Just as Evie had given up hope that Leo was coming for her, the door slammed open, and Dylan strode in, surrounded by masked gentlemen.
The other guests gasped, some screaming, and had Evie not known Dylan then she might have done the same. As he came in, his group in tow, she joined the other guests and waited, unsure of what he planned to do.
“Leave at once!” the butler shouted, following them, but the gentlemen did not even acknowledge his presence.
“Why are you here?” the earl roared, thundering towards him. “I have already sent you away once!”
“I wouldn’t come too close if I were you,” Dylan smirked. “You might not be aware of this, but you have also sent away all of these gentlemen, and I am quite sure that they have thoughts on the matter.”
“It was a necessary precaution.”
“It was an affront to high society!” Dylan said loudly. “For a man so eager to enter into society, one might think you would be more accommodating to the ton that you are so eager to impress.”
The earl did not seem to know where to go. He could not, in all good faith, leave his own ball, but as Evie looked around, she could not see her aunt or her cousin. Imogen was seemingly continuing to distract her mother, but her father had returned, and he was furious.
Unfortunately for him, he did not seem to know what to do with all of his anger. It only became worse when, at last, Leo entered with two gentlemen that Evie vaguely recognized.
“Good evening, everyone,” Leo said firmly, standing at his brother’s side. “I apologize for ruining the festivities, but I have an announcement to make, and it could not wait a moment longer.”
At that moment, the earl truly seemed to struggle with what to do.
“Now is not the time for this,” he said.
“I disagree. I believe that now is the perfect time. Everyone here deserves to know of your deceit.”
None of the guests were leaving, no matter how much the earl clearly wanted them to. They all stood in groups, watching as the duke and the earl argued.
“You might all be wondering,” Leo continued, “who these two gentlemen are. This man to the left of me is Mister Eldridge, and the man to the right is Mister Walker. You might recognize that last name because a certain rumor has been circling about him.”
Evie watched her uncle continue to squirm.
“There have been claims of illegal activity in his place of work, and illegitimate children, but I am here to give you the undeniable proof that it is all false.”
“How can one prove the non-existence of a child?” Dylan asked in an overly dramatic tone.
“One can ask the man at the root of all of the rumors. Now, if I am not mistaken, I believe that to be none other than the Earl of Bedford.”
All eyes were on the earl, and his eyes were anywhere but on the duke. Evie did not know what to do; she wanted to run towards the duke and embrace him in front of all of the onlookers, but she also wanted to run away from the impending nastiness.
There was an ease about the duke, a confidence that she knew he had but she had never seen in action, and it was thrilling. Everyone was in awe of what he had to say, and much of that was the scandal of it all, but a rather large part was also how interesting he was to listen to.
“Have you nothing to say, Lord Cottrel?”
The earl shook his head.
“Very well,” Leo continued. “Now that that matter is settled, might we all leave Mister Walker and his sons be?”
The other guests knew exactly who he was, and not one of them dared to speak against a duke. Mister Walker would be able to return to society, she was sure of it.
“Now you might be wondering how I knew it was the earl,” Leo continued.
“For why on Earth would such an upstanding citizen make vicious rumors about a gentleman that he didn’t do business with? Why would anyone be so vindictive to someone when it would have no positive effect on themselves? Well, I am here to reveal to you that he has been a very dishonest man, holding a girl captive against her will, and needed to scare away anyone that might discover the truth and come to rescue her.”
“That is untrue!” Aunt Josephine screamed, storming into the room. “My apologies for this intrusion, but this man has been terrorizing my family for a while now. We have tried to keep the situation secret, so as not to ruin him, but I suppose we cannot wait any longer.”
“Then might you know how to explain away the girl you have captive here? Because I certainly can.”
“One of our maids is here with us in order to pay off some debts her father accrued with us. She is here of her own free will, and she could have left anytime.”
“And your maid has a name, doesn’t she? I shall answer that for you, of course. Her name is none other than Genevieve Cottrel, your niece.”
There were gasps around the room from members of the ton who knew precisely who she was. She did not know where they had all thought she had been, but it was clear to her that not one of them knew that she was standing there with them.
“He had debts,” Josephine hissed. “We were keeping it hidden for her sake. Now you have told everyone of her father’s deception.”
“Except that he didn’t have debts, and in actuality, he had a vast fortune. Though the title, by law, had to pass to his brother, the new earl, as did the house, he was able to make one request to the gentleman who was involved with his will. That is, the chief amount of the fortune and the items in the house were left to his one and only child, Genevieve.”
Evie’s heart stopped; she was certain of it. It had been so long since she had heard her real name that it only added to the surrealness of her situation. It felt as though she were dreaming and would awaken at any moment to the cruel reminder that she was nothing but a maid, but the moment never came. She was still in the ballroom, and the accusation remained.
She had been given her father’s fortune, and her aunt and uncle had stolen every penny of it from her.
“My word,” Josephine said quietly after a moment. “I did not know.”
“To be sure.” Leo nodded. “Which is why you lied to her and forced her to be your servant all this time. Instead of mourning the loss of her dear father, she was subjected to vicious slander of his name and forced to work in the household she had spent her life in. How could you live with yourself?”
“I did not know that it was a lie!” Josephine exclaimed. “If it is the truth, then that means that my husband has been lying to myself and our daughter for years. I am every bit as wronged as my dear niece.”
Evie did not believe it, not for a second, but suddenly her uncle ran out of the room. He left through the front door, and at last she decided that she needed answers more than anything. She pulled off her mask and ran after him, along with several onlookers that wished to know more.
“Evie?” Josephine asked her, but Evie did not turn back.
Everyone broke out into the garden, and her uncle was surrounded. There was nowhere for him to go, leaving him no choice but to face the consequences of what he had done.
“Tell the truth,” Leo demanded. “Tell it now, and give your niece what is rightfully hers.”
“Perhaps the debts came later?” Josephine suggested as she must have realized that she had accused her husband of everything in her attempt to clear her name. “Perhaps we simply received them ourselves with no mention of them being made to anyone else?”
“That is not possible,” Mister Walker responded loudly from the sidelines. “Had there been any debts, the debtors would have come to me first to make a claim on the estate before probate could be completed.”
Evie wished she had been to school in the way he had, so that she could understand what was being said, but she understood it overall.
“There were no such complaints,” Mister Walker continued. “Therefore, they could not have existed. You received your estates without contest and threatened others into hiding so that you could steal the rest of them.”
“It was not stolen. It was what I deserved!”
The group fell silent, and all eyes turned to Josephine, who had her hand clamped over her mouth.
At last, there was her answer. She had known that her aunt hated her, but she had always hoped that there had been a reason for it, even if it was simply that she had spoken to her disrespectfully once or twice by mistake and her aunt had never forgiven her for it, but it appeared that it truly was simply that she saw herself as deserving of it.
“Please explain to us all why you thought you deserved it more than a girl who had just lost her father,” Dylan prompted.
“You can say that she needed it because she had lost her father. We needed the money too if we were to ever be a truly affluent earl and countess.”
It appeared not to be a good enough excuse, as the gasps from the crowd became jeers. Their attempts to be well-liked seemed to be in vain.
“Return the money to her, Father,” Imogen said suddenly, appearing at her father’s side. “It is the right thing to do, not to mention the only way that you shall ever be able to right your wrongs in their eyes.”
Evie looked at her uncle, the man she had always believed had liked her, though not as much as his wife and daughter, and almost felt sympathy. She knew that he had only been doing his wife’s bidding. It was all that he had ever done.
“Perhaps it would be for the best…” He sighed.
“Do not give way, my lord,” Josephine whined. “You cannot do this. It would be cruel to your own family, your wife, and your daughter, to do so. We are supposed to matter to you more than anything else, and I remember a time when you truly behaved as though we did.”
“Dearest, I—”
“No. There shall be none of that. Either you hand the money back to that wretch and prove that you do not care about the lady you married and the little girl you raised, or you do the right thing and stand by us. The choice is yours, but know that I thought more highly of you.”
“Of course I do—you know that I do. Josephine, I love the two of you more than anything.”
“Then prove it,” she ordered.
“That will not be necessary,” Leo said suddenly, striding forward. “I would like to believe, my lord, that you are not a complete fool, but seeing how easily you bow down to your wife makes me realize that you will gladly do even illegal things if it means making her happy. Therefore, you leave me no choice. You shall give Lady Genevieve every penny back, or I shall pay for the best lawyers one can have personally, and what with affording lawyers of your own and the inevitable loss that you would face, it would cost you even more. I leave the decision at your feet.”
“Then it is not a choice, is it?”
“We all make choices, my lord. Some of us simply make bad ones.”
“She can have it all back!” he snapped. “You have my word. You can even watch me hand the blasted things over to her yourself, if you wish.”
It was not the nicest way to hear that she would receive a small fortune, but Evie did not care. With it came the one thing she had been yearning for: her freedom. She would no longer be a maid, and she could do anything she desired.
“You will leave this household,” Josephine almost growled. “You can take your money, but this household is mine and mine alone, and after your betrayal, you will never see it again.”
“Very well,” Leo replied gently, “she can stay with me for as long as she wishes to.”
“The scandal! A young and unmarried lady living with an unmarried marquess that is of no relation to her.”
There were hushed laughs amongst the crowd, but Leo silenced them before Josephine worked out that she had said something wrong.
“In which case, we ought to not be unmarried,” Leo said with a wicked grin before running over to Evie.
“Evie—or I suppose that I should call you Lady Genevieve, will you marry me?”
It was not the romantic proposal that she had been dreaming of, but she wouldn’t have changed it for the world. She loved him more than anything in the world, and at last, he had asked her to be his.
“Nothing would make me happier, Your Grace!”
“Your Grace?” Josephine echoed. “He is not a duke, you foolish girl!”
But this time, through the laughter that erupted, Josephine realized her mistake.
“Yes, Lady Cottrel,” Leo explained with a smile. “You were so busy trying to match your daughter with a marquess that you did not even think to learn who was who. I am the Due of Alnwick, and your niece is to be my duchess. What a beautiful occasion, is it not?”
Her aunt was practically purple, and this time, her uncle did not say anything at all. Evie knew that he wanted to comfort her, but there was nothing that he could say or do to fix what was done, not in the eyes of those in attendance, at least. It was their mess, and as she no longer was a part of the household it was not for Evie to fix.
There was applause at the triumph, and Evie wondered if they expected it all to have been an act, as some part of the entertainment for the evening, but of course, it was not. It was her real life, and she was truly no longer a servant, but a young lady that was to be a duchess, and only two people there were unhappy about it. Imogen smiled at her from the sidelines, and Evie smiled back before turning to Leo.
“I love you, Evie.”
Her heart pounded in her chest. At last, there were those words that she had been longing to hear, and with how steadily he gazed into her eyes, she knew that he had meant every word. For a moment, she said nothing, for no words came to her. All that she could do was smile until, at last, the heat in her cheeks died down, and she remembered how to speak.
“You shall never know how long I have wanted to hear that.”