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“No, you can’t. You’re not going to see one another again. She’s to marry Lord Crawford, as was always the intention. I suggest you leave before you create an ugly scene,” the Viscount snarled.
Jackson could hardly believe what he was hearing. He wanted desperately to see Eloise – he wanted to tell her he loved her. Where was she? Had she been sent away? The thought of her marrying Lord Crawford filled him with dread. It would be the most awful thing imaginable.
“She can’t marry him. She’s betrothed to me. We love one another,” Jackson cried.
“Love? A strange thing. Yes, you love money,Your Grace. That’s why you did what you did. You played a ruse, and very effectively, too. Dances, the theater, walks in the park, even the procession at the Midsummer Ball. But it was all an act, wasn’t it?”
He had now advanced to the doorway, where the butler still barred Jackson’s entrance.
“No… at first, yes, but…” Jackson stammered, desperation evident in his voice.
“Ah, the truth is admitted. Yes, all a ruse. You’d have gotten your money and then what? Abandon my daughter and leave her high and dry? Scandal, that’s what you’ve brought on yourself, scandal. I won’t allow my daughter to be part of it. I suggest you leave at once,” the Viscount shouted.
Jackson was hopeless. He could not just leave without saying what he needed to say. He loved Eloise, and he would do anything for her.
“I’ve brought this man to help find your daughter, My Lord. Isn’t that proof of the sincerity of my love for Eloise? A ruse at first, yes, but one which so quickly turned to love. I love your daughter, and I want to help find Alice, too,” Jackson asserted, standing his ground, as the Viscount’s face turned scarlet with rage.
If Jackson’s words had been meant to appease him, then they had quite the opposite effect.
“I have only one daughter,” he growled, and the butler forced Jackson out onto the steps, slamming the door in his face.
He sat down on the top step, breathless and unable to understand what had just happened. Arthur stood next to him, silent and shaking his head.
“But I… I don’t understand. What did I do?” Jackson looked up at the investigator, who sighed.
“I think it’s clear the Viscount knows far more about his daughter’s disappearance than we’re led to believe, Your Grace. But as for why you’re no longer welcome in his home, or as the betrothed of his daughter, I’m unsure,” Arthur said.
Jackson was unsure, too. It broke his heart to think of being separated from Eloise. There was nothing false in his feelings. The ruse was over. This was not a game played for convenience. He loved Eloise and he would do anything to be with her and to prove his love for her.
“I won’t let her father prevent me from marrying her. We’re going to find her sister, and I’m going to bring her home,” Jackson resolved.
Rising to his feet, he straightened his waistcoat and hurried down the steps to his waiting carriage, followed by Arthur. He would find Alice, and he would rescue Eloise from her terrible fate. Love was all that mattered, and Jackson’s love for Eloise was entirely real.
CHAPTER16
Eloise watched Jackson depart with a heavy heart. Upon the sight of his arrival, her father had locked her in an upstairs sitting room, and she had listened in tears to the sounds of the heated argument taking place below. The window, too, was locked, and Eloise could do nothing but watch as Jackson’s carriage pulled away. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she sank into a chair in the corner of the room and wept. Suddenly, the key in the lock was turned, and the door opened to reveal her father, who shook his head and scowled at her.
“You had no right to send him away like that!” Eloise exclaimed.
“I had every right. Don’t you see what he’s done? He’s played you for a fool. He wants his inheritance, and he’s seen an easy way to get it by marrying you. Don’t you understand what he’d do? Before the echo of your vows falls silent, he’d flee. You’d be left a broken woman. No one would touch you. You’d have nothing.” Her father seethed.
Eloise folded her arms and turned away from him. At that moment, she would gladly have denounced her father. She hated him for what he had done to her.
“Don’t you see I did the same? It was a mutual agreement. I wanted to marry him for a ruse, too. I wanted to escape the possibility of marrying Lord Crawford. We did it for each other,” Eloise taunted.
She wanted to spite her father. He looked at her with an angry expression on his face, closing the door behind him and advancing towards her.
“You’ll marry Lord Crawford, Eloise. You’re promised to him. Don’t you understand what that means?” he demanded.
“And if I refuse? What then? Will you do to me whatever it is you did to Alice?” she dared.
Eloise no longer cared about angering her father. His eyes grew wide, and he seized her by the arm and pulled her towards him.
“How dare you speak to me like that, Eloise. Your sister… forget your sister, she’s gone!” he growled.
“But Jackson won’t give up on searching for her. I know he won’t. He’ll find her. The man he was with, he’s an investigator. He’ll find her. You didn’t care when she went missing. You know far more about it than you let on, you…” Eloise began, but her words were cut short for her father struck her hard across the face with the palm of his hand.
Eloise fell back with a cry, collapsing into a chair in sobs. Her father picked up a vase from a nearby table and threw it against the far wall, where it smashed into a hundred pieces.
