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“No!” Eliot felt the word practically roar from his body. “Grace, I am certain Celeste is lying.” He lowered his voice, fearful of staff overhearing him, and stepped closer to Grace. “Yes, Grace, Celeste and I saw each other for a while, but that was before I married Ophelia. It was before I fell in love with Ophelia. I have not seen Celeste since, and neither do I believe she is telling the truth about her pregnancy.”
“What do you mean?” Grace asked, her body shaking.
“I mean that I am not the first gentleman she has entertained a relationship with. There have been many, for years, and only now she is with child? It does not add up.” Elliot had been so certain Celeste had been unable to bear a child. At one point, she had assured him of her barrenness.
Was that a lie?
“I must see Ophelia.” He hurried past Grace, heading for the stairs, wanting to ascertain for himself that his wife was truly gone. Her chamber was rather bare, with clothes missing from the wardrobe. Hurtling back down the stairs, he found Grace’s tears came harder now as she waited for him in the hallway. “Grace, do you have any idea where she has gone?”
“N-no,” she stammered through her cries. “She didn’t say.”
Elliot didn’t hesitate for long. There was only one place he could think of Ophelia going. Part of him thought it a mad idea, but it was the only idea he had, so he had to give it a try. Fleeing from the house, he took his horse and rode from the estate, heading across London and toward Hyde Park. At the edge of the park, he stopped outside of the house they had come to when Ophelia wished to see her stepmother.
Elliot left the horse by a railing and reached for the door, banging so strongly on the wood and for so long that when the butler arrived, the man appeared rather flustered, his eyes wide and his movements sharp.
“I must speak to Mrs Townsend, at once,” Elliot pleaded.
To his surprise, the butler didn’t object. He merely nodded and let Elliot inside, showing him through the house. At all times, Elliot turned his head back and forth, looking for any sign that Ophelia was in the house, but there were no bags to show she had arrived, nor maids running around to prepare bedchambers.
“The Duke of Northmore is here to see you,” the butler announced, opening the door, and letting Elliot into a sitting room.
Elliot stopped when he saw Mrs Townsend sitting high in her chair with a letter in her hand. She turned to face him with a smile on her face.
“My stepdaughter’s letter is most illuminating,” she said, folding it up neatly. “I knew her hurried marriage would come to a foul end. Though I will admit, I did not expect it to happen in this way.”
“Where is she?” Elliot was not here to entertain the woman, nor give her the satisfaction of seeing his marriage to Ophelia fall apart.
I must remedy this. I must find Ophelia and explain all to her.
“I do not know.” Mrs Townsend’s simple answer gutted him. He turned away and rubbed his face. “She is not here, if that is why you came.”
“Do you have any hint of where she might be?”
“None.” Mrs Townsend shook her head. As Elliot lifted his face, she tutted at his expression, looking quite sombre. “You may think I care naught for my stepdaughter, Your Grace. Much has happened between us, but I do care. I care very much, and the pain she speaks of in her letter is unbearable to read. For her sake, I beg of you. Separate yourself from her and annul your marriage. I will not see her suffer further.”
“I grant no such annulment.” Elliot turned and left the room, refusing to believe that his marriage was over so fast.
Chapter 25
“How are you feeling now?” Margery asked quietly.
Ophelia offered a weak smile, hoping it would assuage some of her friend’s worry, but the dark look Margery gave showed it did not work.
“I’ve been better,” Ophelia said eventually and sat up straight on the settee.
“It’s been a month, Ophelia. You can’t go on like this.”
Ophelia nodded slowly, knowing her friend was right.
A month ago, she had left Elliot’s home. Uncertain where else to go, she had gone to Margery’s house in London. A few days later, they had all left for Cheltenham together. Now, the Season was drawing to a close, and Ophelia was glad of their retreat.
It made her feel closer to her old home, closer to her father, at a time when she really needed that feeling. She was incredibly grateful to Margery and her family, too, who had insisted she stay with them for as long as she needed to.
Ophelia knew in all this time that Elliot had not abandoned his search for her. Not only had she heard whispers that he’d turned up at Gertrude’s house looking for her, but at Margery’s house in London, too, begging for knowledge of where she might be. Ophelia was indebted to her friend’s family that they had kept her secret, claiming they did not know where she was.
It had not deterred Elliot’s efforts, though, as he had continued to turn up at that house almost every other day, in the hope that she would be there. The fact he had searched so persistently for her made Ophelia ache for missing him, but she could not return, not after what Celeste had told her.
“The doctor came this morning,” Ophelia whispered quietly. “He knows what the problem is.”
