Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

F rederick sat in a state of shock as the announcement settled on his and his guests’ shoulders. Already confused by tonight’s proceedings, already feeling unsure in ways he did not like, this new development hit him like a slap across the face.

“W-what did you say?” Lord Ramsbury stammered, his eyes wide.

“You heard me!” the Dowager Viscountess declared proudly. “And although it brings me no pleasure to say it, I am afraid I have been left with little real choice. You were tricked. We all were. And this marriage…” She swept her eyes over the table. “Has been a sham from the beginning!”

“Mother!” Miss Gouldsmith moaned. “Please! It was not like that.”

“That is exactly what it was like.”

“How dare you!” Lord Ramsbury snarled. “How dare you burden us with these lies!”

“Lies?” Lady Langham scoffed. “Truths, more like. I am sorry, Your Grace, I truly am. I did not wish to mention these most unfortunate happenings, but I think it is for the best that the truth is known.”

“You are simply jealous!” Lord Ramsbury cried, pointing an accusatory finger at her.

“Jealous?” the Dowager Viscountess snorted. “Relieved, more like! Anyone with two eyes can see that His Grace and your daughter are not as happy as they’re pretending to be. I cannot help but be glad that my daughter escaped such fate.”

“Take it back!”

“I told you at the time not to cross me, Brother. You should have listened.”

“I said, take it back!” Lord Ramsbury was on his feet. “These lies are beneath you.”

“Tell them!” Lady Langham was looking at her daughter. “Tell them the truth, dear.”

“Mother…”

“Now!”

Miss Gouldsmith looked as ashamed as she did upset. Eyes still cast downward, she spoke softly, her voice barely above a whisper. “I… I did not mean for it to come to this. It is just…” She stole a glance at Hannah and then looked away again. “I did not want to marry His Grace. Everything I heard… I… I simply could not bear it—I am sorry, Hannah. God, I am so sorry! Please forgive me.”

Lord Ramsbury fell back in his chair as the shock overtook him.

“Told you!”

“Selina!” Hannah gasped. “I—how could you?”

“I did not think that you would be forced to marry him. I swear, I did not know!”

“Do not apologize,” Lady Langham said. “It is my brother who bears the brunt of the blame. He saw an opportunity and pounced, and now it is his daughter who must suffer.” She looked at Hannah sympathetically. “I am so sorry that you had to find out this way, dear. You should know, I have nothing but sadness in my soul for you.”

The look on Hannah’s face was unreadable. Eyes wide. Face contorted. She looked from her cousin to her father to Frederick as if searching for an answer. And as to Frederick? There was so much here to unpack that he didn’t know where to begin.

Frederick had spent the last two days trying to decide what to do.

On the one hand, he knew in the depths of his soul that he did not want to have children with Hannah. But it had nothing to do with his feelings for her, as he knew now that he loved her deeply. If he did not, he would not be feeling so confused. She was a light in the darkness of his life, and it was these feelings he bore that had him vacillating between his determination to not have children and that voice in his head that questioned if maybe he should…

He did not want to hurt Hannah. Dammit, he did not want her to hate him. And it was clear the next morning, the second she walked through the door to join him and Amelia for breakfast, that her mind was made up and she would not accept a marriage that had no future beyond their clear feelings for one another.

As to this dinner party? Frederick had seen through his wife’s plans, knowing the true reason that she had insisted upon it. And while he had thought to simply get through the night and talk with her tomorrow, most strangely, her plan had begun to work.

Her sisters were happy. Their husbands were happy. Her father and mother were happy. They were a family unlike any he had ever met, and to see them converse and laugh and enjoy one another’s company as they were, all centered around the promise of children and adding to the joy of familial bonds, Frederick had begun to wonder if maybe, just maybe, he might be able to change his mind.

But then the Dowager Viscountess made her announcement, and the mood of the room shifted considerably.

“You are a horrible person,” Lord Ramsbury was saying to her. “Despicable.”

“Do not shoot the messenger. The truth had to be said.”

“I know what this is! It is an attempt to ruin my daughter’s marriage. Admit it!”

“I admit no such thing!”

“Oh, and it was not you who has spent the last two weeks spreading rumors and lies! You claim to not be jealous, Sister, but your actions speak volumes.”

“Jealous! Of what?! Look at your daughter, Phineas! Listen to her! Oh, she may say the right things, but I do not believe them for a moment! I am sorry, Your Grace, truly I am for what my daughter has done.”

“Mother…”

“But I will not sit here and be slandered!”

“My daughter is happy! It is you who are… a bitter, old crone, Teresa!”

The two were shouting as if they were the only ones in the room. Miss Gouldsmith was in tears. The two sisters and their husbands looked as if they would rather be anywhere else. And Hannah… it was impossible to say what was on her mind.

Frederick tried to meet her eyes. He did not believe a word of what her aunt was saying, but each word spoken was like a knife through his heart, for he knew what it was like to force someone into a marriage they did not want, and now he was living it again.

“A crone, am I?” Lady Langham spat. She was standing now, bearing down on her brother across the table. “Better an old crone than the overweight, trumped up, pathetic excuse for a man that you are.”

“Take that back!”

“Ha! I take back nothing!”

It was getting out of hand. And Frederick, taken aback by the suddenness of it all, was finally starting to come back to his senses. Among the shouting. Among the yelling. Among the shock! He felt his anger rising because at the end of the day, this was his home, and he would not be spoken to or about like this. Not by anyone. Certainly not by the Dowager Viscountess.

He opened his mouth to shout them into silence, only for Hannah to beat him to it.

“Quiet!” she screamed. “All of you! Quiet!” She was on her feet, her eyes blazing as she leveled her aunt with a scowl. “Aunt Teresa, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

“Me?”

“I invite you to my home to make amends, and this is how you repay me? Us!” She gestured to Frederick, who was watching with a half-smile on his face, taken by her sudden rancor, recognizing it only too well. “When I came to see you two days ago, what did I tell you?”

Lady Langham pretended to look confused. “I do not know what you?—”

“I warned you,” Hannah snarled at her. “I warned you to behave, for after what you have done, behaving was the least you could do. A second chance is what I offered, and you threw it back in my face.”

“Now, listen here,” Lady Langham shot back. “I have done nothing wrong. I am simply?—”

“Doing everything you can to break me and my husband apart. Just like you have been doing these past two weeks. You act as if you are happy about what happened, yet you work to undermine us at every turn. Do not say otherwise!”

“I… I…”

“And, Selina…” Hannah looked at her cousin. “Do not be upset, please. It is I who should be apologizing to you—who has been trying to for these past two weeks. I thought you hated me.”

“What? No! Never.”

“I thought you were furious that I stole Frederick from you.”

“No! I could never be! Please, Hannah. I am the one who should apologize!” Selina was on her feet, pleading.

“There is no need.” Hannah gave her a smile and looked down at Frederick, who was still watching her with that same half-smile. “Despite what your mother claims, Frederick and I are happy. As happy as we could be, and nothing”—a glare at her aunt—“anyone says can change that. I am glad for what happened and…” She bit her lip and looked at Frederick again. “And I know my husband is, too.”

“Is that true?” Lord Ramsbury asked, as if desperate.

“It is,” Hannah affirmed. “We are in love, and no amount of fearmongering is going to change that. Isn’t that right, Frederick?”

It was a strange thing that Frederick felt at that moment.

Admiration for his wife, for he had never felt more attracted to her than at that moment. The confidence. The control. The command. This was the woman he had fallen in love with, and he knew right then and there that every word she spoke was the truth. She loved him, and he loved her, and that was a fact.

And yet, there was a sinking feeling in his stomach as another realization dawned on him. He loved his wife, she loved him, and that was a problem that he knew would have untold consequences.

“She is right.” Frederick rose from his seat and took Hannah’s hand. Despite the guilt that he was feeling—for he knew what would come later tonight when they were alone again—right now was the time for unity. “Lady Langham, you should be ashamed of yourself.”

“Your Grace! I did not mean?—”

“You meant as you said,” he cut her off with a growl. “And for two weeks, you have spoken behind my back and worked to besmirch my name at every turn. My wife saw it in her heart to give you a second chance. There will not be a third.”

“But… but?—”

“I ask that you leave,” he said sternly, fixing her with a glare. “And be warned, Lady Langham, this is not the last you will hear from me. You wish to ruin my life? I will see personally to ruining yours.”

Lady Langham looked stricken, stumbling back and clutching her chest. “I was only trying to help.”

“You were only trying to hurt . Now, be gone, for I cannot stand to look at you.”

The Dowager Viscountess looked as if she meant to argue, but with everyone at the table glaring at her, she seemed to understand that she was beaten.

She put a hand on Miss Gouldsmith’s shoulder. “Come, dear. I know when we are not wanted.”

Selina, still frozen with worry, looked up at her mother and then at Frederick and Hannah. “Do you mean it?” she asked hopefully. “I did not ruin… You are both happy?”

“We are,” Hannah said with a sincere smile, before planting a kiss on the back of Frederick’s hand. “Happy and in love.”

That was like a dagger to Frederick’s heart, but he ignored it and forced a smile. “And grateful for what you did, as strange as that is to admit.”

Selina looked on the verge of tears—but they were tears of joy. Chin trembling, she rose from her chair, smiled at Hannah, and then hurried after the Dowager Viscountess, who was already out the door.

“That woman!” Lord Ramsbury growled the moment she was gone. “Your Grace, I cannot tell you how sorry I am.”

“It is fine,” Frederick sighed as he fell back into his chair.

Hannah joined him, still holding his hand, still looking at him with such love that he could not bear it.

“I am just glad to hear how happy you both are,” Lord Ramsbury said.

“Yes,” Lady Ramsbury chimed in. “We did not believe the rumors, of course, but to see it with our own eyes…” She breathed in deeply, her eyes glistening. “Oh, we are both so happy.”

“Unbelievable,” the Duchess of Hayward grumbled. “Aunt Teresa? The nerve!”

“Enough of that.” Hannah waved her hand dismissively. “Let’s not talk about it. The night is already almost ruined, so I suggest we try and save it.”

“And what better way to return to the matter at hand,” the Duchess of Walford said, her eyes flashing. “I believe we were talking about children?”

“Beatrice…” Hannah groaned.

“What? You just said how happy you are! What better reason is there than that to start a family?”

Frederick’s stomach churned. More so when he saw the satisfied smile on Hannah’s face. This dinner party was a revelation for so many reasons. It confirmed that he did indeed care for Hannah, that he loved her, that he wanted to be with her.

Conversely, this was also the problem.

As their love deepened, he knew that Hannah would continue to pressure him for children, that she would not stop because with her sisters as happy as they were, she no doubt wanted the same. And while Frederick wanted her to be happy, that was the one thing he could not give her, which meant that he was doomed to break her heart.

For now, as they sat and ate dinner with her family, he smiled along and laughed at jokes and did what he could to feign happiness as the walls closed in on him. Because once they were alone, they would need to have another conversation… one that was sure to end in heartache.