Lady Georgina surged to her feet and strode after her daughter, her eyes bright with anger and her mouth set in a grim line.
‘You are not taking that boy away!’ she called up the stairs. ‘I’ve only just found out he’s my grandson, and I will not be denied his presence in my life for one minute longer. You’ve robbed me of seven years as it is.’
‘You have no legal claim on my son,’ Imogen pointed out evenly, ‘nor any responsibility for his care or well-being – or mine. Goodbye, Mother.’ And she turned from her position halfway up the stairs to march back up to her room.
‘Ladies, ladies – what on earth’s going on out here?’
Holly, along with the others standing uncertainly in the entrance hall, looked up to see a man in a track suit join Imogen at the top of the stairs – it was her visitor from London, Oliver Slade.
Although he wore an amiable expression, she saw the wariness in his eyes as he glanced from Lady de Byrne to her daughter.
‘It’s none of your concern, Ollie,’ Imogen said, and moved to brush past him.
He caught her arm. ‘I couldn’t help but overhear. All this bloody shouting,’ he pointed out, and smiled apologetically down at Lady de Byrne. ‘I’m just on my way out for a run and wondered what all the fuss was about.’
‘Stay out of it,’ Imogen snapped, and pulled free of his arm. ‘I told you, it’s none of your business.’
But he wouldn’t be deterred. ‘If it’s about the kid… let him stay, Immy. Why d’you want to drag him off somewhere, away from his gram, and his family? Besides,’ he added, and his expression hardened, ‘Simon’s thrown you out. You told me so yourself. Where will you go? What’ll you do?’
‘I’ll figure it out.’
‘Leave Billy here while you do,’ Oliver said. ‘Don’t put the kid through any more than you already have. Go if you have to, but leave him with his grandmother.’
‘Why do you care what I do?’ she challenged him. ‘This has nothing to do with you. Nothing.’
His expression hardened. ‘Maybe not. But when I was a kid I was dragged from one crap bedsit to another until I was thirteen, and I know firsthand that starting over in a new place stinks. Don’t do that to Billy. Give him a bit of stability, at least.’ He paused. ‘Please.’
‘Please,’ Lady Georgina echoed. She cast him a brief but grateful glance.
For one, tense moment, Holly and Hugh and his family waited, all of them watching Imogen as they waited for her answer.
‘Very well,’ she said abruptly, and looked first at Oliver, then at her mother. ‘I’ll leave him here until I can arrange something else. I’ll send for him later.’
Her mother let out a breath of profound relief. ‘That’s very sensible,’ she agreed. ‘Billy can stay at Rosings with me for as long as he likes – until you can make other arrangements. I’ll see that the room next to yours is made up for him at once.’
‘Thank you.’ She turned away.
‘Imogen, wait.’ Lady Georgina hesitated. ‘I wish you would stay as well. You can view properties and deal with letting agents as easily here as elsewhere, and remain with your son in comfort at the same time.’
Imogen didn’t answer, but descended the stairs and came to stand before Lady de Byrne. ‘All right, Mother. You’ll get your wish – we’ll stay, for now. But I’m making no promises, and I will be looking to move elsewhere at the earliest opportunity. Now, if you’ll excuse me…’ she nodded curtly at everyone. ‘I’ll just go and tell Billy that we’re staying.’
***
‘What do you make of it all?’ Holly asked Hugh as they returned to Cleremont that evening and made their way upstairs. ‘I can’t imagine having a child and keeping it from my mum. I can’t keep anything from her.’
‘That’s because the two of you have a close relationship,’ he pointed out. ‘Not everyone’s so lucky.’
‘No, I suppose not.’ She hesitated as they arrived at his bedroom door. ‘What was your mum like, Hugh, growing up? Was she – well, you know – was she very motherly?’
He considered. ‘She had her moments. But no, like Lady de Byrne, my mother busied herself with committees and church rotas and the rigorous demands of keeping Cleremont running smoothly. Harry and I were sent away to school, and so we didn’t see much of her, growing up. But we neither of us felt unloved. We understood that that’s how it had to be.’
‘Poor darling,’ she said, and leaned forward to kiss him. ‘I have an image of you as a little boy, standing by the front door with a suitcase at your feet and a teddy bear in your arms, waiting to be shipped off to school.’
He smiled. ‘No teddy bear. God, I’d have been laughed out of school for that.’
‘No doubt.’
‘Well… goodnight, Holly.’ He kissed her again, and turned to go.
‘Hugh… wait.’ She caught his hand and regarded him uncertainly. ‘I miss you. We’ve scarcely had a moment alone since we got here. Do you think that we might…?’ She blushed, and lowered her voice. ‘Spend the night together?’
He hesitated. ‘You know how much I’d like to, Holly, truly, but…’ He stopped as his mother and father came up the stairs, the low murmur of their voices preceding them. ‘But I don’t think it’s a good idea at present.’
And so saying, he brushed his lips against hers and went in his room, and gently shut the door.
***
Holly passed Lord and Lady Darcy in the hallway and managed a nod and a polite goodnight, then returned to her room. As she shut the door and turned the lock, her humiliation warred with anger. She couldn’t believe Hugh had turned her down.
You know how much I’d like that, Holly. But I don’t think it’s a good idea at present.
Then when, she wondered as she flung off her clothes and stalked, scowling, into the adjoining bathroom, did he imagine it would be a good idea to get together? Tomorrow? Next week? Next bloody year?
He’d made the prospect of spending the night together sound as dry and perfunctory as – as brokering a business arrangement.
She turned the shower on to full strength. Was he really so inhibited by his parents’ presence? Granted, Lady Darcy could be pretty intimidating, and her husband as well; but Hugh was hardly a teenager. He was a grown man.
Her hand froze on the taps as an unwelcome idea occurred to her. Did Hugh, perhaps, simply not want to be with her, now – or ever? Did he put her off because he was uncomfortable having sex with his fiancée under his parents’ roof…
…or, despite his denials, did he put her off because his heart belonged to someone else?
And was that ‘someone else’ Jacinta Harlowe? Or, more worrisome still… was it Elizabeth Bennet?
Why hadn’t Hugh told her about his engagement to Jacinta? Why didn’t her future husband trust her enough to confide in her?
She didn’t know. But as she stepped into the shower and reached for a bar of soap, Holly began to cry, and her tears mingled with the water sluicing down her face as she wondered if her upcoming marriage to Hugh Darcy wasn’t, perhaps, a very great mistake.