She paused, looking over her shoulder at him, her look oddly pleading.
“Go,” he said, mustering a small smile as weariness and exhaustion dragged at his limbs. “Go and rest. We shall speak in the morning.”
She hesitated briefly but gave him a little nod of understanding before allowing the other girls to lead her away in a huddle of comforting murmurs and concerned whispers.
Once she was gone, it was just Miss Grayson who looked down at him, hands on hips as she considered him. “You look awful.”
He ran a hand over his face. “It has been a long night.”
She sat beside him. “Want to tell me about it?”
A weary sigh escape as he turned to her. “I can tell you what I know, but I’m afraid we’ll both have to wait to hear the full story until Addie has had some rest.”
Miss Grayson’s brow was creased in concern. “Poor dear has been through quite an ordeal.”
He grunted in agreement. “I’m starting to think we don’t know the half of it.” In the quiet of the night, he related what he did know of Addie’s tale—starting with the fact that Reggie is her brother and ending with the attacker’s injuries from the horse.
He’d barely finished speaking when the somber doctor came in to inform them that his patient had not survived. Miss Grayson went over to the doctor, and Alec was dimly aware of their voices—Miss Grayson’s soft with compassion and sadness for a man she’d never met.
Alec supposed a better person than he would mourn the loss of another, but at the moment all he could think of was the sight of that man’s hands on Addie, of the crazed expression on his face as he’d attacked the woman Alec loved.
Love. There was that word again. He supposed he suffered from some form of insanity as well, falling for a woman he knew so little about. But if there had been any doubt before, there was none now—not after he’d nearly lost her.
Never in his life would he forget the all-encompassing fear that had gripped him at the sight of Addie in danger. Never would he forget the sensation, the knowledge—instant and impermeable—that this woman was his other half. His soulmate. All the things he’d once believed to be the things of myths and fairy tales.
When the doctor left, Miss Grayson came back over to him with a sigh. “He’s making arrangements to move the body. There’s nothing more to be done tonight.”
He nodded, a new weariness settling over him as the first rays of dawn began to fill the room.
“Come,” Miss Grayson said as she led the way toward the hallway. “We have an extra room made up for visitors. You can sleep there for the night.”
He nodded. Sleep. That was what he needed. In the morning he’d see Addie, and maybe then he’d get some answers.
Chapter Thirteen
The morning sun woke Addie, and for a moment she forgot all that had happened. For one brief moment, she forgot where she was and why. And then it came back in a rush.
She sat up with a start. “Reggie!”
“He’s fine, dear.” Miss Grayson was on the other side of her room, opening the curtains and arranging the contents of a tray. “We let you sleep in.” She glanced over her shoulder with a kind smile. “It seemed as though you might need some rest.”
She nodded as she fidgeted with the edge of her covers. “Thank you.”
“Louisa is playing with Reggie in the library,” she said. “And Lord Tolston is waiting for you downstairs in the breakfast room…” She turned back again, a whole new sympathy in her eyes as she added, “Whenever you are ready.”
Addie pressed her lips together as a surge of emotions rose up in her. Did Miss Grayson know? Did she suspect? Was it written all over her face that she’d gone and fallen in love with her rescuer?
Or maybe the other woman just assumed, because, honestly—how could she not fall in love with a man as good and kind and honorable as Lord Tolston?
She supposed it was inevitable.
Belatedly, Addie realized there was one person Miss Grayson hadn’t mentioned, and the mere thought of him had her sitting up straighter, rigid with apprehension. “What about Duncan?”
Miss Grayson’s brow furrowed in confusion for only a brief moment. “Duncan. That was the man who attacked you?”
Addie nodded.
Miss Grayson came forward and sat on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know who he was to you, and I hope this does not cause you too much pain…”
Addie found herself holding her breath as she waited for Miss Grayson to finish.
The other woman laid a hand on hers. “I’m afraid he passed away last night,” she said. “There was nothing more the doctor could do.”
Addie waited for…what? Relief? Sadness? Regret? She wasn’t entirely sure what she was supposed to feel, and maybe it was that jumble of inexplicably intertwined emotions that had her eyes tearing up all over again.
The threat was gone. Reggie was safe.
A man was dead.
She could not be happy about the news, but she couldn’t help but feel relief, either.
Miss Grayson squeezed her hand. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, swiping at her eyes. Stupid tears. How tired she was of weeping. “I am,” she said. Then she added, “I will be.”
“You know, Addie…” Miss Grayson took a deep breath as she seemed to search for words. “None of us know what you’ve been through, but I just want you to know that you will always have a home here at this school, for as long as you need. I have no doubt Lady Charmian would agree.”
Addie couldn’t speak. She was too busy blinking away tears again, but this time they were tears of joy. Her heart swelled with gratitude for all the beauty that had come from such a terrible situation.
And she owed so much of it to Tolston. Without him, she would never have found Miss Grayson or Louisa and the other girls. She would not have found a home where she could be with Reggie.
She would not have experienced love.
She only hoped now that it wasn’t too late. She’d run away from him; she’d kept so many secrets; she’d lied to him.
Would he still want her now after all she’d done? After all he’d done?
She nibbled on her lower lip as confusion warred with relief and a million other emotions.
A knock on the door had her turning with a quick inhale.
Was it Alec?
Miss Grayson seemed to sense her alarm. “It’s likely Louisa and Delilah,” she said gently. “You gave those girls quite a fright last night.” Her expression turned wry. “You gave us all a fright, but I suspect you experienced more terror than the lot of us combined, so don’t let them bully you into talking.”
She let out a huff of laughter, the sensation oddly familiar and unfamiliar all at once. With the threat that had been hanging over her no longer looming, she almost felt like herself again. But also, entirely new. She’d grown up these past few months—she’d learned what she was capable of and discovered just how brave she could be.
She thought back to the way she’d run from Tolston.
She’d also learned how vulnerable she could be. How weak in the face of overwhelming emotions.
She shoved aside the duvet. Not anymore. It was time to start a new day. There was no use hiding secrets, not anymore. Miss Grayson and the other girls deserved to know the truth, and no one deserved it more than Tolston.
When the knock sounded again, Addie called out for them to come in.
Sure enough, it was Delilah and Louisa at her door, with a smiling Reggie in her arms. “May we come in?” Louisa asked.
Delilah was already halfway across the room. Prudence showed up behind Louisa, peering in.
“Come on in,” Addie called out. “All of you.”
Miss Grayson left as they entered, giving her visitors a reminder not to pester her with questions until she was dressed and fed.
“Why didn’t you tell us you were some well-to-do lady on the run from a dastardly villain?” Louisa exclaimed the moment the door
shut behind Miss Grayson.
Prudence tsked like a schoolteacher. “You read too many gothic novels, Louisa.”
Louisa ignored her, eyes wide with excitement. “Did that man really come to kidnap Reggie?”
Addie drew in a deep breath, ready to start with her explanations, when relief came from the unlikeliest place.
“Leave her be,” Delilah said. “Can you not see she’s been through a nightmare? Let her have some tea first before you bombard Miss Hopewell with questions.”
Addie jerked back a bit at the sound of her name. Her real name. “You know who I am?”
Delilah’s smirk was smug. “I figured it out.” With arched brows, she gave a haughty sniff in the face of the other girls’ gaping. “What? I keep my ears open, and last night there was talk about how the Hopewell girl ran off after her parents died.” Silence fell, and Delilah shifted uncomfortably as she glanced over at Addie. “Sorry,” she said, her voice quiet.
“That’s all right,” Addie said. “It’s true. They both passed away, and that man who attacked me last night was our guardian.”
Delilah held a hand up as Louisa opened her mouth to ask more questions. “Let’s not make her tell her tale more than once, shall we?”
Louisa looked like she might argue, but Prudence stepped in. “Delilah’s right. It’s bad enough she lived through this ordeal, and she’ll be telling this sordid story soon enough when she goes downstairs to see Lord Tolston.”
They all eyed her oddly at that, and her cheeks burned. How much had they heard about Tolston’s involvement?
How much could they figure from the blush in her cheeks at the mere mention of his name?
Against all odds, her silly mind was replaying his proposal. Of all the things to be thinking about at a time like this. She gave her head a little shake as she accepted a gown that Prudence had brought in with her. “It might be too big, but we can lace if tight in the back.”
“Thank you,” she said. Her gaze turned from Prudence, who was smiling gently, to Louisa, who looked like she might burst if she couldn’t ask more questions, to Delilah, who was busy pouring her a cup of tea from the tray that had been brought in. “Thank you,” she said again. “For everything. I know that my being here has done nothing but hurt the school’s reputation, and yours as well, and I—”
“Oh please,” Delilah interrupted with an unladylike snort that seemed so very uncharacteristic coming from the elegant, spoiled debutante.
Addie gaped at her as Prudence added, “Delilah is right. You have nothing to apologize for.”
Now she turned her shocked stare to Prudence, who seemed to live up to her virtuous name.
Louisa grinned. “I think what they’re trying to say is—if we’ve ended up here, we likely don’t have much of a reputation to ruin.”
“But—” Addie started.
“I think what Louisa’s trying to say is…this school might have been started for fine young ladies,” Delilah said. “But everyone you’ve met was sent here because their families didn’t know what else to do with them.”
“Precisely,” Louisa said. With a mischievous grin, she added, “You aren’t the only one with a scandal.”
Prudence sniffed. “Speak for yourselves. My family has nothing to hide.”
Delilah let out a laugh. “No, perhaps not. You, like me, were merely in the way. They didn’t know what to do with you any more than my family knew what to do with me.”
Prudence scowled, but she gave a little shrug of defeat. “Fine. Perhaps you both are right. We here at the School of Charm are all a bit wayward, I fear.”
“But,” Addie started again, her gaze seeking out Delilah, who’d pointed out more than once how bad her being here was for the school’s reputation. “You’ve said many times—”
“And I was right, no doubt,” Delilah interrupted. “But the truth is, we all have our faults and our problems.” She looked to Addie. “Though I dare say none are quite as dramatic as yours.”
Louisa sat beside her on the bed. “What I think Delilah means is that, though your situation might have been the most dramatic, you’ll not find a better place to be than here amongst friends.”
Addie heaved a heavy sigh. “Friends,” she repeated. “I haven’t had many of those before.”
“I’ve never had any.” Delilah surprised them all with that little outburst, and her cheeks turned pink when the others turned to stare at her.
“Well, now you both have a whole house full,” Louisa said with a cheerful grin that included both Delilah and Addie. “You’d better get used to it.”
“Come along,” Prudence said, her tone prim and impatient as she reached for the gown. “Let’s get her ready. Poor thing has to face the Earl this morning. Gossip can wait.”
The mere mention of Tolston had butterflies swarming in Addie’s stomach. She had no idea what to expect, or how he would look at her.
She had no idea what to say.
When at last she was ready, she nodded to her new friends, feigning more confidence than she felt. “Let us not keep him waiting any longer.”
Just outside the doors to the drawing room, Louisa placed a hand on her arm. “Do you want us to stay out here?”
She bit her lip. What she wanted was a moment alone with Tolston, but with Miss Grayson already there, it wouldn’t happen. “Come in,” she said. “I’d rather not relate the story twice so I might as well get this over with.”
Delilah threw open the door, and Tolston rose to his feet. Stoic as ever, his expression was impossible to read. But his eyes…his eyes spoke to her just as clearly as they had the first time she’d seen him.
Concern, relief, affection—it was all there. But there was a wariness about him now, too, as he waited for her to speak.
“Thank you, Lord Tolston,” she said as she took the seat he offered her. “Thank you for…for everything.”
He gave her that lopsided smile she’d grown to love so much. “I am just happy you are all right.”
His gaze met hers and held. There was so much she wanted to say, but this was hardly the time nor the place. Drawing in a deep breath, she turned her focus to Miss Grayson and the other girls and started from the beginning. “My real name is Miss Adelaide Hopewell, my father was the Baron of Wrencliff…”
By the time she was done, the room was silent except for Reggie’s occasional babble as he played with a piece of string Louisa had provided.
“That…” Louisa said slowly, her voice filled with awe. “That was even more dramatic than my novels.”
“Louisa,” Miss Grayson murmured. “Would you please take Reggie to the kitchen. See if you can find him a treat, would you?”
“Of course.” Louisa seemed to come back to her senses, and the other girls followed suit. They filed out of the room, casting her looks of sympathy and support as they went.
When it was just the three of them, Miss Grayson gave her a warm smile. “I’ll just be over here catching up on some correspondence should you need me.”
And just like that…they were alone.
Well, alone but for Miss Grayson, but she was on the far side of the room with her back turned.
For the first time since she’d sat, she forced her gaze in his direction. She hadn’t been able to meet his eyes until that moment.
“You have been through quite the ordeal,” he said.
She bit her lip, sadness sweeping over her at the way he was looking at her. Like she was different now, or at least like he saw her differently. There was a new formality between them—which was only right, she supposed. She was no longer his maid, his charge, his damsel in distress, and she was afraid to think he no longer even thought of her as a friend.
She was merely a young, unmarried lady who’d lied to him from the moment they’d first met.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
She opened her mouth and shut it again. She had no good answer.
“Did you not trust me?”
&nbs
p; Oh, her heart ached at the hurt she saw in those warm brown eyes.
She shrugged helplessly as she searched for the right words. “I did not know you.”
He met her gaze evenly as he nodded his understanding. “It seems I did not know you either.”
She wasn’t certain he’d meant for the words to sting, but she felt as though a sword had lanced her chest. She held her breath until the sharp pain passed. “I did not know who I could trust,” she said. “I feared no one would believe me.”
He nodded. “I understand.”
She bit the inside of her lip as the silence stretched between them. They’d never experienced awkward silence before—but then again, they’d never been together like this before either. Her sitting there as a proper young lady, him the notoriously eligible earl…
“I am sorry you didn’t feel you could trust me,” he finally said.
She wanted to say something to make this right, but words failed her. “I had to make sure Reggie was safe,” she said. “That was my only concern.”
“I understand.”
She thought he might say more, address the fact that he’d proposed to her less than twenty-four hours before, but instead he shifted to face her better, his tone less familiar and his expression all that was proper. “So, what now then?”
She blinked in confusion.
“Will you stay here?” he asked. “Or would you prefer to find relatives to take you in? Perhaps you’d like to be escorted back to your home.”
She thought he must not know how much it hurt to hear him talk like this. Like she was a stranger. Despite all odds, they’d formed an intimacy these past weeks. A friendship, even. It may have been strange and irregular, but it had also been genuine and true.
To hear him speaking like this—polite and forced—it hurt more than she could bear.
Any hopes she might have harbored that this thing between them might survive, withered inside her. She’d done nothing but lie to this man. A man who’d done nothing but help her.
What had she expected?
What had she hoped?
That he’d still wish to marry her? That he’d forgive her lies, ignore her lack of trust, and tell her that he loved her above all others?
The School of Charm: Books 1-5 Page 13
