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Ariadne tried to swallow the bittering humiliation. “He is—” she began but then drifted off. What was Edward to her? He hadn’t promised her anything except love.
“Lord Whitely and she are friends, my Lord,” Leda said when Ariadne didn’t speak. “I wouldn’t imagine his father doing something like this to us.”
“Better believe it, girl,” Mrs. Tula said, sneering at Leda. “I’m not a liar.” Did that mean that Edward’s father knew about the threatening letters too? They had started to arrive after she had met him. The timing couldn’t be a coincidence—
“I don’t have time enough to dawdle here the entire day,” the constable said, at his patience’s end. He tried to reach for Ariadne again, presumably to drag her away to prison, but Lord Brexley shook his head. “Leave the girl alone.” He put his hand inside his waist coat’s pocket and took out a small bag which he handed to the constable. The constable looked down at the bag greedily.
“Aren’t you going to do anything about the girl?” Mrs. Tula cried. “I told you. She has been an utter nuisance to me. Take her away.”
But this time the constable paid her no mind. He stared at the bag of coins that Lord Brexley dangled at him. “Leave the girl alone,” he said. “The bag and all the coins inside will be yours.”
“Yes, my Lord,” the constable replied. He took off down the street just as soon as the bag was deposited on his palm. Mrs. Tula ran after him. “Come back, you haven’t solved my problem yet.”
Ariadne felt numb. She didn’t know what to say or do. She looked up at the studio building which stood only a few feet away but now she was forbidden to go inside. Her world had come crashing down around her in a single instant.
“Ariadne,” Leda said, softly nudging her sister.
“Ariadne,” Lord Brexley said, clearing his throat. “I know this is hard to process. The Duke has taken the studio that belonged to you by trickery. But I can get it back.”
“How?” Ariadne asked, turning her gaze to him. Her eyes were drawn to the scar running across his cheek that severed his profile further in the afternoon sun. Ariadne’s body pooled with sweat but it was as if she was stuck to the ground, unable to move.
Just then, Emma rushed inside, worry written all over her face. “Are you all right, my dear?” The older woman slung an arm around her shoulder and started toward home. Could she even call that her home anymore? How long before another constable came knocking on their door and managed to throw them out on the streets?
“Come live with me and my family. Under my care and roof, I can give you the protection you now desperately need. I told you, there is no expiration date to my offer, but now I must insist for you and your sister’s well-being,” Lord Brexley said.
When Ariadne didn’t speak, Emma did. “He’s right, Ariadne. You must leave your pride aside and let him help us. He’s the only one who can.”
Leda bit her lip worriedly before nodding. Ariadne watched Lord Brexley turn to her sister and keep a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I’ll take care of you.” Ariadne faintly watched him, but she had bigger concerns. She needed answers and there was only one person who would give her the absolute truth.
Ariadne broke away from Emma. “I have to go,” she said. Something about this didn’t feel right to her. There was something amiss.
“Where are you going?” Leda asked, but Ariadne didn’t answer. She ran down the street. The cold wind made her eyes sting, but she didn’t stop running until she got to Grosvenor Square. It took her some time to locate Edward’s address, as she wasn’t familiar with it. She asked a few people on the street who managed to show her to the doors of the Duke of Bromswell.
She panted as she finally stood at the gates of his home. The bustle of the road at her back almost dimmed as she stepped forward. She was about to knock on the door when she was stopped by a well-dressed servant in a butler’s uniform.
“Who are you and what do you seek here?” he asked, frowning at her clothes. “Servants aren’t allowed by this entrance.”
Shame welled up inside her but she was determined and pulled herself to her greatest height. “I’m not a servant. I need to see Ed—Lord Whitely immediately. It is a matter of urgent concern and I must speak to him.”
The butler frowned at her. “The young master isn’t at home.”
Ariadne was persistent. “Where do you think I might find him?” Edward was the only person who could fix everything.
“He’s supposed to have luncheon with his future in-laws today,” the butler said. Ariadne recoiled back at his words. “His in-laws?”
“Indeed. The Marquess himself requested to see Viscount Bynthrope and his family today. He’s engaged to their older daughter, Lady Jane,” the butler explained.
Jane. The name echoed in her mind until Ariadne realized where she had heard it. The girl at Lord Brexley’s ball, the one who had come to seek Edward out. Her stomach sank and twisted painfully. He had been with his betrothed when she had happened upon him and then in the garden…her mind spun and she felt dizzy.
“Are you all right?” the butler asked looking at her with some concern. Ariadne held one hand out. She felt sick to her very core. He had almost taken her in the garden and she had let him, he had told her he loved her and she had said it back. He had lied to her to get whatever it is that he wanted from her. He had used her as a plaything and never once uttered the truth of his engagement to her. He had let his father take away her home and the studio—the one thing she could call her own.
She means nothing to me. Lies, all lies. The truth was thatshedidn’t mean anything to him. Despair was replaced by red-hot anger. She wanted to sink on the floor and cry about her loss. But what loss? Edward had never belonged to her in the first place.
