Chapter 25

Against all odds, he truly did hope that Margaret was right.

He hoped that she would walk through the front door the following morning, perhaps a little disheveled, and laughing about how foolish she had been. He wouldn't even be angry with her, not really. Instead, he would laugh with her and then pull her aside and tell her that he would do anything to make her happy, whether that was anything to do with him or not.

But Margaret was wrong.

The worst part was that nobody else seemed all too upset by her absence. Even his mother, her closest friend, was not concerned at all, going about her day if nothing was amiss.

"I have so enjoyed my time here," Margaret smiled at breakfast, all too sweetly, "Truly, it has been a privilege Virginia."

"And having you all here has been the same for me. It has been so long since I have had such good company."

But they had not been good company. They had kept to themselves for the most part, all too happy to benefit from the lifestyle whilst remaining a trio, hardly even including Scott. William knew that, his mother knew that, and even Scott knew that, and he couldn"t understand why his mother was so content with it.

"What is wrong with you?" He asked sternly, "Miss Staunton is missing, and you are smiling and laughing with her as if all is well."

"All is well," his mother sighed, "Olivia needs some time, and that is perfectly fine. She will return when she is ready."

"How can you be so sure of that?"

"Because she loves her life here too much to abandon it. You can find any sort of way to refute that, but it is the case."

"Has she done this before?" Margaret asked, "She certainly seems the type to. If you ask me, it shows a lack of maturity."

"Oh, no," his mother laughed, "She is a young lady that requires time to think, that is all. It might appear as some sort of tantrum, but that is not the case."

"So when will you start to worry?" William asked, "At what point might you think to yourself that Miss Staunton is a young lady with no way of caring for herself and that you need to help her? We have a duty to her, you know?"

"And why is that?" Margaret asked, "Your Grace, pardon me for speaking out of turn, but you have no obligations to her any more than you would myself. She is of no relation to you; she is a friend of your mother's. If your mother is telling you that she will be alright, then perhaps you should trust her judgment."

"And what would you know about her judgment?" He snapped, "You have been here for all but one week, and can you honestly say that you have made a good impression? Can any of you? I can quite comfortably say that your presence here has been a stain on my household, and your current attitude is not helping matters. Quite frankly, I want you to leave."

"But that is not for you to decide," she smiled, "I am not here as your guest. I am here as a friend of your brother's, isn't that right, Scott?"

Scott grumbled something in response, not that it was audible to anyone.

"I am the owner of this house," William reminded her, "And so you shall do as I say."

He felt as though he had had this conversation before, because he had, but it was different to how it had been with Miss Staunton. Miss Staunton had at least been there during his absence, fixing what he had left broken, but Margaret was entitled, which was not the position that a lady of her standing needed to have.

Not when he was inadvertently funding her lifestyle, and had unknowingly been doing so for who knew how long.

"Virginia," she continued, "Do you wish for me to leave? This is your home, after all."

"What I would like more than anything is for peace in my surroundings and goodwill to all men, but that is seeming to become more and more impossible."

"Mother, that is not my fault-"

"Nothing ever is, is it Your Grace?" Margaret snapped, though she was smirking, "You always have somebody else to blame, be it for your own shortcomings or you need to prove everyone else wrong so that you can believe yourself to be right."

"That is not true."

"Is it not?"

It might have been, once upon a time, but it was not anymore. He had learned, hadn't he? Yes, he had learned a lot of late, about himself and others, and he had Miss Staunton to thank for that.

And she was gone now, and he had himself to blame.

He left the room. He could have stayed and argued with her, but he was exhausted. Besides that, he was tired of defending himself to people he did not care about. Margaret was not worth the energy; she wouldn't listen to him no matter what he said, and it was not as though she would be staying in his life much longer unless Scott made good on his word and married her which he would certainly not be doing.

He at least had that much faith in his brother.

"Do you see?" She laughed when he left, "He is a coward. It is no wonder Miss Staunton has had to leave."

"That is enough, Margaret," Scott snapped, "Unless you wish to go back to Manchester."

"But I live in London, Scott."

"Not for much longer if this continues, I can assure you."

William couldn't help but smirk. His brother had seemingly had quite enough, too.

As entertaining as it had been to finally hear Scott put the horrid girl in her place, it didn't change the fact that Miss Staunton was not there, nor that he did not know where she was. If he knew that, at least he would be able to find her and talk to her and fix everything, but she could have been anything. Searching would be futile.

"William?" His mother asked from the other side of his study door a short while later, "Can we talk?"

"No."

"Are you angry with me?"

"Of course not. You have done nothing wrong."

"That is just as well, then, because I am not angry with you either. I do wish to speak with you, though."

"I cannot right now."

"Alright. I will not push you to speak to me, but could you at least listen?"

He did not answer, and she seemed to take that as a yes.

"I know I haven't had the most tact of late," she sighed with a small laugh, "I know that I have done a lot of things without consulting you, and that was wrong of me. A part of me wanted to do it with the intention of hurting you, as much as I do not wish to admit that. I wanted to release all of this frustration that I had. It was fun to do it- to force you to let me have some fun for a while. I look back on it now, though, and I realize it wasn't the right thing to do."

"But it was. You didn't deserve to have the nothing I wanted you to have."

"To be sure, but I should have talked to you about it like the adults that we are. I forget, you know."

"What do you forget?"

"That you are a man now. I forget that you are no longer that little boy that was afraid of everything."

But I am,he thought, Sometimes, I still am.

"It is all in the past now, Mother," he replied instead.

"But it isn't. You are still angry with me, and those horrid strangers I invited are still here."

"I am not angry with you, and you are more than welcome to send them away at any point, you know."

"Yes, but not really. They are friends of Scott, and I do not want him to be here alone, or worse to leave."

"I somehow have a feeling that these people do not mean half as much to him as you think."

"Perhaps not," she laughed again, "The two of you are just as lonely as me. I failed you there, that is to be sure."

"Mother, I am not alone. Back in London, I have two brilliant friends and they both have wives that I have a rather enjoyable time with."

"Ah, yes, Stephen and Luke. How are they?"

"Well, it is as I told you. They are married now. Luke married this lady that in all honesty infuriated me at first. She is outspoken and bold and she couldn't care less what the ton thinks of her, but Luke is utterly smitten. As for Stephen, he is newly married to this sweet young lady that is the other lady's complete opposite. It is quite strange, because none of us were supposed to marry, yet they are utterly in love."

"As for yourself?"

"I do not see my situation changing anytime soon. We shall leave it there."

"Then that is a shame, because in spite of what you might think I believe you would make an excellent husband."

"No I wouldn't, not with how Father was."

"If you truly believe that, then I cannot change your mind, but you ought to know that I am not the only one that thinks the way I do. You need to give yourself more grace than you do, Dearest."

Perhaps he did, but that was not going to help the matter that he would only marry one lady in the world, and she was gone.

"Are you sure you wish to be alone?" She asked.

"It is all I have ever wanted."

"But is it what you need?"

He couldn't answer that.

He soon heard the brushing of her gown against the door, and then her footsteps as she walked away. He was left in silence and in peace and he quickly scolded himself for not answering her truthfully. Of course he did not want to be alone, and it was even more evident that he needed anything but that, but there was hardly anything that his mother could do beside finding Miss Staunton and bringing her back, and she was hardly concerned for whatever reason.

With a sigh, he pulled out the correspondence he had been receiving since the arrival of their guests. He had not had enough time to read it, let alone respond, and now was as good a time as any to do so.

Unfortunately, he was finished with that by the middle of the afternoon, and he had been receiving knocks on his door throughout the day. He knew that it was Scott, but he had ignored it each and every time. He was still angry with him for how he had spoken to Miss Staunton, and even though he knew they would need to discuss it eventually he did not want to do it then and there. He was too angry at that moment and he didn't know what Scott could say to change that.

He didn't know what anyone could say or do to make anything better. He wanted the one thing that he couldn't have, and it was eating at him inside. No amount of money could be thrown at it, no amount of anger hurled in its direction would change the outcome.

He wanted Miss Staunton, and she was gone.