AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Two thousand pounds.” Margaret did not look as remorseful when she spoke to Diana as she did when she addressed her daughter.
Diana said nothing to her after that and left the room. She went down to the kitchen to find something, perhaps some tea, to relieve her headache, and she could hear Florence and Margaret shouting upstairs.
Cook and the maids in the kitchen were surprised to see her, and Abigail was the first to speak to her after they had all curtsied. “Do you need something, Miss?”
“My head aches,” Diana told her.
“Oh, I can brew some chamomile tea with ginger for you.”
“Thank you, Abigail.” Diana gave her a small smile. “If you do not mind, I will sit here for a while.” She went to a table on one side of the kitchen and sat, closing her eyes and sighing without any care for what the servants made of what was occurring upstairs or her role in it. She was exhausted.
In the late afternoon, Diana left the house to meet Crawford. He might have given her five days but she had decided to handle the matter sooner. Thus, she had sent word to him to meet her at the same park they had met before.
As predicted, he was already waiting for her. Diana remained on her horse this time because she could never be too careful. Crawford did not seem to be pleased with that decision, and he made certain she knew when he said, “Do you think yourself too high in the instep to climb down?”
“Perhaps I am,” she replied, growing more confident as her plan seemed to be falling into place now.
He held out his hand, and she retrieved the banknote from her reticule and gave it to him. He grinned when he saw the amount, but when he looked up at her again, there was greed in his eyes. Diana swallowed and tightened her grip on the reins.
“This will keep me for a few days,” he said.
“You cannot be in earnest!” she protested.
“Oh, but I am. I have not hidden my intentions from you, Diana. If you cannot give me money, there is another offer, and if you refuse it, then be prepared to have your life unraveled.”
“As if you have not already done it,” she threw down at him.
He laughed. “You seem to underestimate me.” He stroked his jaw thoughtfully, then continued, “Imagine every part of England knowing your name and your shame. You cannot run from it.”
“Why are you doing this, Crawford?”
“I thought you would know by now. I seek pleasure, and when I have my eyes set upon a thing, I do not relent.”
She nudged her horse to move backward. “I am not a thing.”
“Oh, but you are.” He remained where he was. “I need more. You do not want me to tell everyone what I have done to you in these words. You would be ruined again and have to choose between marrying me or living the rest of your life as a penurious spinster. Though I wouldn’t be particularly against the former. Think about this, and I shall send you my next instructions soon.”
He did not give her a chance to respond before he walked past her.
Diana remained still until she could no longer hear his footsteps. She glanced behind her and started to turn around to go home. Her heart grew heavier, and after what had happened this morning, she did not want to be in the house. She was also not willing to burden Emma with her troubles.
She steered her horse in the direction of the lake. It was very peaceful when she arrived, and she immediately felt as though she could forget her worries here as impossible as that notion was. Diana tied the horse to graze, then she went to a rock that she could climb to simply watch the water and willows.
She climbed the rock and sat, raising her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. The soft whooshing of the trees in the soft wind was calming, and she soon lost herself in a reverie she did not anticipate, recalling the tale Matthew had told her about the joy he had once found here, and wishing she could find it, too.
A droplet of rain fell on her nose, and she looked up to find the sky had darkened without her knowing. As the wind started to blow, Diana began to climb down from the rock. A crack trapped the tip of her right shoe, and as she pulled her foot to free it, she lost her balance and fell.
The rock was small, but the manner in which she fell was not graceful. She felt some pain in her left foot, but dismissed it as shock and tried to stand. The pain sharpened and she felt it throughout her foot. She cried out, then bit her lip and shut her eyes until she could better bear it.
The downpour she had been trying to flee came, and her horse broke free and galloped away, leaving her alone, soaked, in pain, and with no one to help her.
Chapter 25
Matthew removed his watch from his waistcoat and checked the time. He had been riding aimlessly in the woods for a long while. After Diana had told him that she could not consider courting, he had left the party to return to the castle where he had engrossed himself in work until he fell asleep on his desk in his study.
This morning, he did something he had promised himself he would never do, which was to look into who Diana was and her history. Nothing had come back to him yet but he had been unable to sit still. He was gravely concerned about her, he was sure that something was preventing her from giving in to what she felt.
A voice in his thoughts had told him that she had no affections for him, but he did not believe it because he had caught her gazing softly at him several times, at which point she would shyly look away. Her body’s response to him was another reason.
