A Family Affair (23 page)

Lady
de
Vere
nodded,
her
gratitude
visible.
“She
may
stay
as
long
as
she
wants. I’ll
let it be known among
our
acquaintance.”
W
ith
one
last
half-smile,
she
disappeared
through
the
door.

George
looked
surprised.

T
he
woman
had
managed
to
astonish
him,
and
Fanny
was
thankful
he
had
kept
quiet
during
the
short
visit. His rudeness would have ruined the meeting. Now, when the visit was done, she was glad he had decided to
stay
put,
as
she
knew
he
had
needed
to
hear
this.

They
sat
down
and
talked
quietly
about
the visit
until
Caroline
rejoined
them. When they told her about it, she was just as relieved as they had been,
and
so
was
Penelope
when
she
was
told. She did
cry
a
bit
for
her
mother
and
sister.
She
would
miss them.

Penelope
was
given
the
bedroom
next
to
Fanny’s, even though they always had shared a room during earlier overnight stays. But this time was different, and Fanny guessed her friend needed solitude more than she needed her. B
ut
it
almost
broke
her
heart
when
she
heard
Penelope
turn
the
key
in
the
lock
until
it
couldn’t
turn
anymore.

She
walked
into
her
own
bedroom,
now
cleaned
by
the
servants
and
showing
no
evidence
of
the
night’s events.
At
the
window,
she looked
down
at
the
ladder
still
standing
against
the
front
of
the
house.
She
shivered
at the
thought of
how
the
distressed
Penelope
had
climbed
it
in
pouring
rain
with
her
heart
shattered
into
thousands of
pieces.

Fanny
leaned
her
forehead
against
the
glass
of
the
window,
finding
its
coldness
soothing
for
her
pounding
head.

What
would
Devlin
think
about
this?

Would
he
be
just
as
outraged
as
she
was,
or
would
he
think
of
it
as
nothing, because
a
father’s
right
was
unbreakable?
She
realized
again how
she
knew
next
to
nothing
about
him.
Nothing
that
mattered.

The
things
she
did
know
about him were
tidbits told to her by
others.
Devlin
was
exasperatingly
secretive about his private thoughts,
and
he had up until now
told
her
only his most shallow ones.

She
was
going
to
marry
him,
and
yet
she
knew
so little
about
him.
What
if
he
turned
out
to
be
another
Lord
Nester?
She,
as
his
wife,
would
have
no
say
whatsoever.
I
t
didn’t
matter
how
much her
family
loved
her.
They
too
wouldn’t
be
able
to
do
anything
about
her
situation.

The
husband
had
all
the
power,
and
the
wife
none.

She
closed
her
eyes,
telling
herself
she
was
stupid.
He
wasn’t
like
Lord
Nester.
Deep inside her heart she
knew
it,
but
what
had
happened
to
Penelope
had
brought
doubt
to
her
mind,
and
she
couldn’t
shrug
it
off.
She
hadn’t it in her to
go
back
to
the
innocent
girl
she
had
been
at
Almack’s
last
night.

When
the
distant
sound
of
the
doorbell
was
heard
in
the
background,
she
knew
it
was
Devlin on his way
to
her
father. Her beau was there to ask her father for her
hand
in
marriage, and she knew her
father
would
agree
without
hesitation,
as
he
thought
Devlin
was
the
man
she
wanted
for
husband.

But
was
he?

Could
she
trust
her
life
and
the
lives
of
her
unborn
children
to
a
man
who
might
or
might
not
turn
into
a
beast
as
time
went
by?

When
Nell
came
to
get
her,
she
still
had
no
answers
to
the
questions
that
roamed
in
her
head.
She
couldn’t
stop wishing
she
could
send
her
maid
downstairs again,
to
tell
Devlin
she
wasn’t
feeling
well
and
ask
him
to
come
back
some
other
day.
But sending him away was no option
,
especially
as
she
had already agreed yesterday to marry him.

When
she
entered
the
library
where
Devlin
and
her
father
were
waiting
for
her,
she
felt
her
treacherous
heart
skip
a
beat
when
she
saw
him
. He was standing in front of her,
tall
and
magnificent,
his
golden
eyes
showering
her
with
his
warmth.

She
gave
him
a
wobbly
smile
and
could
have
cried
over
the
frown
that
slowly
took
away
the
lighthearted
happiness
he
had
shown
when
she
walked
through
the
door.
George
grabbed
Fanny’s
hand
and,
with
his
other
hand,
took
hold
of
her
chin,
gently
forcing
her
to
look
into
his
eyes.

“Hereford
has
asked
me
for
your
hand
in
marriage,
and
I
told
him
you
have
my
blessing,
as
long
as
you
are
willingly
giving
him
your
acceptance.”

Her father
was
offering
her
an
easy
way
out,
and
she
felt
tears
running
down
her
cheeks.
Silently,
he
wiped
them
away
before
he
kissed
her
gently
on
the
forehead
and
left
them
alone
in
the
library.