The Plain Bride by Chasity Bowlin
CHAPTER TWENTY
Mayville had left the ball and was headed back to Park Lane. He hadn’t laid eyes on Althea in hours. He was worried, more so than he had anticipated. The evening had not gone at all as he’d envisioned, but Charlotte had made it a point to keep them separated. In retrospect, that was easy enough to see. What he didn’t know was why. He’d made it perfectly clear to her that their relationship (if what had transpired between them could ever be called such) was firmly in the past. But Charlotte could be a perverse and contrary creature. Her selfishness was boundless.
Reaching his home, he disembarked from the carriage and climbed the steps, where he found the butler wringing his hands in the foyer. “What the devil is wrong with you?”
“Her ladyship has returned home and requested that several trunks be prepared for her use. Her maid is with her now so that they may begin packing.”
He blinked at that. She was upset, certainly. That had been evident based on the hurried manner in which she had left the ball. Thank heavens that Ralston had broken her confidence and rushed to let him know. “Pardon?”
“Packing, my lord,” the butler repeated. “She has expressed that she intends to depart London tomorrow morning.”
“The devil she will,” he snapped, and moved toward the stairs, taking them two at a time. When he reached her chamber, the noise level within was a testament to the flurry of activity. As he stood there in the hallway, a footman rushed past him, carrying a trunk. “Drop that at once!”
The footman glanced up, startled, and placed the trunk on the floor with a heavy thump. “Yes, my lord. Is aught amiss?”
“A great deal is amiss, it would seem. Leave, and take them all with you,” he said, making a sweeping gesture toward the bevy of servants scurrying about. Then he strode into Thea’s room without knocking. Two maids were there. They instantly stopped what they were doing and looked up at him in terror. “Get out.”
“Stay,” Thea countered.
“This is not a conversation I mean to have in front of the maids. You will leave this room or seek new employment,” he snapped. “I am still master of this house, regardless of what you may have heard.”
The maids immediately put down the garments they had been folding and left the room. Thea glared at him, her anger a palpable thing.
“Once a bully, always a bully,” she spat. “You’re more of a hypocrite than even my father.”
“That requires explanation. How am I hypocrite, Thea?”
“How are you not? You spoke of how wrong it had been of you to make decisions about my future without consulting me, but you’ve never stopped making them, have you? You and Lady Bruxton!”
“What the devil does that mean?”
“You were with her in Hyde Park,” she said. “I know all about your clandestine meeting with her!”
“Yes, I met with her in Hyde Park. That doesn’t explain why you are so unreasonable—”
“How did she know, Sinclair?”
“Know what?” he demanded, tired of the word games. It was like being an actor in a play, without the benefit of a script.
“How did she know about our arrangement?”
It was like a punch in the gut. “I don’t know, of course. You can’t think I would tell her!”
“I can’t think how else she would know. But I’m tired. I’m tired of pretending that we can make this something it isn’t. We are not meant to be together. There is no world in which our being married to one another makes any sort of sense at all! So, if you want a divorce or an annulment, I won’t try to stand in your way.”
“I don’t want a divorce or an annulment! For heaven’s sake, Thea, you could be carrying my child even as we speak. How can you think, after what we’ve shared, that I would grant such a thing?” He felt like everything was spinning out of control, and he didn’t even know how or why. None of it made any sense.
“The house in Bath,” she said. “Is it ready for occupancy?”
“Do not do this, Thea. Please. Be reasonable.”
“Is it available for immediate occupancy?” she demanded again.
She would not budge, he realized. Whatever had transpired that night, her decision was made. Stubborn, intractable, and more obstinate than a team of mules, there would be no swaying her. “Yes. It’s ready. The lease is signed, it’s fully furnished, and you may take servants with you from here—those who wish to go. I’ll replace them through an agency once you’ve gone.”
“Tomorrow morning. I want to leave as soon as possible. I don’t wish to be a bother or be in your way.”
A bitter laugh escaped him. “I am bothered, Thea. Rest assured, I am bothered. And I doubt that I shall ever be anything less. As for being in someone’s way, consider this house yours for the night. I will sleep elsewhere and return tomorrow after you have departed. I see no point in goodbyes.”
“Of course you don’t,” she snapped. “I’ll leave the jewelry.”
“You bloody well will not. It was a gift.”
“I don’t want it!”
“Then throw it in the damned Thames!” he shouted as he stormed toward the door. He slammed it behind him with such force that the wooden frame cracked. It didn’t even slow his steps as he headed for the stairs.
“My lord?” The butler asked, approaching him with yet more worried handwringing.
“Lady Mayville will need a retinue of servants to attend her in Bath. Assemble them from the household here, if enough are willing to make the move, then hire replacements as you see fit.”
“You have chosen all the servants in this household, my lord—”
“I will not be here. I’m returning to Boston Spa, departing immediately, and will likely not be back in London for some time.”
The butler paled. “Yes, my lord. I’ll see to it. Godspeed on your journey, sir. Is her ladyship well?”
“She is the devil. I’m certain that makes her well enough,” he snapped and then turned to make his way through the kitchens, to the stables beyond. He would saddle his own mount and ride through the night, but he would not spend another moment in London, the site of all his present misery.
