The crown prince had ordered his attendants to alert the guards at the front gate and send extra guards to all palace entrances, starting with the great hall. If Fiona returned there, they would know. Giles reminded himself of this and tried to remain calm, as he scanned the room for traces of her—until he noticed the necklace on the floor in the corner of the room.
“This necklace…” He picked it up and confirmed his suspicions: It was the necklace he gave Fiona. But its chain was broken and the flowers were warped.
“If it starts to fall off, you must tell me.”
Fiona, who had shown such adamant restraint regarding the gift, would never have treated it so roughly.
When Giles asked Caroline to explain, she shrugged carelessly. “She looked horrible in it, so I took it off for her.”
“You what?”
“Well, that necklace, the Bancroft earldom—she doesn’t deserve any of it. Am I wrong?”
The sheer cruelty of her words made Giles take a step forward and raise an arm. Richard grabbed it before he could strike.
“Gil, stay calm.”
“Rick!”
Richard silenced Giles with a look, then adopted his friendly smile and turned it on Caroline. “Lady Caroline, did Miss Clayburn leave this room on her own?”
“Lord Russel, have you gone mad as well?” Caroline demanded. “Why do you care about that stupid girl?”
“It’s only natural to worry when your friend is missing.”
“Honestly! That harlot is so good at seducing men.”
The muttered curse hit Giles’s ears, its poison sickening him. Fiona was not the woman Caroline said she was—Giles knew that better than anyone. Richard’s grip tightened on Giles’s arm, keeping him grounded.
This is all my fault, Giles thought. Three times, he had shot down the marriage proposal from Caroline’s family. He was exhausted by Caroline’s excessive lust for marriage, but if he hadn’t publicly changed his tune, Fiona’s existence would have been nothing more than a mild thorn in Caroline’s side.
Caroline’s contempt for Fiona stemmed from the belief that she, Caroline—the one who had pushed for marriage again and again—was more worthy of standing by Giles’s side. Giles had used Fiona as a shield to protect him from the barrage of women that he’d faced. Now, he wanted to punch himself for that.
But then something unbelievable passed Caroline’s lips. “Don’t you worry. She’s with her new partner now.”
“What?” Giles asked, staring at her.
Richard stepped in then, his immaculate smile still in place. “Huh? May I ask who the lucky guy is?”
“A common art dealer. He begged me earlier, practically on his knees, to arrange a meeting. She is much better suited to be with him than with you, Lord Giles.”
Gordon! Now the bad feeling in his chest had a name.
“She should thank me for introducing such a great match,” Caroline added. Giles was seething with an agonizing sense of urgency, but Caroline remained perfectly calm in her scorn. “Who ever heard of a noblewoman working?”
I have to go save her. Now.
Giles’s heart was on fire, but he knew that flying blindly out of the room would waste precious time. Suppressing his desperation, he asked, “Where are they?”
His voice sounded menacing even to his own ears, and Caroline finally seemed to notice the rage in him. She took a small step back. “Wh-why do you care? There’s no need for you to involve yourself, Lord Giles.”
“That’s for me to decide. This doesn’t concern you.”
“It doesn’t concern me?! But I am going to marry you!”
“I rejected all of your family’s proposals.”
“But I’m the only one who’s suitable to be Countess to the Bancroft house! You know I’m right!”
Though Caroline’s was an extreme case, this line of thinking was not unusual among the nobility. In Caroline’s mind, her marrying Giles was proper and logical. She felt no shred of guilt or remorse over destroying the necklace, nor for tearing Fiona and Giles apart. In fact, she probably thought she deserved to be praised for it. Caroline valued bloodlines and house rank and believed this a very sensible aristocratic rule that should be held in high regard. Giles had rejected that rule and declined her marriage proposals again and again. To Caroline, that was unacceptable.
I should have rejected her advances directly, he thought. Thus far, he had sent a member of his family as a proxy to reject all of her proposals. As a result, Caroline was unconvinced of his sincerity.
“My lady, are your parents aware of what you’re doing here?” Richard asked.
“Oh, Lord Richard, those people are irrelevant. They’ve been so annoying lately, badgering me to just give up. They’re detached from reality.”
“Ah. Now I see.”
This didn’t stop Caroline. She failed to catch the disdain in Richard’s reply and, mistaking his words for sympathy, she regained her defiant stance. “Don’t worry,” she said to Giles. “The peerage will forget about the rumors of you and that baron’s daughter soon enough. Besides, I—”
“Peerage be damned,” Giles spat, glaring fiercely at Caroline. He abandoned any attempt to hide his disgust. “I will never forget her, and I will never let her go. If you don’t know where she is, then I have nothing more to say to you. House Burleigh will receive a formal sanction very soon.”
The title of Icy Scion did not do justice to Giles’s damning words. The color drained from Caroline’s face. “Wh-what did you say?!”
“I don’t ever want to see your putrid face again.” Giles turned on his heel to leave the room.
“W-wait!” Caroline cried, grabbing his coat sleeve. Giles glanced over his shoulder, not wanting to waste the time it would take to turn around. “If she’s good enough for you, then surely so am I. What’s so special about her?!”
What makes her special?
Everything. Every single thing about Fiona made her special.
“Get your damn hands off me.”
“Wh-why…are you…?”
She clung to him desperately, her hands trying to do what her faltering words couldn’t. He carelessly brushed her aside. Ignoring the sound of her collapsing to the floor behind him, he left, shut the door behind him, and ordered Jeremy to stand guard. “Don’t let Lady Burleigh out of this room. We can’t let her cause a scene.”
“Y-yes, my lord!”
Just then, one of the crown prince’s attendants ran up to them. “Lord Lowell! A guard one floor below us reported seeing a woman who looked ill being dragged off by a man with black hair.”
Giles turned to run, but Richard stopped him. “Gil, I’ll call for backup. Try to keep this all under wraps… Well, I suppose that’s easier said than done, so I’ll do what I can to give you cover.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t worry. She’s a strong girl. She’ll be okay.”
Giles hesitated, then said, “Yeah.”
Richard patted him on the shoulder and then ran down the stairs. Giles heaved a deep sigh, turned, and hurried in the opposite direction.