The Scandal You Started, page 44
Dominic observed him for a long moment with an ache swamping his chest, the gentle crackle of a fire filling the silence.
“Do you want me to bow?” the man asked hesitantly.
A quiet chuckle shook Dominic’s chest as he stood from the velvet-cushioned chair, leaving his cravat and morning coat hanging on the back. “Not at all,” he said and walked around the engraved dark wood desk that matched the rest of the furnishings in the room.
The man let out a little grunt when Dominic smacked his arms around him and embraced his slim frame.
“Hello, River,” Dominic muttered. “It is good to see you again.”
River awkwardly patted Dominic’s back. “It’s good to see you too.”
Dominic held him back by the shoulders, then gestured towards the red-cushioned settees before the fireplace. “Come. Let us sit by the fire. It is rather cold today.”
“How was your journey here from the city? Did you hire a horse this time?” Dominic said once he made himself comfortable in the corner of the sofa perpendicular to River.
The Norbridge Estate, the main residence of the Norland family since the fourth marquess, was located within the countryside that surrounded Tanbridge City. It was a few hours’ distance on horseback and nearly a full day by carriage, which River had learned the hard way.
“Yes, I did,” River said. “But I had to stop a few times, because my face was going numb in the cold.”
Dominic chuckled. “I see.”
They both fell quiet as they stared at each other.
“You’ve lost weight. Again,” mumbled River.
Dominic dropped his head and smiled sadly to himself.
River wasn’t the first person to have commented on his haggard appearance. His family and friends brought it up often, worrying about his withdrawal from society, his lack of appetite, and his haunting the halls of the estate until the small hours of the morning, unable to sleep.
But how was Dominic meant to eat, sleep, and live like normal, as if there wasn’t a gaping hole in his chest where his heart was supposed to be? A heart he’d left bleeding at the feet of a woman who was living her life two hundred years in the future.
A woman who had no idea he remembered her, or missed her, thought of her, longed for her every single second of every minute, day and night.
“Perhaps,” Dominic mused as he raised his chin. “But you look well.”
A pinkness washed across River’s cheeks. “Thank you.” He flexed his left hand shyly. “Kelly and I got married.”
Dominic’s chest clenched and gut twisted in a mix of yearning, surprise, and jealousy as his eyes caught on the silver band on River’s third finger. Though he still felt himself grin.
“Congratulations,” he said as he clapped the historian on the back. “Although you did not mention you were getting married when I saw you last.”
“That’s because we kind of got married on a whim…because of you, actually.”
Dominic blinked in surprise.
“The time before last, before I came to see you, Kelly kept asking me why I was travelling in the POTeM every two weeks, even though I was still suspended,” River explained. “She wouldn’t let it go, so I had to tell her I was keeping an eye on you at Victor’s instructions.” He grimaced. “She lost it and yelled at me. Said it was going to hurt Rayna if she found out. She didn’t talk to me the rest of the day. But then in bed that night she said, ‘Let’s get married.’
“I was surprised at first. We’ve only been engaged a year. But when I came back, we booked a registry at the city hall and got married with only our immediate family and a few friends there. We’re planning to have a proper ceremony in the autumn, though. But yeah.” River scratched his jaw, smiling coyly. “I’m a married man now.”
Dominic forced his grin to widen. “Marriage suits you well.”
“Thank you.”
As Dominic eyed River’s ring again, his smile evaporated, and he clasped his hands together in a nervous grip. “How…how is Rayna?”
“She’s doing a lot better. She’s still got another two months on her suspension, but Cassie offered her a short-term project to start on in a few days, even though Rayna rejected the original job offer. But she’s good. She’s doing well.”
Dominic exhaled both in pain and relief.
When River had visited during Dominic’s first month back in his own time and told him how badly Rayna was doing, it had broken him, mentally and emotionally. He’d begged River to take him to the future there and then. He’d wanted to forget the plan and just be with Rayna. To apologise for trying to leave while she slept. For hurting her in the POTeM room.
The moment she’d rushed in through those metal doors his heart had swelled, but his mind had panicked. She wasn’t supposed to have come after him, but he’d been so glad she had. She hadn’t actually wanted him to leave, but he had to anyway. He just hadn’t been able to say goodbye because it wasn’t over.
He’d wanted to tell her that. Instead, he’d had to push her away, so she didn’t see him put on the same head contraption as River to prevent his memory from being wiped. But her stricken expression and wet eyes had plagued him since. Hearing how she’d improved every month when River visited was his only salve.
“Is she…” Dominic gulped, brushing over the empty place on his left pinkie finger. “Is she still wearing my ring?”
“It’s still on a chain around her neck.” River nodded his head to the side. “She’s still calling you ‘the fucking idiot,’ though.”
Dominic chuckled, tired but satisfied. “That is fine. So long as she does not forget me, she can insult me however she wishes to. In fact, encourage it. Make certain she stays angry at me until I find a way back to her. I can convince her to forgive me if she is angry. I do not think I could convince her to love me again if she becomes indifferent.”
River scoffed. “She’s definitely not showing any signs of becoming indifferent. Honestly, I can’t shake the feeling she knows something, which is why she’s so annoyed whenever anyone talks about you.”
“Do you think Victor may have told her something?”
“Don’t know. But I wouldn’t rule it out, considering how worried he was about her that first month. Or it’s the ring. Maybe she thinks you left it with her for a reason, but she’s angry you didn’t tell her why.”
That was exactly why Dominic had asked Victor to give it to her. So that maybe she’d use that clever mind of hers and read between the lines as she had done with the letters, and realise he’d left her the ring as a promise he was going to come back for her.
“How’s it going with the plan, though?” River then asked.
The plan.
The very reason Dominic had had to leave Rayna and return to his time.
It’d been Victor’s idea.
“I think Yasmin was on to something in her notes. Maybe a bigger Rupture can’t be fixed in the present and has to be managed in the past,” he’d said in River’s car as they’d driven to the lab.
“But if I return, will history not simply continue as she said?” Dominic had questioned.
“Maybe not if you’re stitching yourself out of it.”
Dominic had understood what Victor was suggesting, even if he hadn’t liked the sound of it. So that was exactly what he’d threatened Sheun with in her office when he’d returned the papers she’d given Rayna.
“I shall return only to fix my Rupture,” he’d growled. “And if you do not agree to this plan, I will wreak havoc on this project like nothing you have ever seen before. And you and Jim shall pay the biggest price for hurting Rayna the most.”
“I don’t have anything personal against Miss Faez, Lord Norland,” Sheun had said with a sigh. “I’m only trying to protect the project.”
“Then consider this an experiment,” Victor had interjected, “to help us better understand Ruptures and how we can protect the project and our timeline from them.”
Sheun had contemplated it for a short while before her expression had softened, and she’d nodded. “Fine. But I do have some conditions.”
No one, especially Rayna, could know what they were doing, but for the four of them and the three scientists who would help with Dominic’s journey. If he could not reduce his Rupture significantly within a year, then he would give up his memory and remain in the past forever.
Those had been her conditions, to which Dominic had laid down counter ones.
In the case that he failed, he would live his life as history had dictated, but he would not give up his memories of Rayna. If River was willing, then he’d visit Dominic so they could update each other monthly. And if Rayna wasn’t to know, then one month for him in the past would equate to two weeks for her in the future.
“I accept,” Sheun had said, holding her hand out. “But you’ll leave early tomorrow morning.”
He’d shaken her hand, agreeing to her deal, before they’d written it on paper and all signed it. Then the next day he’d left, and begun working on reducing his Rupture immediately.
“I am making steady progress,” Dominic said, sitting tall. “All instructions for my investments have now been finalised, and they can be managed and released without me. Art has agreed to be my proxy, which will allow him to monitor where the money goes when I am not here. So far, none of the new land stewards are causing me any concerns, and they are working well with Art.
“Solomon is happy to continue managing the books, though he told Patricia to curtail her silk indulgence, and she did not take it well. I do not believe he will make the same mistake again. But I have ensured Patricia has her own protected funds to build her fabric empire with.”
“What about Candreas?” River said.
Dominic sighed. “He is still being obstinate. He refuses to accept the funds, horses, and investment I have moved into his name, and nothing I do or say seems to be convincing him to take it. In fact, he only seems to be growing suspicious of my insistence. In fact, everyone is. Even my solicitors are asking if I am well and healthy. And I believe Mother Penny may hold a smallsword to my throat if I refuse to attend one more social event.”
“That’s because you still haven’t told them what you’re doing.”
“I will. I shall. Soon.”
Just as soon as he had some proof that he was on the right path to getting back to Rayna, he’d tell his family about her and his plans to be with her.
“What about Lady Claire?”
The hope boosting Dominic’s confidence came crashing down, and he gritted his teeth, glancing away.
“Dominic,” River implored with a sympathetic sigh. “You can’t keep avoiding her.”
He glared at the man. “I can, and I will.”
He would continue to avoid meeting Lady Claire Ermina no matter what.
She was the reason he’d avoided all social events and balls throughout the Season, sending Art to chaperone Patricia along with Solomon and Mother Penny. Dominic didn’t want to chance bumping into Lady Claire. He’d hired two Street Runners to keep an eye on her whereabouts for the most part, so he could do everything in his power not to meet her.
“But avoiding her hasn’t led to her marrying someone else,” River said. “Victor thinks you’re better off meeting her. Then you might actually be able to push her towards someone else.”
Dominic heard sense behind the suggestion, but his heart and mind rebelled.
He didn’t want to meet her at all. He was scared of doing so.
What if…what if Rayna’s mother had been right? What if he met Lady Claire and history reverted to its original path? All the work he’d been doing, his effort to get to Rayna, would be undone. He would rather hide away than face that possibility, even if it meant he was a coward.
“I can’t,” he rasped, shaking his head. “I will find a way to ensure she marries within the next four months, but I will not meet her. I will do anything but that.”
Chapter 54
Dominic
Dominic couldn’t stop thinking about what River had said after the man left the estate on the back of his hired horse. He thought about it almost as much as he thought about Rayna.
Maybe he did have to meet Lady Claire in order to reduce his Rupture enough. Maybe he would become the trigger for her meeting another man, finally freeing him to go back to Rayna. And therefore, by not meeting her, he was trapping himself in the past, doomed to run out of time.
It was why a month later, he resolved himself to attend the first ball of the Season after the Peace Celebrations, hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Hattington—a very close school friend of Dominic’s.
Except when the night actually came, he felt sick to his stomach. So much so that his family thought he was coming down with something and insisted he stay home and rest.
He still felt horribly nauseous a couple of days later as he thought about the ball his sister, Mary, and her husband, Flyn, were throwing in the evening. He couldn’t get out of attending unless he wanted to face the wrath of his younger sister, now the Countess of Flyntward.
Thankfully, Mother Penny and Patricia had taken the carriage to the Flyntward residence to help oversee preparations, and Dominic had no idea where Art and Solomon had gone, so he was as alone as he could be with a hoard of servants silently floating around the townhouse.
It meant there was no one to bother him as he mentally prepared himself for the evening event. Nor anyone to question why he was lying on cushions in front of the library fireplace, his coat and neckcloth missing, his shirt sleeves rolled up, and paths of tears streaked across his nose.
At least he was alone until the library door suddenly burst open at the end of the room his booted feet lay facing. A ruckus of male voices and heavy footsteps streamed in.
Dominic startled up onto an elbow and quickly scrubbed a hand over his face, swiping away the evidence of wetness under his eyes. When he glanced towards the intrusion, Candreas was standing to the side of four men in black, grey, and navy half dress, two of them still wearing gloves, all of them in polished boots. They stared at him with varying degrees of confusion.
“Thorney,” Raven, the Marquess of Ravensaw, said, his ruby-red eyes narrowed in amused curiosity. “What the deuces are you doing down there?”
Heir to the Westbridge Dukedom, Raven’s silvery-brown hair, ruby-red eyes, and arrogant grin gave him the air of a fictional villain who seduced innocents with sweet words. While he’d never been that kind of scoundrel, Raven had, in fact, scandalised the ton with his rakish ways. But if there were anyone to prove reformed rakes made the best husbands, it was Raven. He loved his wife dearly but still spent his time scandalising the ton with how openly he loved her in public.
“I was resting by the fire,” Dominic muttered, sitting upright.
“Really?” Flyn, his brother-in-law, said, his green eyes sharp behind his spectacles. “Rather looks like you’re moping.”
The Earl of Flyntward was a stern man who’d stuck to the rules of propriety with severity until Mary challenged them four years ago. Though since their marriage, and in the two years they’d had their son, that sternness had melted away significantly. But fatherhood had given him an annoying perception that usually turned out to be accurate.
“I am not moping,” Dominic grumbled.
He had in fact been doing just that.
On the other side of Flyn, Bentley, the Duke of Hattington, had been Dominic’s best friend since school. He’d also lost his father at a young age, but the previous duke had been abusive, so Bentley hadn’t mourned his death very much. His heart had been hardened as a result, but since marrying his older sister’s friend, laughter lit up Bentley’s brown eyes often.
Then there was Brandon Severin, a midnight-blue-eyed wealthy industrialist, who seemed innocently charming at first until one realised Severin had convinced them to sign away the entirety of their wealth to him. He’d tried to do it to all of four of them at one of their clubs when they’d first met him, but now they all considered him a loyal friend.
Dominic eyed the group of men. “Why have you all barged into my library?”
“We are your friends,” Bentley said, walking forward, and the other three followed. “We will bloody damn barge in whenever we please. Especially when you do not show your face at any of our clubs upon returning to town, nor turn up when invited to a ball.”
“I apologise,” Dominic muttered, averting his gaze away. “I was under the weather.”
“Yes, I can see that.” Bentley offered a hand. “Get up, would you?”
Dominic clasped his friend’s palm and pushed himself up as Bentley pulled.
Once he was standing, Severin grabbed his other arm. “Sit down so we can have a word with you.”
“I am not particularly in the mood for talking,” Dominic said, but he let them push him down into the armchair that matched the three cushioned settees facing each other.
“Then do not talk,” Raven said, taking a corner seat as Severin sat next to him. “Hamilton, lock the door and come here.” Candreas did as he was told, then Raven waved in Dominic’s direction. “Tell us why you think your imbecile of a master has been acting bizarre ever since he disappeared for a week. And no need to mince your word. You’ll be family soon anyway.”
Candreas spluttered out a cough into his fist, his cheeks going tomato red. “I beg your pardon, my lord. I do not know what you mean.”
“Bollocks,” Raven said dismissively. “Now go on. Tell us. Why is Thorney sulking?”
It took a moment for Candreas to gather himself, though the flicker of his lashes clearly suggested he wished Raven would elaborate on the family comment. “I cannot say with certainty, my lord,” he answered. “But I can confirm the whole household is…worried. His lordship has…” Candreas shifted on his feet. “He has offered me funds on multiple occasions, and it would seem from his other actions that…”
“Spit it out,” Severin encouraged.
Candreas cleared his throat. “It would seem his lordship is either ailing and may possibly be preparing for the worst. Or…he is planning to leave.”
