And then he read it a second time.
And then a third.
Because nothing he was reading made sense. His mind could not comprehend what she was saying. Could not come to terms with what the words on the page seemed to say.
He stared at it for a long time before he called for Miss Jenkins. And while he waited, he read Diana’s letter yet again.
Matthew,
We may have come together under less-than-ideal terms, and I know that I was not your first choice for a wife. But I had hoped that, over the last few weeks, things had changed between us.
I see now that I was mistaken. That I could never be what you want me to be. If you desire for me to be gone, then I will not force my presence upon you.
I only want you to be happy, and I will do anything to make that happen. I love you, and I believe that I always shall, and it is only that love that allows me to say goodbye to you, knowing that it is for you that I do so.
Goodbye, Matthew, and I am sorry that I could not make you happy.
Chapter Seventeen
It took a moment, once Diana had sat up, to remember everything that had happened just yesterday.Wasit only yesterday?
Yesterday that everything had seemed so perfect and that they had seemed to be on a path to such a beautiful life together?
Matthew cared for her, wanted to make her happy. And they had just purchased the most perfect house, and then…
But it would be all right.
He had surely returned home last night after she had gone to bed. She would be able to see him this morning and put everything to rights.
With that assurance, she rang for Margaret, taking extra care in her preparations and then rushing downstairs for breakfast.
But Matthew was not there. And she was informed that he had not returned the night before and they did not know when he would return.
Furthermore, no one seemed to know where he actually was, and she worried that something may have happened to him. At least, until she received a visitor.
“Your Grace.” The man bowed low as he entered the room, and it took her a moment to remember just who he was. Mathew’s uncle. The one she had met only once before; at the one party they had thrown here. The one who had seemed quite angry at the sight of her.
But there was none of that in the way he looked at her now.
“My Lord.” She bobbed a slight curtsey, remembering that Matthew held his uncle in very high esteem, though he had seemed quite cold to her when they first met.
“How do you fare, Your Grace?” he asked.
Diana was startled by the question, and even more by the kindness in his expression and his voice when he asked it.
“I am well, My Lord,” she replied politely.
“You need not stand on ceremony with me,” he replied. “Matthew has been at my house since last night, and I know well what has happened between you.”
His voice was still sad, gentle, but all she heard was that Matthew was at his house. Which meant that Matthew was safe.
“He is at your home? He is well, then? Surely, he intends to return home soon.”
She perched nearly at the edge of her chair, anxiously glancing behind the Marquess as though Mathew might arrive at any moment.
“I am afraid, Your Grace, that he will not be returning until he can be assured that you have left.”
“He… What?” She stared at the man before her. This stranger that she had never truly been introduced to, but who was now standing before her, bringing news that she could not understand.
