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Chapter Twenty-Six
Hermione reached out and clung onto her father’s arm, needing to hear his next words.
“Father, tell me what you are thinking; I beg of you?” Despite her plea, he didn’t answer. He cast a gaze back toward the Duchess’ door then wrenched his arm out of Hermione’s grasp and walked away.
Hermione followed. His words had put fear into her heart, and she couldn’t let it go. As he hurried up the staircase through the middle of the house, she followed, trailing behind him.
“Father? Father!” she called frantically to him, needing to keep him back to talk to her. He still refused to listen. She had to follow him all the way up the stairs and through the corridors, until he reached Cordelia’s room where he knocked heartily. It was opened within seconds.
“Oh, what are you two doing here? How did it go with the Duchess– oh!” Cordelia gasped in surprise as Rufus pushed his way through her door and into her chamber. Hermione hurried in after him, being careful to close the door behind them so no one could hear them. “From your countenance, My Lord, I fear I know what the Duchess’ answer was.”
“She refused. Outright!” Rufus said loudly as he gestured with his arms. “She barely gave an explanation for it.”
“That is not quite true,” Hermione said, turning her eyes to Cordelia who looked back to her. “The Duchess said that all investments were gambles, and she couldn’t allow a loan to go to a gamble. She might never get her money back.”
“An investment?” Cordelia asked as though surprised by the words. As Hermione frowned at the reaction, Cordelia’s expression changed. “Oh yes, of course, the investment.” She turned her body toward Rufus. “Well, perhaps there is another way we can get the money.”
“I will have to work quickly,” Rufus said, striding up and down the chamber. “If the Duchess cannot be persuaded to give us the money, then she must be forced to.”
“Forced?”Cordelia repeated in horror.
“Father, please,” Hermione crossed the room toward him, blocking him off in the middle of the space. “If there is any of the father I used to know still inside of you, then let me talk to him now.”
He appeared so startled by her words that he stood straight, and his eyes widened.
“The man I knew when I was young would never utter such words. What has happened to you? You used to be kind, reasonable at the very least. What has changed to urge you to make such threats against another woman?” Hermione asked, reaching out for him. She took his hand and entwined their fingers together. With the way he was looking at her, for one brief minute, she thought that he was truly listening to her.
“Money, Hermione,” her father said, his voice so quiet it was barely above a whisper. “Living without it takes its toll on the best of us.”
“Then forget about money,” she pleaded with him. “Is it not possible to be happy without it?”
“It is not possible,” he said, his voice so stern that she released his hand and stepped back away from him. “I know what we can do…” He looked alight with an idea, abruptly animated. Hermione backed off, knowing that her pleads were futile now. The brief glimmer she’d had of the old father she used to know was gone. “Youcan appeal to the Duke for us.”
“What?” Hermione stiffened.
“We can go around the Dowager Duchess. We can go straight to the Duke and ask him for the money,” Rufus spoke as though it were a simple idea.
“But the Duke said that he defers to his mother’s opinion when it comes to such things,” Cordelia said with patience from nearby. “I fear it would not get you very far, My Lord.”
“It wouldn’t,” Hermione said, placing her hands on her hips as she cast her eyes down to the floor between them. “The Duke would not do me a favor now.”
“Why not?” Rufus asked.
“He…” Hermione flicked her eyes up to Cordelia, seeing the worry in her aunt’s features. It pained her to see it. “He overheard Aunt Cordelia and I talking in the garden. He knows the reason we came here. He believes that the money is the only reason I married him.”
“He will hardly be the first man in history to wake up to that realization,” Rufus scoffed. Hearing the words made Hermione’s heart harden a little more as she lifted her gaze to her father.
“You know so little of me, father, if you think that I married the Duke because of your say-so.”
I love Antony,the words tore through her thoughts.Even if he can now never love me.
“Damn!” her father’s word echoed back at the three of them off the chamber walls. “Then we must think of another way to get the money out of the Duchess. Something a little more…persuasive.”
“Father, whatever it is you are thinking, I implore you not to do anymore,” Hermione said, stepping toward him. The moment she moved, she regretted it, for her father turned back to her, his face red and his eyes narrowed on her.
“I have had about enough of your interfering, Hermione,” he said sharply. Hermione began to back away from him, hurrying toward the door.
“My Lord, please leave her alone.” Cordelia’s words were begging but appeared to be unheard as Rufus pursued her across the room. Hermione reached for the door, scrambling for it in her desperation to be free.
