Lord Greyton's Fall From Grace (Lords of Avalon Novella Series) (20 page)

Grace
suddenly felt
dizzy
.
She tried to walk to the chaise but her legs were wobbly. The room began to spin.
S
he broke into a
cold
sweat and
she
felt herself
falling
.
She
crumple
d
to the floor.

“Papa?”

“My dear, t
he good Doctor told me your
secret,
”
h
e
r
father said in a kind but stern tone. “You maid has verified it.”

“Secret?” Grace lifted a hand to her aching head
.
Oh, that she carried Owen’s child
.
That secret.
Her heart felt like it would burst once again
.

“Lord Marston
called for you
.
He
is willing to marry you
.
He knows you carry Greyton’s child
, for I told him
.
He is willing to take you,
ruined as you are. I
t is a very generous offer
, and very kind of him to allow you to keep the child
.
I think you should accept
.”

Grace tried to sit up
but
was seized by nausea
.
He
r
father stepped out while Jenny held the chamber pot for her to wretch in.

He came back in several minutes later
.
“May I tell Marston you accept?”

“No!” Grace said sternly
.
“I do not wish to marry
Lord
Marston
.
I want to marry Owen, I love him, Papa
!
There has to be some mistake
.
He said he tried to offer for me before he left but you would not hear it until his return
.
He gave me his mother’s engagement ring to keep until his return
.
He planned to offer for me
and said we would marry
!” Grace sobbed.

“Child, I regret to inform you that Greyton never mentioned anything to me about offering for you
.
Had he mentioned it, I would have agreed, I saw how happy you were
.”

“He would not lie!” Grace retorted angrily.

“And you are saying that I, your own Papa, would lie to you?”

Grace frowned
.
“No
…
I
-
I’m so co
nfused Papa
.”
She began to cry.
H
eart-wrenching sobs escaped her
.

Her father rested his hand upon her arm
.
“Have a good cry, dear
.
I shall talk to you tomorrow morning
.
Get some rest.”

Many hours later, Grace gave a letter to Jenny
.
“Jenny, please take this letter and make certain it gets posted
.
There has been some huge mistake
.
I must reach Owen. He loves me, I know
in my heart
he does
.”

“Yes, Miss.”
Jenny felt a pang of guilt
as she accepted the letter
.
Truly, she had never seen any woman as heart-broken as her mistress
.
She
considered
taking the letter into the village the next day
when she went to see her m
other.

When she stepped
into the
corridor
,
the Squire spotted the letter in her hand
.

“She’s a stubborn one, isn’t she
, Jenny
?”

“Yes, Squire.” Jenny dutifully
placed the letter in the squire’s outstretched hand
as she had done with all of the other letters Grace had written to Greyton
.

Owen sat on the patio of the Villa where
he and his colleagues
resided while
staying
in Italy
.

He re-read the letter he received from Libby explaining her meeting with Grace on the Quay
.
Why had
Grace
not written
? 
Libby said Grace
looked pale and thin
.
That she appeared to be
in poor health and spirits
.
He hadn’t received one damned letter from her.
He expected to at least have heard from her after he sent the package of Venetian lace
to use
for her wedding gown
.
Six
more weeks
.
In s
ix
weeks he
w
ould return and find out directly from Grace
what the hell had happened
.

Bloody Hell
!
He’d fallen madly in love with Grace Brackenridge and it seemed she’d had a change of heart!
It was their day of rest from their excavation site.
He swirled the brandy in his glass and propped his booted feet upon a stool and enjoyed the view of the Tyrrhenian Sea beyond
.
As the hours passed, his
view
of the sea eventually
blurred
.
The others
went
into the
nearby
village to find some sport
.
All save Jack
who
was entertaining his Italian mistress at her home
down the lane
.
Owen
preferred to sit under the olive trees, gaze at the Mediterranean and drink himself into oblivion
.

Anything to stop the pain that ripped his heart in two. He should have heeded those feelings
to stay behind with Grace he experienced before leaving Devon
.
Those feelings were a warning
.
This he now knew.
What kind of warning? T
o save his soul he could not
come up with an answer, or
figure out
what
was happening between him and Grace.
The morning he left Roseland, he was certain Grace
loved him as much as he loved her.

As Grace entered the shop in Hartland
she was so preoccupied she
nearly ran into Mrs. Woodson
.
Mrs. Woodson
, a local widow, still
fairly
young and quite attractive,
dropped
a stack of
letters
to
the floor
.

“I apologize, Mrs. Woodson
.
Allow m
e
to pick up your letters.” Grace bent and froze
.
The letter staring up at her was written in Owen’s hand with his Italian direction on it
.
She paid no attention to the other side
.
With shaking fingers she handed the letters to Mrs. Woodson.

“
Oh dear,” Mrs. Woodson blushed, “
I trust you won’t tell
anyone
my secret, Miss Brackenridge.
” She continued in a whisper,
“
Greyton has always had a tendre for me
.
He
writes to me once a week from Italy
.
He
says he mi
sses me terribly
.
Imagine that, an
d
being
a woman of my age
,”
Mrs. Woodson nearly purred
.

“No
, I will not tell
,
” Grace said numbly
.
“Your secret is safe with me, Mrs. Woodson
.”
Grace turned and pushed open the door.

“Dear, you
’ve
only just arrived
.
What did you come for?
” Mr
s. Woodson protested
.

“My apologies, Mrs. Woodson,
I
-I
feel
suddenly ill
.
I must return home.”
Grace pushed open the door and exited onto the street.

Mrs. Woodson turned the letter over
to view The Squire’s attempt at covering up his daughter’s direction with hers. As it turned out, he hadn’t needed to
bother
doing so
.
She smiled
to herself
.
She
earned a great deal of money for
so
easy
a
task.

Grace trembled as she made her way to the phaeton and
the
driver awaiting her.

“I need to go home.”

“Yes, Miss.”

She sat straight and tall in the seat
.
She would not cry in the middle of Hartford
.
The town would have plenty to say about her soon enough
.
She
needed to think
.
She struggled to make sense of everything.

It appeared Owen had not been truthful with her
.
It appeared Owen had forsaken her
.
She told herself it certainly seemed everything she thought there was between
them
was
a lie
.
Owen had a mistress
.
That he missed terribly
, e
nough to write to her
in any case
.
Grace had received one cold
, curt
letter that, try as she might, she didn’t understand. In it he had not professed his love or even said that he missed her
.

It became quite clear to her at that moment that Owen was angry with her because she carried his child.
There was also the possibility that he had never truly loved her
.
That he had used her
.
That all she was to him was a mere dalliance to fill his time with before he left for Italy.
She had been a fool!

She ran upstairs after a
lighting from the phaeton
.
C
ollaps
ing
on her bed
, Grace
gave in to heart-wrenching sobs
that racked her body and left her numb and spent as darkness fell over Hartland
.
Her heart was
utterly and completely
torn in two.
It was broken
.
It could never be men
ded
.
She was certain of that.

“She is close, Marston
.
Her interaction with Mrs. Woodson did the trick, I think
.
She has stayed in her room for three days.”

“I want her married to me before Greyton returns!”

“There are five weeks left, Marston
.
She is almost four months along
.
Give me two days
.
I will get back to you
.
Prepar
e for a wedding
.
We will have
a small, private
ceremony
the day after
she agrees
.
Time is of the essence, as you well know.” The Squire took a sip of his brandy
.

“I want it done by next week,
” Marston wa
rned before he turned on his hee
l and left
.

“Grace?”

Grace opened her eyes and looked upon her father
.
She had
fallen asleep
upon the chaise
while trying to read
.

“I’m worried about you Grace. Jenny says you eat no more than a bird
.
I don’t know what has happened, but Grace, either you’ll have to marry or I’ll have to send you to your Aunt’s home in Ireland
to have the child and it will have to be given up
.
You are nearly four months along
.
Marston
called
earlier
.
He still will take you but he’s tired of waiting
.
What shall I tell him, Grace?
”