“To what purpose?” she breathed out. “I certainly didn’t want to make you more miserable than you already were.”
“I don’t think it’s possible to be more miserable than I am,” he admitted because she was the only person he could possibly confide in now. “Does anyone else know?” Dear God, had Mother and Veronica been watching him behind their fans this whole time?
But his sister shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of. Veronica is incapable of keeping a secret, but Mama has always kept her own council.”
That was true. Oliver supposed Mother might very well know the whole of it, but—
“And what of Grace?” Ginny asked softly. “Does she still love you?”
He snorted in response. “She’s getting married within the sennight.”
“Oh, Oliver,” Ginny breathed out. “I’m so sorry.” And she looked it as pain etched across her brow in an expression he’d seen way too often the last few months.
“I suppose I always knew this would happen eventually,” he said, hoping to ease his sister’s concern. And he had always known this day would come, but that didn’t make it any easier to take.
“What are you going to do?” Her grey eyes speared him.
There was nothing he could do. If there was a solution, he would’ve already found it by now. A mirthless laugh escaped him. “Actually asked her to run away with me tonight, which she very rightly refused.” He shook his head. “So perhaps I’ll drink myself into an early grave.”
“Oliver.”
“Keeping my options open,” he muttered, though it was a horrible thing to say especially considering the fact that her husband had recently died. What an arse he was. “I’m sorry, Ginny. I’m sure I’ll be miserable company for quite some time. You needn’t keep watch over me. ”
“You have every right to be miserable,” she whispered. “If you need anything—”
“Gin, I just want you to be all right, for your son to thrive, for—”
“We’ll be fine, you’ve already seen to it.”
“What is goingon with you and Lord Prestwood?” Mama asked, striding into Grace’s room without knocking and settling on the edge of the four-poster bed.
Drat! Grace had hoped her mother wouldn’t broach this subject. After all, she’d avoided it with even her sisters for many years. “He’s the most irritating man of my acquaintance,” she replied, hoping the answer would placate Mama if even for a little while.
“He asked you to run off with him,” Mama said very evenly. “You’re fortunate I was the only one in the corridor at the time.”
“Well—” Grace shrugged “—he’s forever saying something foolish, isn’t he? Honestly, Mama, if you tried to make sense out of every little thing Lord Prestwood said, you’d be bound for Bedlam.”
But Mama didn’t look convinced in the least and she heaved a sigh. “How long has this been going on, Grace? Tell me the truth.”
Tears pricked at the back of Grace’s eyes and her bottom lip quivered, and then she very uncharacteristically began to sob. But she’d held it in for so long, for so many years with no one ever being the wiser. But now everything had changed. She was going to marry Daniel Lacy and that felt more real all of a sudden, and at some point her life had spun out of control, and there was nothing she could do about any of it.
Mama’s hand smoothed across Grace’s back. “Shh,” she said gently, which wasn’t exactly like Mama. “Sweetheart, tell me what’s happened.”
Grace took a staggering breath and then said out loud the words she’d never said to another living soul, “I love him, Mama. I always have. But he’s been promised to Lady Eloise and…”
“Oh, Grace.” Mama started to cry too. “My sweet Grace, I am so sorry.”
Together they cried a little more and then Grace pushed up on her elbows. “I like Mr. Lacy, Mama; but not like I love Oliver. But I can’t have Oliver, and we can’t run off together and…”
“Why does history always seem to repeat itself?” Mama muttered under her breath.
At hearing those words, Grace blinked at her mother. “What does that mean?”
Mama looked away and swiped at a fresh set of tears. “I never told you or your sisters any of this. I didn’t want you to think badly of me. I wanted you to be untainted. I…”
“What?” Grace blinked at her mother, when her words trailed off. “You must tell me now.”
“When I was younger than you, I fell most desperately in love with the most dashing man I’d ever met.” She smiled wistfully. “He was adventurous and amusing. Clever, he was very clever. There was no one in the world I ever loved like him.”