse even than that, though, was the shock. He’d thought that he had another month to prepare for the possibility of becoming an earl, a month to spend with Anna, but now that future had been stolen away from him. His fate was sealed. He was the Earl of Staunton, his father’s son, the unwanted but last surviving male heir from a jaded line of a once-illustrious family. There was no fighting that legacy any longer. He felt so disorientated that he had to clutch the door to stop the world from spinning around him. It was like sea sickness, only without the sea.
And now Anna, the one person he’d thought understood how he felt, was standing alongside the woman who’d deceived him, as if she wasn’t angry at all. As if she’d sided with his family against him, too!
‘Samuel?’ Anna advanced towards him, her expression concerned. ‘Perhaps you should sit down? You don’t look well.’
‘No.’ He lifted a hand, preventing her from coming any closer as he narrowed his eyes at Lady Staunton instead. ‘Your maids. They must have known. They must have helped you.’
‘Ye-es.’ He was pleased to see her face register panic. ‘But only because they’re loyal to me.’
‘According to the law, they were my staff, not yours.’ His voice sounded different even to him. Hard and grating and implacable. ‘That kind of disobedience is grounds for dismissal.’
‘Samuel!’ Anna gasped. ‘You wouldn’t!’
‘Why not?’ He couldn’t bring himself to look at her. ‘I’m the Earl now, aren’t I? That means I can dismiss whoever I want and I want to be rid of everyone who knew about this.’
‘They only helped me because I begged them to.’
‘Well, now you can tell them the consequences.’
Lady Staunton’s whole body started shaking, though whether from shock or anger he couldn’t tell. ‘In that case, they can accompany me to the dower house.’
‘I think not.’ He turned on his heel, too angry to be in the same room with either of them any longer. ‘You can find somewhere else to live, Countess. I want you gone from Staunton by tonight.’
‘If I thought you’d meant any of that, I’d shove you in right now.’
Anna found Samuel standing by the side of the river, his back towards her as he hurled stones into the water.
‘What makes you so sure that I didn’t?’ He didn’t turn around, only pulling his arm back for another throw.
‘Because you’re an honourable man and Clarissa wants to stay here. It’s her home.’
‘Not any more. Legally it hasn’t been her home since her husband died. It was my inheritance and I don’t give a damn what she wants.’ He flung a stone so far down the river that she could barely see the splash. ‘She ought to be grateful I’m not summoning the magistrate.’
‘She knows she acted badly.’
‘Badly?’ He spun around finally, his face blazing with anger. ‘Is that all you can say? You know how miserable I’ve been waiting to find out what my future would be. I’ve spent five months on shore twiddling my thumbs!’
‘I know, but she’s been miserable, too, and she’ll be even more miserable if you force her to leave.’
‘I’m sure she has family she can go to.’
‘A family who call her a failure.’
His expression relented slightly. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Because she never provided her husband with an heir. They’ve made her feel like a disappointment so much that she’s afraid to go back to them. I think a lot of her anger has been about that, not you.’
‘That doesn’t make it all right.’
‘No, but think how much worse they’ll treat her if she goes home and admits the truth.’ Anna took a step closer. ‘I’m not defending what she’s done, but there are reasons. I think she was desperate after the funeral and didn’t really know what she was doing. Then she didn’t know how to stop it.’
‘None of which is my concern.’ His jaw clenched again. ‘Whose side are you on?’
‘It’s not a question of sides.’
‘But you think I ought to just forgive and forget? I put my life on hold for months and she was lying the whole time!’
‘I know.’
‘All to stop me from inheriting! Because she thought I was the same as my father, just like...’ He stopped, a pained expression passing over his face.
‘Samuel?’ Something about that expression made her want to wrap her arms around him.
‘Like all the rest of my family,’ he finished saying, twisting his face to one side.
‘She thought she was fulfilling her husband’s wishes, but she’s sorry for it now.’
‘She even convinced her servants to keep secrets from me.’
‘Yes.’
His shoulders slumped as the anger drained from his face suddenly. ‘And sending them away won’t make me feel any better, will it?’
‘No. Or her. She’s spent the last few months feeling angry and bitter and scared. Now she needs time to grieve properly.’
‘All right. Tell her she can do whatever she wants.’ He let out a heavy sigh. ‘You know, I never really let myself believe it would actually happen. I kept telling myself that she’d have a son, that it wouldn’t be long until I’d be free, but there’s no escaping all this now, is there? I don’t have a choice.’
‘No.’ She reached a hand up to his face, turning it gently back towards her. ‘But you’re not the man your family thought you were. You’re better than them.’
He tipped his cheek into her palm, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them again with a look of determination. ‘Then I’ll do my duty. I’ll do it properly and prove them all wrong, be the Earl my father could never have been. I’ll find a way to belong at Staunton, too.’
‘I know you will.’
‘But I’ll need my Countess by my side.’ He clasped his hands around her waist. ‘Come with me to Scotland, Anna. We can go to Gretna Green and be married tomorrow.’
‘Scotland?’ She stiffened at the suggestion. ‘But why rush? We might have to delay our immediate plans, but we can still be married in Bath. Nothing about that needs to change.’
‘Everything’s already changed.’ His grip tightened. ‘We’ve spent too much time together. If we don’t marry soon, then people will talk.’
‘I don’t care what people say.’
‘But I do.’ His tone was too vehement, his gaze too bright, in the grip of some new fervour. ‘I want to do everything right from now on, start as I mean to go on. Besides, there’s no reason for us to return to Bath now. Your mother’s already here and I’m going to have a mountain of estate business to attend to.’
‘Ye-es, but...’ She bit her teeth into her bottom lip, trying to think of a reason to stall. He was right. If he was the new Earl, then Scotland was a far better idea from a practical perspective. They could be there and back in a matter of days. There was no reason for him to return to Bath except to see his grandparents, but since he didn’t know about his grandfather’s ill health there was no impetus for that. She’d sent a letter to his grandmother asking for permission to tell Samuel, but as yet she hadn’t received any answer. All she knew was that she had to tell him before they were married.
‘Anna?’ He frowned when she didn’t answer.
‘It’s just... I need to go back to my shop. I can’t do anything until I’ve settled things there.’
‘Why not? We can do all of that later.’
‘But it’s my responsibility. It matters to me. Please, Samuel, I want to be married in Bath. We can get a common licence there and...’
‘You’ve changed your mind?’ He dropped his hands from her waist abruptly.
‘I never said that!’
‘Then prove it. Come with me to Scotland today. We’re already packed and the carriage is waiting. We can leave right now.’
‘No.’ She took a step backwards, annoyed by his dictatorial tone. He sounded as if he were issuing orders, as if he were turning into an arrogant aristocrat right before her eyes. ‘I told you, I want to settle my affairs first.’
‘You’ve changed your mind.’ His whole face seemed to shut down as he spoke, his eyes looking paler and sharper than she’d ever seen them, like jagged shards of glass.
‘That’s not true, but I won’t be told what to do. Just because you’re an earl doesn’t give you the right...’
‘If you love me, then you’ll come with me now!’
‘If you love me, then you won’t insist!’
‘I should have known you’d take their side, too.’ He gave a harsh laugh and turned away, heading towards the bridge. ‘Goodbye, Anna.’
Samuel sat in a corner of the taproom at Staunton’s somewhat dilapidated alehouse, his forearms resting on the table in front of him, staring broodingly into a tankard. He hadn’t drunk more than a few mouthfuls, tempted though he was to drown his sorrows, but now that he’d finally calmed down after storming away from Anna, all he felt was empty.
Lady Staunton’s deception had come as a shock to say the least, but the sight of Anna at her side and defending her had made it even worse, making him feel as though the anchor he’d been holding on to had come loose. Her following him to the water gardens afterwards had given him new hope, briefly allowing him to imagine that doing his duty and becoming the consummate Earl in defiance of his family’s expectations might ease the crushing sense of entrapment, but then Anna had distanced herself again. Maybe suggesting an elopement hadn’t been the best idea, but he’d wanted to make everything official and to do it all properly, to start his new life with her at his side. On top of that, he’d needed to know whether the fact of his inheritance had changed her mind about marrying him and to his horror, it had. If she’d truly wanted to marry him, then she would have agreed to go to Gretna Green instead of making up some excuse about needing to return to Bath. He’d thought that they’d come to an understanding. He’d thought that he could trust her, too, but as it turned out, her prejudices were stronger than her feelings for him. And he’d been a damned fool, falling in love with the one woman most likely to reject him. It had been madness to think that they might belong together, that they might make a home at Staunton, either. Of course she denied going back on her word, but what else would she say?
On the other hand, a tiny part of him argued, Clarissa’s deception had been a shock for Anna, too. Maybe he ought to have given her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he shouldn’t have been quite so demanding, either...
‘You look like you’ve been in the wars.’ The voice of the innkeeper came from close by. ‘Trouble with love, I’ll wager?’
Samuel looked up, assuming the comments were addressed to him, surprised to find them directed at a young, fair-haired man sitting at the next table instead. In the mostly deserted taproom he hadn’t noticed the man’s presence before, but now he had the uncanny impression of looking into a mirror. The other’s position, even down to his expression of brooding melancholy, was remarkably similar to his own.
‘Aye...’ The man sighed. ‘Dora says she can’t marry me. Her father will never agree.’
‘Old Turner? No, he’s a funny one.’ The innkeeper gave a sage nod. ‘You’d best watch he doesn’t catch you wi’ her either or he’ll have your guts.’
‘Then what do I do?’
‘Find yourself someone else.’
‘But I don’t want someone else!’
‘Why won’t her father agree to the match?’ Samuel interjected, unable to contain his curiosity.
The man gave him a swift glance and then heaved a sigh. ‘He says I’m just a farmhand and that I’ll never amount to anything.’
‘Then make something of yourself to show him he’s wrong. If she loves you, then she’ll wait.’ He frowned at the words. Wasn’t waiting exactly what he’d just refused to do for Anna?
‘And how am I supposed to do that when them at the manor do nothing but put up rents and never help us with—? Ow!’ He stopped as the innkeeper gave his chair a none-too-subtle kick.
‘This gentleman might know them at the manor.’
‘Oh.’ The man’s expression turned to one of alarm. ‘Pardon me, sir, I didn’t know I was talking to a gentleman. Too much ale.’
‘I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping in the first place.’ Samuel picked up his tankard and stood, the similarity in their situations making him doubly curious. ‘Do you mind if I join you?’
‘If you want, sir.’ The man exchanged a dubious look with the innkeeper.
‘Thank you. Now...’ Samuel took a seat again opposite ‘...does she love you, this woman?’
‘Dora? She says she does, only she won’t go against her father. She said our last kiss was goodbye.’
‘You’ve kissed her?’ The innkeeper gave a low whistle. ‘You’d better hope Turner doesn’t find out.’
‘I don’t care if he does.’
‘You will when he pummels you. He’s twice your size and then some. I once saw him flatten—’
‘Maybe I can help?’ Samuel interrupted before the innkeeper could go into any more lurid detail.
‘How?’
‘Tell me what it is you need to prove yourself. Your own farm?’
The other man stared at him suspiciously for a moment and then burst out laughing. ‘Aye, that ought to do it. I don’t reckon there’s any lying around spare, though.’
‘Maybe not spare, but there must be something we can do.’ Samuel nodded at the innkeeper and then gestured at their tankards. ‘Two more of these and one for yourself. Then we can put our heads together and think.’
‘Th-thank you, sir.’ The man looked confused. ‘But if you don’t mind my asking, who are you?’
‘Me?’ Samuel took one last mouthful of ale before answering, ‘I’m Captain Samuel Delaney, the new Earl of Staunton.’