“She will need that comfort,” Mary added, lifting her head. “When she learns that she is nothing but a means to an end, she will need every comfort she can get, and I am only sorry that I have put myself in a position where I will not be able to help her.”
“That is enough,” Philip said coolly.
For someone who claimed they harbored no anger or bitterness, her words said otherwise. Not the tone, which was mild and oddly pleasant, but the sentiment.
“It is not,” she countered defiantly. “I have come to like her, Your Grace, so I feel it is my true last duty to ensure that she doesn’t end up with her heart broken.”
Zachary cleared his throat. “I hardly think this is the time or the place to?—”
“I am leaving tomorrow,” Mary interrupted. “It is now or never, and I respect Lady Selina. She has a right to know that she is nothing but your revenge, Your Grace.”
“That is presumptuous of you,” Philip said, treading carefully.
He had heard of servants reacting badly, even dangerously, to an unexpected dismissal. He had been told by acquaintances of a cook who hurled pots and pans around the kitchen, maids who had raised hell, a housekeeper who had dragged a blade through every curtain she passed, and a gardener who had lopped the top off all of the topiaries in a fit of blind rage.
“Is it?” Mary tilted her head to the side. “Would your father approve of Lady Selina?”
Philip laughed tightly. “Heavens, no.”
“What would he do if he were here?”
“He would try to kill me, probably,” Philip replied with a shrug. “Or her. He would have preferred to burn this entire manor down with everyone in it than see me marry her, of all people.”
Of course, he could see what she was getting at, but she had not been there as feelings had begun to blossom between him and Selina. He could not see into his chest and witness the thaw that Selina had started in his frozen heart.
“That can’t mean nothing to you,” Mary said. “That must feel satisfying.”
Philip sighed. “It is not without its merits.” He leveled a hard stare at her. “But I have come to care for her. That matters more to me than any petty revenge on a dead man.”
Surely, that would be enough to silence her?
“Say that I believe you,” Mary replied. “How can you possibly care for her as she deserves when you don’t plan to give her any children?Thatwill be a heartbreak all its own.”
“That is enough,” Philip repeated, harsher this time.
But Mary shook her head. “Is it not the truth? When we were together, you took great care to avoid getting me with child, and I know it was the same with all the women before me. The battlefield comforts.”
Her smile was a cold thing as she continued, “Don’t you remember that night after you had too much of that whiskey in your hand, when you told me you wanted your father’s bloodline to end with you?”
“I told you no lies,” he confirmed icily, “but this is none of your concern. The matter of children is between me and my betrothed.”
Mary nodded slowly. “The matter ofnochildren, you mean?”
“Leave, Mary.” He shot her a glare that used to make grown men tremble. “You are done here. You should have left when I told you, but you cannot be blamed for my grandmother’s whims. That being said, if you are not out of this manor,this estate, by morning, I shall have you removed by force.”
Mary’s lips curled into a nasty smirk. “I am glad to be leaving, Your Grace, when you treat the women who care for you so despicably. But I could not have lived with myself if I hadn’t said something before I left, for Lady Selina’s sake. If you can’t give her what she will undoubtedly want, you ought to let her go find a man who can.”
She didn’t wait for his scathing rebuke. Turning on her heel, she left the study with a slam of the door.
From the opposite armchair, Zachary puffed out a breath. “Something I should know about?”
“Do you need to know any more?”
Zachary seemed to consider the question. “I suppose not.” He paused. “I didn’t realize you were… involved with one of your servants, that’s all.”
“Don’t say it like that,” Philip snapped, his patience paper-thin.
“Like what?” Zachary put up his hands in defense.
