Page 64 of The Earl Next Door
“No, I was worried about the girls, too.”
“My lady.”
They both turned to see Mrs. Lawton standing in the doorway. “Everything is fine, Mrs. Lawton. I need no help.”
“I’m glad of that, my lady. I told Miss Peat I couldn’t disturb you, but she insisted I tell you it was very important you read this note at once. She said it was pinned to the coat of a little girl who was left on the steps of the school.”
“What!” She gasped. “Someone left a child at the school?”
“Mrs. Tallon is going to give her something to eat while she waits for you to come over and let her know what to do.”
She looked at Lyon, and he nodded. “Go ahead and read it now.”
“All right. Thank you, Mrs. Lawton. Tell her I’ll be over shortly.”
Adeline unfolded the note and started reading. Herhand started trembling. Her eyes closed and she whispered an almost silent “No.”
Her gasp was violent and rending, sending a shudder of alarm through Lyon.
“I can’t believe this.” Adeline grabbed her stomach and bent over double as if in pain.
Lyon caught her in his arms and helped her to sit on the settee as the note fluttered to the floor. He knelt protectively in front of her and placed his hands on her knees, chilled by how hard she was taking the news. “Adeline, tell me what’s happened? Who’s it from?”
She lifted her head and looked at him. Her golden-brown eyes glistened with shock. “My husband’s mistress. She left Wake’s daughter at the school. She wants me to take care of her and let her attend the school.”
Chapter 20
Adeline tried to slow her breathing, but it was impossible to do. Nor could she stop her limbs from trembling or her body from shaking.
He looked back at her and asked, “Did you know he had a child?”
The roaring in her ears was intense but she managed a nod.
“That’s damn brazen of her to bring the girl to you.” Without asking, Lyon picked up the note and started reading.
“I can’t believe she’d ask this of me,” Adeline whispered. Heartache and bitterness that she’d long since buried boiled from her heart and mind, consuming her. “I won’t do it. I can’t. It’s vile of her to even ask it of me.” She looked up at Lyon. “The girl must be givenback to her mother. I don’t want to see either of them. Would you please go tell Mrs. Tallon for me?”
Lyon looked up at her. Concern edged his features, and it threatened to deplete what little control she had on her emotions. She didn’t know if she could withstand his sympathy without collapsing into tears.
“Did you read the note to the end?” he asked.
“No,” she said curtly.
“Adeline.”
“No,” she answered in a harsher tone. “I don’t want to read it. Why should I want to see her, hear from her, or read anything she has to say to me or anyone else?”
Lyon seemed to think about his words, before answering. “All right, but you must know what she said, so you’ll hear it from me. Your brother-in-law, the Earl of Wake, has not honored your husband’s allowance to her in over a year. She no longer has the means to care for her child and is giving you guardianship.”
The anguish and destroying despair that Adeline had seen on Fanny’s mother’s face that afternoon near the docks flashed across her mind, wounding her further. Because of that, Adeline understood a mother wanting, deserving the right to adequately take care of her children. But this wasn’t fair. She viciously blinked the image from her mind. She had to. This was different from Fanny and her mother and all the other children she saw that day. This tore at her soul.
“I’m sorry. I can’t help her. Not either of them.” Adeline shook her head, the shock wearing off and anger at this woman building inside her. It was wrong to be forced into a situation that was impossible to bear.“I owe her nothing. She must take care of her child as best she can.”
“The note says she left London yesterday and paid someone to deliver the girl to your school today.”
“It doesn’t matter. I will have someone find the woman,” she said, wiping at the wetness she felt gathering in the corners her eyes. “I won’t have her daughter at the school. Why would she even ask me to do this? She must know how I feel about her.”
Lyon took hold of her trembling hands and held them tightly in her lap. His touch was warm and comforting. The understanding she saw in his face was depleting the little control she had on her emotions, making her want to melt into his arms and cry from the pain this caused her. “Everyone in London must know by now that you helped start a school for unfortunate girls.”
