Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35

L ouise gasped and turned around. Her mother cried out in shock as her father walked through the door, his eyes flashing with fury.

Lady Northbridge stepped around Marcus, shielding him with her body even as Louise took a step toward them to do the same. Marcus was a coiled spring, his body rigid with tension. Louise had never seen him so angry, his expression so murderous.

Marcus is an accomplished actor — all the times I have seen him with my mother, I never suspected a thing.

“You will step away from my wife,” the Earl commanded, glaring at him.

Marcus stepped forward instantly, his chest puffed out, his lanky form appearing impossibly small in front of the Earl’s bulky body. Louise held her breath, her eyes darting between them.

“I would invite you to look at your wife, Sir, and see the damage that you have inflicted on her,” Marcus roared.

“This is not your concern, Lord Marcus. You will leave my house this instant, or I shall remove you from it.”

Marcus didn’t move an inch. Lady Northbridge stood straight and tall behind him, her eyes fixed on the man who had abused her. Louise wrung her hands nervously, even as her heart swelled at her mother’s courage.

“What did you do, Walter?” Lady Northbridge demanded, her voice cold as ice.

“What are you talking about, woman? You think that I should have acted differently when my wife was lying with a man behind my back?”

“You have lain with countless women!” the Countess shouted, her usually soft voice reverberating through the room like a thunderclap. Her face was red with rage. “I know it—I have seen it. You do not understand the misery I have endured all these years. I had to hear about your conduct from an acquaintance at a ball . You spent your money on your mistress and squandered the rest of it at the gaming tables.”

“This is outrageous,” the Earl roared, but she would not be silenced.

“I have endured this for years, Walter. You promised me time and again that you would change. Even when you gambled away my mother’s jewelry—everything I cared for in the world—I accepted it because I believed that you would change. It has taken the love of a good man, a better man, to see that you will never change.”

Her eyes were sharp and assessing as she glanced at Louise, the sorrow in them palpable before she looked back at her husband.

“When you gambled away my beloved daughter, when you almost destroyed her future, I knew then that I had to get away from you. One way or the other, if you have not already destroyed yourself, Marcus and I will leave you to your debts and your precious name and be done with you forever.”

Louise’s chest swelled with pride as she witnessed her mother’s defiance. Her bruises seemed to darken as the weak sunshine began to filter into the room, and her face twisted into an expression of disgust as she looked upon the man she had once loved.

“You will do nothing of the sort!” the Earl bellowed, pointing a meaty finger at her. “You are a disgrace. Do you hear me, Althea? A disgrace to my name and Louise?—”

“You will not bring me into this,” Louise spat.

His head whipped around, and he looked at her in astonishment as she came to stand beside her mother.

“You have created the world in which you live, Papa. By your own hand, you have set it alight in more ways than one. I always believed that you were better than you seemed… that in your heart, there was some good that remained. Until you tried to kill me and Christian in our beds by setting our house on fire!”

A charged silence fell over them before the Earl began to splutter desperately.

“Do you deny it?” Lady Northbridge demanded, reaching for Louise.

Both women stood to their full height, a silent agreement passing between them.

“You are both mad,” the Earl said with a derisive laugh. “Utterly mad. What fire are you speaking of? Have you lost your senses, Louise?”

“Then where were you tonight? Answer me!”

The Earl’s pomp and bluster slowly faded, as did the color in his cheeks. Louise had held on to the hope that her father was not guilty until that moment. To see the truth written all over his face was sickening.

Lady Northbridge stepped forward, but Marcus made to stop her.

“We will be leaving now,” she announced solemnly and reached out her other hand to her lover.

Marcus gripped it tightly, and that was when Louise saw the light in her father’s eyes change.

Before, he had been a dejected fool, standing in the house he had gambled away, in front of the wife he had lost. But in a few seconds, the monster that lurked beneath reared its head.

Her mother seemed to recognize the change in him, too, and recoiled as he swung back his left hand, the muscles beneath his coat bulging as he prepared to slap his wife across the face.

Without a second thought, Louise stepped in front of her mother at the last moment. It could have been mere seconds, but the Earl did not slow down, and she felt the blow rattle her cheekbone.

With a startled cry, she fell to the floor, astonished at the pain that splintered through her face. There was absolute silence for a charged moment before a thundering voice filled the room.

“How dare you lay a hand on my wife?”

Christian had stayed in bed late into the night, replaying the events of the evening.

He was glad that his mother and brother were safe, but his thoughts kept returning to Louise. The moment when the fire was finally put out and he had looked across the garden at her played over and over in his mind.

The relief, the overwhelming joy he had felt at seeing her safe, had shocked him. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever beheld, brave and determined to the last—he did not know how he had not seen it before.

He tossed and turned, hating being alone in his bed and wishing she was with him. He was at a loss as to what had caused the cold distance in her eyes, but he was determined to find out.

Eventually, he rose from the bed and walked out of his room. He padded to her door and prepared to knock on it, only to find it ajar.

“Louise?” he murmured, gently pushing the door open. He peered inside to find her room empty.

He straightened, whirled around, and ran to the stairs. Something told him that Louise was not in the house. He could not explain it, but it was as though he could sense her absence in the very air around him.

Most of the servants were abed or clearing the debris from the fire. It would have been easy for her to sneak out without anyone seeing her.

His throat constricted. There was only one place she could have gone. He gritted his teeth at the thought of her walking through the streets of London alone in the early hours. She had not called for the carriage, or else he would have heard it.

He ran back to his room and tugged on whatever he could find, pocketing a cravat to make himself presentable once in the carriage, and rang the bell.

Fenwick was with him in seconds, ever-present and loyal as he helped him into his tailor-made coat.

Then, Christian ran out of the room and bolted down the stairs two at a time. While the carriage was brought around to the front of the house, he went to his study and scrawled a brief note across a thin piece of parchment.

As he went back to the hallway, he summoned a footman and told him to deliver the note to his club most urgently. As the man departed, Christian ran down the front steps and launched himself into his carriage, instructing the driver to travel to the Earl’s townhouse at top speed.

The journey seemed interminably long, and he was unable to concentrate on anything but Louise and what might have happened to her.

Finally, after a few short minutes, the tall, narrow shape of Northbridge Manor came into view. Christian tugged at his coat and arranged his clothes as best as he could before he jumped down, marching to the door with all the authority he could muster.

The butler admitted him without ceremony. He had the eyes of a man who was no longer loyal to his employer when his pay had been withheld.

As Christian entered the house, he could hear voices coming from the parlor. He gently pushed the door open when he heard the sharp sound of a slap, and he watched Louise fall to the floor in front of her brute of a father.

My God, I will kill him for this.

“How dare you lay a hand on my wife?” he bellowed, stalking into the room. He drew his fist back and slammed it into the Earl’s nose with satisfaction.

The Earl’s head snapped back as he cried out and stumbled backward. He landed on the floor awkwardly as he frantically tried to stem the blood spurting out of his nose.

Shooting the Earl a final glare, Christian ran forward and kneeled beside Louise. There was a large red welt on her face where the Earl’s signet ring had hit her.

Christian would have hit the man a second time if he could.

“Louise, are you all right?” he asked, gently pulling her to her feet.

She was shaking a little, her eyes focusing on the room around her again. She looked down at her father, her lips trembling as she stepped away from him, and then looked around for her mother.

That was when Christian realized that there were other people in the room.

A shocked gasp escaped his lips at the scene before him. His brother was holding Lady Northbridge in his arms so tightly that there was no space between them.

Christian stared at them in utter amazement as his brother pulled back, looking down at the Countess with such love that he was at a loss for words.

“Marcus?” he asked stupidly. “What is the meaning of this?”

Marcus turned to him, his jaw clenched, and reached his hand behind him. Lady Northbridge clasped it, and he pulled her close, meeting Christian’s eyes without a trace of fear.

“I am taking Althea away from this brute,” he declared. “I love her, and I will not be without her any longer.”

Christian had never seen his brother look so grave or determined, his gaze unwavering.

He glanced at Louise, who was watching him warily.

“You knew about this?” he asked.

“Not until today,” she mumbled.

Somehow, he felt relieved by that revelation even as his mind tried to make sense of the jarring image of his brother holding Lady Northbridge’s hand.

His eyes met those of the Countess, and her guilty expression was a quiet contrast to the stubborn set of Marcus’s jaw.

“And do you feel the same way for my brother, Lady Northbridge?”

She glanced at Marcus, seemingly at a loss for words as she nodded her head. “I do,” she whispered.

“I know there will be a great scandal,” Marcus said, his tone exasperated. “I had intended to go abroad, and then Althea would join me later, sparing you from all this. But with the accident, my plans were blown apart. I would not have made you all worry for nothing.” He shook his head. “I do not understand what happened to the letter.”

“I might explain that,” Christian said, a memory suddenly resurfacing in his mind. “Fenwick brought me several letters in the Earl’s presence. It was a few moments before Louise kicked him out of the house. I thought at the time I should have had Fenwick escort him out. He could have easily recognized your handwriting and stolen the letter, learning of your plans before I could.”

Marcus looked down at the Earl as though he intended to finish what Christian had started. But the older man looked quite pathetic, sitting awkwardly on the floor, his face covered in blood.

Marcus scoffed and seemed to change his mind. “Much good it did him in the end,” he muttered.

Suddenly, there was a commotion in the hallway, and they heard the raised voices of the butler and another man.

Ah, I see my note was delivered .

“Jarvis!” Christian called.

Jarvis appeared in the doorway before he entered the room, his hulking figure dwarfing everyone else.

“Would you please take this man to the constabulary?” Christian asked, gesturing toward the Earl. “I believe there is a place waiting for him in debtors’ prison.”

The Earl spluttered against the handkerchief he held to his nose and tried to protest, but Jarvis was already pulling him to his feet effortlessly.

Jarvis nodded to Christian, and without a second glance, he dragged the Earl out of the room.

Christian watched him go and then turned back to his brother.

Marcus’s eyes were guarded, shielding Lady Northbridge with his body as though to protect her from Christian’s wrath.

Christian studied their entwined hands, surprised to find that he was not angry with them for their conduct. He was relieved that his brother seemed to have finally found happiness.

He stepped forward, and Marcus lifted his chin, ready to face whatever venom Christian might spew at him for ruining their family name and destroying his reputation.

Instead, Christian turned to Lady Northbridge and bowed low.

“My Lady, I can think of no one more worthy of happiness than you. To have experienced so much and come out the victor is a feat, indeed.” He glanced at his brother. “Though, you will have to put up with my brother for the rest of your days, which seems a hollow victory.”

Marcus’s shoulders relaxed as Lady Northbridge clung to his arm, giving Christian a grateful smile. “Thank you, Your Grace. I am sorry for any hardship this will cause you.”

Christian smiled. “I have been through worse, My Lady.” He glanced at Louise, meeting those crystal-blue eyes. “Now, if you will excuse me, I would like to have a word with my wife.”