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Elise’s chest tightened until it seemed her heart might shatter. Her father’s counsel had been a raw and personal account of the torment he’d suffered during a marriage of terrifying loneliness.
As Elise dipped her head, employing her fingertips to dash away tears, Walter reached for the bell on the edge of his desk and gave it a shake. ‘Let’s see what the fellow has to say for himself.’ Walter returned the brass implement to rest on wood. ‘Seducing a damsel comes at a price and I’d like to hear from his own lips that he’s prepared to pay it. After that it is up to the two of you what ensues.’ Walter clutched the chair arms and leaned forwards, an intense expression shaping his withered features. ‘But if you decline him, then discover you need the protection of his name, after all, because you are with child, and he attempts to wriggle free, viscount or no, I’ll hound him till the day I die with every breath I draw.’
‘He did not seduce me, Papa. I swear he didn’t...he did nothing wrong at all...’ Elise darted forwards to ease her father back in his chair as his agitation increased.
Walter allowed his daughter to settle him, drawing two deep breaths. A moment later he opened his eyes and hiked a grey eyebrow at her. ‘Nothing wrong at all...?’
Her father’s scepticism indicated he’d spotted the blush heating her cheeks, so Elise rattled off, ‘He kissed me...that’s all...’
‘Indeed...did he now...the prelude to seduction, as I recall,’ Walter remarked exceedingly drily.
Her next attempt to champion Alex was held on the tip of her tongue as Betty Francis appeared on the threshold.
‘Would you ask Lord Blackthorne to join us please, Mrs Francis?’
The woman obeyed with a bob, slanting an encouraging glance from under her eyebrows at Elise as she backed out of the study.
‘Lord Blackthorne is innocent of wrongdoing, Papa,’ Elise stressed quietly as she moved towards her father to sink on to her knees by his chair. She didn’t want Alex to enter to a barrage of unjust accusations.
Walter gazed into his daughter’s soulful amber eyes. ‘So you have said.’ He plucked up one of her hands, cradling it between dry palms before holding it on his knee. ‘You seem mightily keen, my dear, to protect this fellow you do not love or want to marry.’
‘He is a good man.’
‘And how did you and this good man come to be spotted alone together at Vauxhall, in a dark walkway?’ He picked up the letter from Dolly reposing by the bell on his desk. ‘I expect my sister exaggerates the matter, but naturally she is most concerned about repercussions for everybody, including herself.’
Elise massaged her throbbing forehead with a thumb and four quivering fingers. She didn’t want to get her sister into trouble. Neither did she want to lie. ‘On the evening we visited Vauxhall I lost sight of Beatrice when we were by the stage listening to the music,’ she started in a voice so husky it was virtually inaudible. ‘I panicked and thought she might have got lost and be unable to locate us all in the throng, so went to look for her.’
‘Why did you not seek help from Anthony Chapman? I’m sure he would have scouted for her, had you explained,’ Walter argued.
‘I didn’t want to worry anybody else or spoil their enjoyment. We were all having a nice time. It seemed...not the right thing to do.’
‘And the viscount? Was he helping you to look for your sister?’
‘Not exactly, Papa,’ Elise murmured. ‘But he, too, was on a mission to find somebody and we met by chance. It was not arranged between us...but we were seen together.’ She abruptly bowed her head, causing a thick wave of honey-blonde hair to curtain her pink cheek. ‘The vile man who has spread this gossip is Lord Blackthorne’s enemy. James Whittiker tried to extort money from the viscount in return for keeping quiet.’ She snapped up her face, revealing eyes alive with anger. ‘Alex refused to be blackmailed, but we know now the villain was not bluffing. He has gone ahead and done his worst from greed and spite.’ Her impassioned words died away, but fury was still evident in the small fingers forming fists in her lap.
‘James Whittiker, eh?’ Walter nodded slowly. ‘Well, I know in describing him you do not malign his character. I remember that young pup at the age of about eighteen. He was remarkably snide and bumptious even then—’
Walter broke off on hearing the knock on the door. He immediately gave the call to enter.
Elise stood up slowly, smoothing crumples from her skirt and fidgeting tresses behind her ears, as Alex entered, closing the door behind him. Her heartbeat quickened as he turned and took that first look at her. He appeared tired, she realised with a pang that made her want to rush to comfort him. He had travelled for hours to see her and ask her to marry him. He’d also graciously offered to repay her father’s debts...debts that he’d no legal obligation to settle. For his pains he had received a cup of tea and vilification. Elise tried to signal with her beautifully expressive eyes that she was sorry, that she still needed his assistance in finding a solution to the woeful predicament in which they found themselves.
