Ella followed George down the corridor, all too aware that the man carried her valise. All morning, she’d had a knot of emotions in her throat.
She was leaving today.
And she was going to be strong and stoic about it, despite the tumult of emotions goring her chest. Two weeks had flown by. More bliss that she ever imagined she’d experience in a lifetime. The weather had become favorable days ago. They’d gone on walks, perused shops, in particular bookshops.
She knew she wasn’t leaving the same woman who’d entered his home weeks ago, thanks to him. She liked this new Ella. Now, she knew exactly what to do, solidifying her course of action to best Octavius and get her paper back.
George stopped at the library door. “I will have all your effects placed in the carriage, my lady. His Grace awaits you.” Thankfully, there was no more pretending among the staff.
“Thank you.” She smiled at the kind man. “Merry Christmas, George.” It was just days away. She’d purchased the entire staff each a small gift and left them in the kitchen with George’s wife. Saying farewell to each of them was something she didn’t think she could get through. Especially since she was about to say goodbye to Lewis.
“Merry Christmas to you as well, my lady.” He knocked, then opened the door to the library, gave a short bow, and stepped back.
She took in a quiet fortifying breath and let it out slowly. Affixing a small smile on her face, she walked in and stopped in the middle of the room. Lewis had his back to her, looking out the window. Much of the snow that had accumulated had melted.
He turned to face her before she said a word. He’d schooled his features. She couldn’t read his face. It was done on purpose. He didn’t want her to know his thoughts.
Not knowing what to do with her hands, desperately trying not to fidget, she folded them in front of her. “My things are being placed in the carriage. I wish to thank you for offering your carriage to take me to Mr. and Mrs. Scarborough’s residence.”
“My pleasure.” She couldn’t read anything into that.
Ella looked away for a moment, gathering her words. She’d practiced them this morning, but they were caught in her tightened throat. “I want to thank you for these wonderful weeks—and incredible nights.”
“They have been incredible,” he said softly. He was standing so far away.
Say what you’ve come to say… “I understand why you don’t like Christmas, but I do hope that you’ll find joy in it again. I don’t believe your father would want you to diminish your life in any way because of him. You should fill your home with garlands and red bows at Christmas.” She felt tears sting in her eyes and fought them back. “As for Elizabeth, there is no woman in this entire world who’s a greater fool than she. She had your heart and threw it away. You should take the chance on love again. I intend to, because having a great love of your own is worth the risk. I wish you much happiness.” Her voice cracked. Turning on her heel, she walked out and closed the door, knowing that if she kissed him one last time, she might never let go.
After taking a step, she stopped with a sharp breath and marched right back into the library. Surprise was on his handsome face. “I will not leave here with any regrets. I told you I am honest, and I will honestly tell you that I am in love with you. I don’t expect you to return my affection, but I didn’t want to leave without you knowing.”
With that, she left the room.
Then his home.
* * *
Ernestine barged into Ella’s room at the Scarborough residence. “Octavius still hasn’t arrived!” Her dark hair and eyes were similar to Ella’s, yet at the moment, Ernestine’s cheeks were flushed a deep red.
Ella had only just settled into her room, shortly after her arrival, when Marion Scarborough, daughter of her hosts—not to mention a fellow member of the London Mathematical Society—had asked to speak to her privately.
They’d just seated themselves at the pair of matching rosewood chairs.
Ernestine stopped abruptly when she saw Marion. “Oh! Forgive me. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
Ella and Marion both rose. “No intrusion,” Marion said. “If I may, I’d like to speak to you both.” She held a large green velvet pouch. “Won’t you please both sit?” She gestured to the chairs.
Ernestine had been on the lookout for Octavius. She’d been the very friend who’d confided to Ella about Octavius’s thievery of her paper as well. Using the same vile tactics.
They sat as Marion opened the pouch and pulled out a number of papers. She held them out to Ella. “These belong to you.”
Ella stood, taking them from her hands and immediately recognizing her work. Flipping page after page, she realized they were all there. “Marion, how in the world did you get these?”
“Octavius came to see me and bragged about what he’d done to you and to Ernestine. He told me he had your paper and showed it to me. He’d read and studied it and stated that it was brilliant. When he wasn’t looking, I switched your paper for recipes for minced pie, lobster cutlets, anything I had at hand. I put one page of your notes on top so he wouldn’t realize the ruse straightaway. That disgusting scoundrel had done the very same thing to me, seducing me, then stealing my work and publishing it as his own. I wasn’t going to let him do that to you too, Ella. I’m only sorry I didn’t learn of your stolen paper earlier, Ernestine. I would have helped you as well.”
Ernestine rose, mouth agape. “I cannot believe he did this to you too. That vile… Oh! I hope his member falls off!”
“That is a wish I’ve harbored too,” Marion concurred.
Ella looked down at her paper, incredulous. Her suspicions had been true. Octavius hadn’t written a single paper for which he’d taken full credit. She couldn’t believe the first publication had been Marion’s work. “But, Marion, your father was the president of the LMS at the time of Octavius’s first published work.”
“Yes, and his threat to bring scandal to my father by making it known what we’d done made me hold my tongue.” Marion’s coloring was fair, and her blue eyes glistened with pain.
Ella seethed. “The brazenness of this man is breathtaking! He risked embroiling himself in a scandal that could have ruined his own standing.”
“He knew I wouldn’t allow my family to be harmed by my foolish actions. I wouldn’t risk it. I let him have the paper.”
“He is an utter blackguard!” Ernestine could barely contain herself.
“He is proficient at duplicity.” Ella opened her arms and hugged the two women, their arms encircling each other. “Ladies, we will stop him together. It is not enough to get my work back—though I will be forever grateful to you, Marion. We will ensure he never does this to anyone else again.”
* * *
Lewis alighted from his carriage. It was Christmas Eve, and the night sky was a shade of indigo. Looking up briefly at the Scarboroughs’ residence in Thurloe Square, he then raced up the stairs two at a time. He’d dragged his damned feet since yesterday.
Now he couldn’t get inside fast enough.
The moment he entered, he handed over his greatcoat, hat, and gloves, too busy scanning the crowd in the room beyond the foyer, where guests were enjoying the ball, to even know who’d taken his effects.
“Your Grace!” That yanked his attention to the older woman suddenly before him. From her dark hair with silver streaks, he knew this was Mrs. Scarborough. “My… This is an unexpected pleasure!” She beamed at him.
“Mrs. Scarborough, I thank you for the invitation. I hope you don’t mind that I reconsidered at the last minute?” He’d rejected the annual invitation weeks before meeting Ella, just as he’d rejected the pile of Christmas invitations he received each year.
“Not at all, Your Grace. Do come in!” He extended his arm to his hostess, fighting the urge to knock her sideways and run about like a madman until he found the one woman he was looking for. Mrs. Scarborough began her inane chatter. He nodded along, barely listening as they entered the ballroom, stopping just past the threshold. As a waltz sweetened the air, he scoured the twirling dancers, then the throng around the perimeter of the room. All while Mrs. Scarborough continued her blather. She didn’t know where her husband was. She’d have him located posthaste. He’ll be delighted to see you, Your Grace…
Where was she? Had she retrieved her paper? Was she with Alfred? Would she allow him to kiss her? He’d fucking tortured himself with thoughts of her. The urge to come to aid her with Alfred had been suffocating. Even though he knew how independent and capable she was and that she didn’t need for him to do any such thing.
He’d never been so overcome with the desire to protect someone as he was toward her.
There was a commotion behind him in the foyer that caught his ear.
“Wh-Who are y-y-you going to believe? M-Me or them?” The set of slurred questions made him turn around. The man speaking was about his own age, with short dark hair, a trimmed moustache, and short beard. He was sufficiently inebriated, swaying a little and upset with the two men before him. One was Scarborough. The other the current president of the LMS, Adam Hughes. Both were older men of similar age.
It was clear a scene was unfolding.
“Dearest, what is happening?” Mrs. Scarborough asked her husband, reentering the foyer in haste, casting nervous glances toward the ballroom.
“Nothing of concern. Mr. Whimple is leaving. Do tend to our guests,” Scarborough ordered his wife.
She excused herself from Lewis’s presence and returned to the ballroom. Lewis closed the large double doors the moment he saw Ella step out from behind the men with two other women by her side. He didn’t want the guests seeing her involved in any unpleasantness.
Ella stepped beside Scarborough. “Mr. Scarborough, you have an unscrupulous fraud here. What Mr. Whimple has done is unconscionable. He stole. He made ugly threats to our reputations based on lies. He isn’t someone who should be in the noble field of mathematics, science, or in polite society in general.”
Emotions welled inside him. God, he missed her. He was so damned proud of her.
“Lies?” the drunken man snorted. “They weren’t li—”
Scarborough stepped forward. “Finish that sentence at your own peril, Whimple.” It came out a growled threat. “Don’t you dare utter a single word that would besmirch my daughter or either of these other women’s impeccable characters. In fact, don’t speak another word to me or any member of my family again! President Hughes, Lady Luella is quite correct. He doesn’t belong in the Mathematical Society. His published works must be republished, the matter handled delicately, of course, but my daughter’s and Miss Ernestine’s work must be acknowledged and properly attributed to them.”
“Agreed.” Hughes nodded. “Mr. Whimple, you’ve made a mockery of the Society and all the members in it. You are out.”
Two of the male staff stepped forward at Scarborough’s nod. “Get him out of here.”
Grasping him under the arms, they began to escort the wobbly Mr. Whimple across the foyer, toward the door amidst his slurring protests.
“One moment,” Lewis called out. It was then that the small group noticed him.
“Your Grace!” Scarborough was clearly surprised to see him, but not as surprised as Ella. Dear God, she looked so beautiful in her royal-purple gown. He walked toward the group and stopped near her. “I’m afraid I didn’t see you there. We’re in the middle of a private matter…”
“I understand. I wanted to deliver an important message,” Lewis informed Scarborough.
“Of course, Your Grace.”
He turned to Ella. “Lady Luella, it is good to see you.”
She curtsied. “Your Grace.”
With a jerk of his chin toward Whimple, he said, “Alfred?”
She nodded. “Yes, Your Grace.”
Lewis sauntered over to Whimple, who was still being held up by the two men. “Sir, I have a message for you from Sarah and Joseph.”
The man looked confused. “W-Who? Wh-What do they want?”
“This.” Lewis slammed his fist into the man’s jaw, knocking him to the floor. He heard distinct female gasps amidst the satisfying howl of pain he’d garnered from Alfred. “That’s the end of the message. Thank you,” he told the two men who picked Whimple back up onto his feet and escorted him out. Lewis delighted at the sounds of the man bewailing his outrage and rubbing his injured jaw.
He turned his attention to Hughes, who was looking as shocked as the rest of the group over Lewis’s incident with Alfred. “President Hughes, since you are the current LMS’s president, I wish to inform you that I will be increasing the annual donation my father began years ago to the Mathematical Society. I will be doing the same for the universities he was committed to that have counted on such contributions.”
Hughes smiled. “That’s excellent, Your Grace.”
“That is providing that a written proposal is sent to me outlining how you will encourage more women to participate, study, and publish in the advancement of knowledge and innovation.”
His smile slipped a little, but he said, “Yes, of course, Your Grace. I will do just that.”
Lewis nodded and finally turned to the woman he’d come to see. “Lady Luella, might I have a word with you?” He offered his arm.
* * *
Standing outside the front door with Lewis, Ella waited for him to speak, riddled with anticipation and battling with various scenarios in her mind to explain his presence at the Scarborough Christmas ball. A snowflake landed on Ella’s cheek.
He pulled her warm cloak more tightly around her with his gloved hands. “Is everything all right, then, with the Alfred situation and your paper?”
She smiled. “Yes. I’ve formally submitted my work to President Hughes.”
“How did you get it back?”
“With help from my brilliant friends. Oh, and some fine brandy that Octavius—also known as Alfred-with-a-sore-jaw—has a great fondness for.” That brought a smile to his face and hers. Octavius more than deserved what Lewis had done to him. “We got him to confess his thievery, making sure Scarborough and Hughes overheard. Given what a disreputable individual Octavius has shown himself to be, no one will believe anything he says.”
He hadn’t bothered to put on his top hat. She watched the winter wind ruffle his hair, wanting so very much to thread her fingers through it. To touch him again.
“Good. I’m very glad.” A small smile was on his lips.
“Thank you for what you did in there, Lewis. I don’t mean just with Octavius. I mean your support of women and their higher education and recognition. Is that why you came here? You don’t attend Christmas parties.”
“That’s true. I don’t.” He looked down, and he seemed to be grappling with his words.
Her heart was now pounding. Waiting. Wondering. Tormenting her. Perhaps it was just because he was near, but her entire being clamored for so much more than a generous act of support.
When his lengthy pause got the better of her, she blurted, “Since you’re here, I have a gift for you.” That grabbed his attention. Heat entered his eyes. It made her insides flutter.
“Oh? I liked your last gift very much.”
“This one isn’t like that. Though, I believe you will like this one too. I was going to have the gift delivered to you. Two months before I met you, Aunt Charlotte’s dog, Sable, gave birth to a litter of three pups. They’ve become quite a handful, the four of them. I would very much like you to have one. And by one, I mean two.”
He laughed.
“So, will you take them? One puppy is bonded to his mother. The other two are inseparable. They must stay together. Both female.”
He took her hands in his. “Ella, I couldn’t take the dogs unless…”
“Unless?”
“Unless I could give them a duchess. I would like, no, I would be honored if you would be my duchess.”
Her breath was knocked out of her lungs in a sharp gasp. “You’re asking me to marry you?”
“Yes, that’s what I mea—”
She ripped her hands out of his, flung her arms around his neck, and began to rain kisses on his face. “Yes! Yes! Did I say yes?”
Laughing, he captured her face between his palms. “I want you to pursue whatever vocation your brilliant mind wishes. I want you as my wife…with garlands and red bows at Christmas. I want you to be my great love, and I yours. It took your leaving for me to see how empty my home and life are without you. Ella…I love you…” He gave her a long, lush kiss, sealing those words against her lips.
The first snow of Christmas Day began to fall.