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“Before you leave, give my footman the name of the inn where you are staying.”
“Why?”
“So I can send your ship passage there.” Will started toward the doorway. He turned at the last minute and looked at her again. “Good-bye, Abigail.”
Chapter 25
Will had never felt so relieved as when the door shut behind Abigail. He waited in the back hallway to make certain she left. She was gone. The woman he once thought he loved had come to him, defying her father, and he’d rejected her. When he thought about it like that, he felt a twinge of guilt. But something did not seem right about Abigail’s sudden arrival.
It just wasn’t like Abigail to do something quite so rash. There had to be a better reason for why she could not marry him earlier. Not that it mattered any longer. The most important thing was to speak with Elizabeth.
They had a wedding to plan and a baby to think about now. He walked up the steps and down the hall to her room. He knocked softly on her bedroom door, waiting for a reply.
“Go away, Will.”
“We need to talk, Elizabeth,” he replied to the door.
“No, I cannot talk right now. I need some time to think.”
Think? “About what?” He tried the knob but found it locked. She had locked him out.
“Us.”
He barely heard her whispered reply. “Elizabeth, let me in now.”
“No.”
“Very well, I shall be in my study.” Will strode to his study and then stood in the room. It seemed very empty today with Ellie and Lucy making calls to some of their new friends and the boys off riding in the park. The only other person left was Sarah. And she was probably upstairs with her governess learning her letters.
He didn’t like it when the house was this quiet. Especially when Elizabeth was home and probably crying in her room. He wanted to go to her again. Make her understand that everything would be all right. They would marry and love each other. They would not behave like her parents.
Will believed in love and marriage. After watching his father attempting to recover from his mother’s death, there was never a doubt in Will’s mind how much his father loved her. And if it hadn’t been for Betsy, his stepmother, his father might have lost his mind. She was the person who helped him through his grief. She taught him to love again.
And Will was certain he loved Elizabeth in the same manner. He never wanted to see her hurt and as pained as she was now. If she would just let him explain. She might not even know that Abigail was gone for good.
He was done waiting for Elizabeth to talk with him. He walked back up the steps again, determined to speak with her this time. Pounding on her bedroom door, he said, “Elizabeth, let me in now. We need to talk.”
“Yes, we do,” she said from behind the closed door. “But not here. I will be downstairs presently.”
“Very well.”
Elizabeth stared at the door to her bedroom and then to the valise she had packed. After spending the past hour reflecting upon her actions, she was certain there was only one outcome. Once she told him everything, he would want her to leave. She expected it.
She inhaled sharply, trying to ignore the pain in her heart. As she walked down the steps, she looked at the house that had been her home for twenty-six years. She’d always loved this house more than the estates. It was smaller and more intimate.
Her heels clicked softly on the marble floor as she walked to his study. Every step brought her closer to him, and closer to leaving. She could do this, she told herself. The time spent in her room had been an attempt to gain her confidence and tell him the truth. The awful truth. The sordid truth. At least once she left, he could dedicate the rest of the Season to finding a wife worthy of being the next duchess.
She knocked on the door and then entered quietly. He stood near the window looking out until he heard her cross the threshold.
“Elizabeth,” he whispered.
The look of love in his eyes almost forced her to retreat. Once she told him what she’d done, he would hate her for it. Almost as much as she hated herself.
“Will, sit down so we can talk.”
“Of course.” Will sat down in the chair closest to the fireplace. “Come sit close to me.”
“No. I need to stand.” Elizabeth closed her eyes for a moment, and then blinked them open. “Will, I am not with child. At least not that I know of.”
