Page 103 of One Night with an Earl

A nauseating sinking of despair settled in Ana’s stomach. She understood her employment was at an end, but still, she turned to the one person in the room who she prayed would understand, who would give her a chance to explain.

Ana’s eyes were imploring as she looked up at Oliver. “No! What she says isn’t true. I had no intention of using you. I planned to tell you everything, my lord.”

A muscle ticked at his jaw, and his dark eyebrows slammed down. “When? You had ample opportunity.”

Trapped in her own lie, she was defeated. “Today. Now. I swear!”

“Do not believe her!” Lady Malvern shouted. “Your machinations speak for themselves. You were paid as my daughter’s companion, and all along you were seducing the man intended for your charge!”

Oh God! The woman’s words—no matter how wrong and spiteful—made her look like the worst kind of person.

“Was it revenge?” Oliver’s voice, even though low, seemed to thunder through the music room. “Did you seek justice for what my father did to yours?” The initial confusion in his gaze turned to another emotion—the most heart-wrenching emotion of all—betrayal.

She shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. “No, that is even further from the truth.”

“Is it? I can only imagine how you felt returning to Rosedown after all those years, strolling the grounds, knowing it should belong to your family instead of mine. You never said a word.”

The damage from her lies seeped between them like poison. The words were stuck in her throat. “My lord, I…I—”

Lady Malvern pointed to the door. “Out! No one wants to hear more of your excuses.”

Tears burned behind her lids like shards of glass, but she refused to cry. Lady Malvern’s hatred was expected. Penelope’s acquiescence was upsetting yet understandable in the face of her mother’s wrath. But Oliver’s reaction was the worst kind of rejection. The distrust in the eyes of the man she loved was like the sharp stab of a knife to her heart.

Do not cry.

Not here. Not now.

By sheer will, she straightened her spine, raised her chin, and walked out of the room.

Queenie’s fortune telling had been right all along. Falling in love with Oliver had ruined her.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Oliver was aware of the sudden silence in the music room, utterly devastating and destroying at once. Ana had looked pale as parchment as she’d passed him on her way out, and he was more of a fool than he’d thought because he’d desperately wanted to reach for her. Instead he stood stock still, struggling to understand how his entire world had shifted on its axis.

One moment Ana was in his arms, and the next she was revealed to be Lord Woodbridge’s long-lost daughter.

Inner torment gnawed at his gut, and every muscle in his body tensed. How was it possible? He’d searched for her to right his father’s dastardly deed but had not been able to find her.

Because she’d changed her name, her very identity.

Had she known who he was when she’d first approached him at the Silver Chalice dressed in seductive scarlet? Lady Malvern had accused Ana of attempting to trap him into marriage, and the notion had caught him off guard.

Another reason was just as disturbing.

Good God, had revenge been part of her plan all along? To make the son of the man who’d stolen from her family fall for her charms, then destroy him in one damning, devastating moment?

If that was her intention, then she’d succeeded.

“My lord.” At his grandmother’s voice, his gaze dragged from the now-empty doorway to the trio of remaining women in the music room. His grandmother. Lady Malvern. Lady Penelope.

He wanted nothing to do with them. Rather, he wanted a full bottle of scotch, a glass, and the solace of his study.

But the bothersome women remained.

“I’d like to speak with my grandson alone,” the dowager said, her voice full of authority that one could only garner with age.

Thin-lipped, Lady Malvern took Penelope by the arm. “Rest assured, Miss Gardner—or whoever she really is—will be punished. No one will have that tart in their home now.” She ushered her daughter from the room.