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Fleeing them all, Helen ran from the room.
“Go away,” she told him as he followed up the stairs.
“I can’t.”
She whirled when she reached the top of the landing, trembling and gasping for air. “You leave—or I will!”
He searched her half wild gaze, and he had no doubt of her tenacity. For the moment, she meant her words. “I want to be with you.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she choked out the words. “We don’t always obtain what we want! Elijah didn’t!”
This time, when she turned, she walked slowly but surely away from him. Her bedchamber door closed, and he sank down and sat on the stairs, his head in his hands, and listened to Helen try to muffle her anguish. Tugging at his hair, he employed all of his willpower not to barge in and gather her into his arms.
He had earned her trust of late by respecting her wishes, repairing much of the damage he’d caused by demanding she serve as collateral. He couldn’t undo that now by trampling the fences she built.
“Why aren’t you with her?” asked his mother quietly from the bottom of the stairs.
The moment he saw his father standing next to his mother, Nicholas found his purpose. Though he stepped down the stairs slowly, his father had the good sense to look alert.
“Today is one of many I’m glad not to bear your name any longer. Your selfishness drove Adrian away, and now you may have cost us Helen! Leave my sight!”
His words hit their mark; his father bent as if struck. Nicholas waited fruitlessly for the sense of satisfaction to hit. His mother’s tears tugged at his breaking heart, but he walked past his parents and into the drawing room, forgetting it was occupied.
Mr. Hughes, ashen, came to stand before him. “I’ll leave for now, but Miller made arrangements with me before he left. I’ll be marrying Mrs. Gray.”
