“I am not Paul, Victoria,” he stated, his voice thick with emotion.
She reached out, clasping his hands. “I know that you are nothing like him and it’s a credit to you, truly. But I just cannot marry you or anyone.”
He shook his head, a muscle working in his jaw. "May I kiss you goodbye?" he asked.
She met his kiss without hesitation. His lips crushed hers, their tongues tangling. Liquid heat pumped through her veins, down into her stomach, to settle between her legs.
She would miss this. This hunger that he made her feel every time they touched. Albert would be the last man she would ever be like this with again in her life, and she would kiss him, take her fill of him until there was nothing but fond, delicious memories of what they had to keep her warm at night.
You're a fool, Victoria, a little voice in her mind taunted.
She pushed it aside, just as Albert wrenched away, standing and striding to his desk and packing numerous papers into a leather satchel.
"You should leave, Victoria. Go now, before we're caught, and you're forced to marry me. I will not have you in that way."
She stood, her legs a little unsteady. His dismissal of her pinched at her heart, but she did as he asked, walking silently to the door.
"I am truly sorry, Albert. I shall ask Mama for us to leave. I will say I have a letter from Alice begging us to return home. Something to do with the baby. Are you in agreement with this plan?"
He nodded, a muscle working in his jaw, and yet he would not look at her. Instead, he remained focused on the papers on his desk, his eyes overly bright and glassy. Horror clutched at her heart that he was upset, more than she'd ever thought possible.
Had she broken his heart?
She took a calming breath, forcing her legs to move out the door and toward her horse. She did not look back.
Victoria found her mama in her room back at the house, still suffering from the megrim from partaking in too much champagne at the ball. Victoria sat beside the bed, shaking her mama's arm a little to wake her.
"Mama, I'm back from my ride and have received a letter from Alice requesting that we return home. Nothing is wrong, but she would like us closer with the baby due now in only a few weeks."
Her mother shuffled up on the numerous cushions at her back, blinking away her sleepiness. "Alice wrote again? I received a letter only yesterday stating all was well."
Victoria shrugged, not liking the fact she was lying to her dearest mama, but knowing it was necessary. "I do not know about the letter you received. I only know of the one that she sent to me that arrived today." She stood, going over to the bell pull. "Should I ring for your maid to have the packing started? I have already instructed mine to ready things for home."
Her mother tossed back the blankets, and Victoria knew they were going home. If there was one thing her mama prided most about her role in life, it was that of mother, and if her child needed her, made up or not, she would return home and cluck over her for weeks.
"Of course, ring the bell, dear. We shall depart today. It is not yet noon, and if we hurry, we should be home just after nightfall."
Victoria rang the bell, only too ready to return home to Dunsleigh.
Oh, who was she kidding? She was not returning to Dunsleigh. She was running away like the coward she was. And not only did she know it, but she was also certain Albert knew it as well.
Chapter 33
"Can someone please explain why the carriage is preparing to leave for Dunsleigh? I saw our driver helping with the loading of trunks," Josh asked, walking into her room.
Victoria looked up from her desk in her room where she had been sitting the past half hour, hoping her escape from Rosedale would occur before Lord Melvin returned from his hunting lodge.
It was rude of her to leave without saying a formal goodbye, but the one she had endured with him at the lodge was bad enough. She could not face him again.
"Mama and I are returning to Dunsleigh. Alice has requested that we return home." And she just hoped she was able to talk to her sister before she arrived at Dunsleigh's door and Alice outed her lie for what it was. Her mother would never forgive her that she had made them flee Rosedale when there was no valid reason to do so. Even if Lord Melvin knew of her excuse, her mama could never know the truth of it.
Never know that her daughter had been partaking in scandalous liaisons with a man, not her husband. And not only that but then to leave without marrying him as he wished.
"This hasn't got anything to do with you and Lord Melvin does it, Victoria? I know that he has been courting you. He asked for my permission to court and propose when the time came. I gave him my blessing, of course. He is a man of honor and good standing. You are not running away, are you?"
How on earth did her brother know her shameful truth?
"I do not wish to marry Lord Melvin, and it is unkind to him to allow him to believe that I do so. While I have been instructing him in the art
