Luke said nothing at all. When it happened, he said nothing, and he could not look me in the eye.
***
Noah closed the study door so loudly that Luke could feel the floorboards shaking beneath his feet. On the other side of the door, the group that had gathered whispered and sniggered as they returned to the tea party, clearly delighting in the tasty gossip they could now exchange with friends and acquaintances.
“Luke...” Noah began slowly, walking to his side. Luke held himself stiffly, prepared for the onslaught of anger. He knew Noah had every right to be furious. Luke had gone and done to a lady the very thing that had happened to Noah’s wife. Luke had destroyed a young lady’s reputation as he had always vowed not to do. What was more, he had done it in Noah’s house.
“I cannot apologise to you enough, Noah,” Luke muttered, finding his voice. It had become so deep and low, he no longer recognised it as his own.
“I am not the one you should be apologising to.” Noah shook his head. The words made Luke look up from the floor at last to meet his brother-in-law’s gaze. “Could you not have thought of a more secret place for your assignations?”
“It was not an assignation!” Luke said sharply, but Noah merely turned away, dismissing the words with a wave of his hand. “I didn’t think you would come in here.”
“Plainly. I had purchased a new painting I wished to show to people.” Noah gestured to a fine landscape on the wall. “I was hardly expecting to find you and Miss Storey in one another’s arms in here!”
“I know, I am sorry. I have no excuse, nothing to say at all.”
“Well, think of something to say, Luke. Anything! Because you have done exactly whatthatman did to Jemima. And you know neither of us needs to say his name for us to know who we are talking about.” Noah was speaking fast now, the depths of his anger plainly apparent. “Well? Do you have anything to say?”
Luke stood still, dumbstruck, unable to say anything at all. The thing that broke the silence was laughter outside, reaching them through the window.
“Your secret is out, Luke. The scandal sheets will know of this in days.”
“I....” Luke tried to summon words, but none would come.
“All we can do now is try to soften the wounds. Luke, go. Go home, now. Return later when you have had a chance to think about what you have done.”
“But I—”
“I said go!” Noah snapped and pointed at the door. “Jemima will now have to face everyone’s censure out there again. I should be with her at this time, not in here comforting you. Go!”
Luke needed no more instruction. He nodded and left the room, heading through the house to the front drive. As he walked, all he could think of was Annie as she pushed him off her and how bright red her face was.
What have I done?
***
“Mother, please, no more shouting,” Annie begged. Her tears had nearly stopped. She was sat in the parlour with a handkerchief pressed to her cheeks. Her mother was barely dressed, with her hair falling loose. She had spent the day in bed with her headache until Annie’s return, where the Earl of Bedford had insisted on a meeting where he had told her all of what had happened.
Since that moment, Annie had been sat in the same seat with her mother towering over her, shouting.
“I will shout for as long as I like, Annie,” her mother cried, her voice still loud. “Do you have any understanding of what it is you have done today? God’s wounds, I even tried to protect you from it. I even begged you not to see Lord Yeatman again. I knew it was a mistake to let you out of this house.”
“You could not keep me a prisoner here.”
“I should have done,” Barbara insisted, beginning to pace around the chair where Annie was sat, circling it. “At least then you would not have succumbed to temptation. He is just a man, Annie. It is very easy to say no to such a creature.”
Is it?
Annie was not so convinced. She had gone to Luke willingly, without a second thought.
“Please, mother, it is not what you think.”
“Not what I think?” Barbara stopped pacing and gripped the back of the chair with such suddenness that Annie flinched in the seat and leaned away from her mother. “He is a rake! Notorious. Unwelcome and disliked by many.”
“The scandal sheets were unfair on him.”
“The scandal sheets rule society!” Barbara snapped as if this was the thing of greater importance. “He has destroyed you. Do you not care? Can you honestly sit here and defend him still?”