He thought about the way she'd pleaded with him to make amends with his father—amends that would surely result in the restoration of his fortune. He thought she'd asked that out of concern for his well-being, but now he realized she'd never been concerned with anyone's well-being but her own.
He'd given her his heart, his soul. And it wasn't enough.
Eighteen hours later, Victoria was racing through the woods. Her father had kept her prisoner through the night and morning and well into the afternoon. He had untied her with a stern lecture about behaving herself and honoring her father, but she let only twenty minutes go by before she climbed through her window and ran off. Robert was going to be frantic. Or furious. She didn't know which, and she was more than a little apprehensive about finding out.
Castleford Manor came into view, and Victoria forced herself to slow down. She had never been to Robert's home; he had always come to call at her cottage. She realized now, after the marquess's vehement opposition to their betrothal, that Robert had been afraid his father would treat Victoria rudely.
With a trembling hand she knocked on the door.
A liveried servant answered, and Victoria gave him her name, telling him that she wished to see the Earl of Macclesfield.
“He is not here, miss,” was the reply.
Victoria blinked. “I beg your pardon.”
“He left for London early this morning.”
“But that's not possible!”
The servant gave her a condescending look. “The marquess did ask to see you, should you call.”
Robert's father wanted to speak with her? That was even more unbelievable than the fact that Robert had left for London. Numbly Victoria let herself be led through the great hall and into a small sitting room. She glanced around her surroundings. The furnishings were far more opulent than anything she and her family had ever owned, and yet she knew instinctively that she had not been shown to the best sitting room.
A few minutes later the Marquess of Castleford appeared. He was a tall man and looked very much like Robert, except for the little white frown lines around his mouth. And his eyes were different—flatter, somehow.
“You must be Miss Lyndon,” he said.
“Yes,” she replied, holding herself tall. Her world was falling apart, but she wasn't going to let this man see it. “I'm here to see Robert.”
“My son has left for London.” The marquess paused. “To look for a wife.”
Victoria flinched. She couldn't help it. “He told you this?”
The marquess didn't speak, preferring to take a moment to assess the situation. His son had admitted to him that he had planned to elope with this girl, but that she had proven false. Victoria's presence at Castleford, combined with her almost desperate demeanor, seemed to point to the contrary. Obviously Robert had not been in possession of the full facts when he had wildly packed his bags and vowed never to return to the district. But the marquess was damned if he was going to let his son throw his life away over this little nobody.
And so he said, “Yes. It is high time he married, don't you think?”
“I cannot believe you're asking me that.”
“My dear Miss Lyndon. You were nothing but a diversion. Surely you know that.”
Victoria said nothing, merely stared at him in horror.
“I don't know whether my son managed to have his fun with you or not. Frankly I don't particularly care.”
“You can't speak to me like that.”
“My dear girl, I can speak to you any way I damn well please. As I was saying, you were a diversion. I cannot condone my son's actions, of course; it is a touch unsavory to go about deflowering the daughter of the local vicar.”
“He did no such thing!”
The marquess looked at her with a condescending expression. “However, it is your job to keep your virtue intact, not his. And if you failed in that endeavor, well, then that is your problem. My son made you no promises.”
“But he did,” Victoria said in a low voice.
Castleford cocked a brow. “And you believed him?”
Victoria's legs went instantly numb, and she had to clutch the back of a chair for support. “Oh, my good Lord,” she whispered. Her father had been right all along. Robert had never meant to marry her. If he had he would have waited to see why she had not been able to meet him. He probably would have seduced her somewhere on the way to Gretna Green, and then…
Victoria didn't even want to think about the fate that had almost befallen her. She remembered the way Robert has asked her to “show him” how she loved him, how earnestly he'd tried to convince her that their intimacies were not sinful.