Page 72 of Hunted By the Guardian
“Excuse me?” Her father faced her.
“She has a right to an answer from you,” Violet told him sharply. “She has a right to know how her life would have been different if she had done the right thing.”
“Why are you concerned with her rights?” Jonathan asked. “You can’t possibly be on her side, Violet. After what she did? You understand she’s the reason Noah was abandoned?”
“Of course I understand,” Violet said. “And no, I’m not on her side. But I won’t allow my father to walk away from this as if he has nothing to atone for. If he was the kind of man who made a woman feel safe, no matter what complications she came with, Laura wouldn’t have done what she did. But you’ve never been that man,” she told her father firmly. “I have never been safe in your care. And it doesn’t surprise me to know that Laura never felt safe either. I will never look kindly on what she did, but I do pity her for having to make such a terrible choice, truly.”
Laura was staring at Violet as if she had never seen her before in her life. “To hear you say you understand my plight…” she began.
Violet shook her head. “Make no mistake about this. I do not understand. I know that little boy, and he deserved the world. A mother who loved him and would give him the care he needed. You were never that for him, just as my father was never that for me. You prioritized yourself. But you both bear some responsibility for what happened.”
“Give him back to me,” Laura said. “There’s no point in him being a burden to someone else now that your father has clearly decided I’m unworthy of his house.”
“No,” Violet said.
Then she looked at Jonathan, needing to be sure that he would agree.
He nodded once, briefly.
She turned back to Laura. “No,” she said again, with more strength and confidence in her voice this time. “You will never have him again. You will never be trusted with him. If you wish to see him, you may contact us to make arrangements. He ought to be able to talk to you—but only if he wishes to do so. If that isn’t what he wants, we’re not going to force his hand. It will be entirely his decision.”
“That’s right,” Jonathan spoke up. “From now on, young Noah will remain in my care, as my ward.”
Warmth filled Violet.
This was the thing she had worried about most of all, in everything that had happened—that Noah would find himself without a loving guardian.
Looking at Jonathan now, she was sure that it wasn’t so.
Jonathan was going to take responsibility for Noah. Not because he had to. This was a clear and easy way out of that duty that no one would fault him for claiming. He could give Noah back to Laura right now, and there would be nothing wrong with it in anyone’s eyes apart from Violet’s.
He wasn’t going to do that.
He was fighting to keep Noah and to make sure that Noah was safe.
It was the only thing Violet had wanted in all of this.
But even as she had that thought, an intrusive idea wriggled at the back of her mind.
No. It was something you wanted, to be sure. But it wasn’t the only thing, was it?
CHAPTER 38
“Your Grace,” Lord Barchester said heavily, “I realize I’ve been rude to you during your time here, but now I must be indecorous once more and ask you to leave us. I have some things I need to sort out with my daughter, and with Miss Trevet.”
A part of Jonathan was tempted to acquiesce. He did not want to be a part of the discussion of Laura Trevet’s future any longer than was strictly necessary. Most of him wanted to forget that she existed. The longer he stood here staring at her, the more he began to see Noah in the roundness of her eyes and the shape of her nose, and that bothered him. He couldn’t look at her with anything but loathing, and he had come to love Noah so much that it was difficult—somewhat painful—to see those features on her face.
But of course, he couldn’t leave. Not yet. He hadn’t done all he had come here to do. Even if he hadn’t known his true purpose in being here when he’d knocked on the door, the moment he had seen her face, it had become crystal clear to him. It couldn’t be ignored or denied.
“Lord Barchester,” he said,” I can’t leave until I’ve had a moment to speak to your daughter alone.”
Lord Barchester frowned. “That’s hardly appropriate.”
“No, I’ll speak to him,” Violet said. She stepped toward the sitting room door and pulled it open, as though inviting her father to leave. Not for the first time, Jonathan was awed by her confidence and willingness to stand up for what she wanted. “Father, perhaps you and Laura ought to go and talk in another room. I’m sure there’s much the two of you would like to say to one another right now.”
Lord Barchester wasn’t giving up that easily. “It isn’t proper for you to be on your own with a gentleman, Violet. Whatever he wants to say, he ought to say in front of your father.”
“Father,” Violet sighed, and she suddenly sounded very tired. “I have been sharing a home with this man for weeks. This will not be my first time alone in a room with him. If there was to be a scandal, it would have happened already. Certainly we have opened ourselves up to it. I encourage you not to worry so much at this stage. And,” she added, “if I wish to speak with him alone, you really can’t prevent it. You can force us to meet outside the house, but that’s as far as your power extends in the matter.”
