A Spinster for the Earl: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel (The Hale Sisters Book 3)

Isaac heard a knock on his bedchamber door. He growled, rolling onto his side and staring blankly at the wall until he found the will to stand up. The past few days had been miserable. Instead of recovering from a broken heart, he was recovering from a broken trust. He had expected more from Lucy, but how could he trust someone who so easily went behind his back and meddled in his life?

That was precisely what he hated. His mother was always meddling, and if Lucy had only understood how much his mother disapproved of her, then maybe she wouldn’t have done it.

“Come in!” he yelled as he tied his robe off.

His door opened slowly, and the footman bowed. “The Grand Dowager Countess of Ramsbury has arrived, My Lord. She wishes for an audience.”

Isaac sighed, his nose twitching with frustration. He had packed up and gone to stay in his London house to get away from his mother and grandmother. At least his mother hadn’t dared to show her face. He wasn’t about to dignify her with a response.

When he arrived at the staircase, he saw his grandmother pacing the hallway. She looked grateful to see him.

“Oh, Isaac,” she said, “this house is desperately in need of a woman’s touch. It’s bleak.”

It took everything in his power to keep his calm when he was ready to send her off with some very unkind words.

“Which part of me leaving Ramsbury Estate made you think that I wanted to be followed, Grandmother?”

“Quite frankly, I hadn’t stopped to consider what you wanted,” she said matter-of-factly.

Isaac clenched his hands into fists and watched her make her way across the house, out of sight, and in the direction of the sitting room. He raced down the stairs, tightening his robe.

“Excuse me! Where are you going? I never said you could—” As he rounded the corner, she was already seated on his couch, her hands folded in her lap. “—make yourself comfortable.”

He sighed, realizing he had no choice but to sit opposite her.

His grandmother smiled. “Good to visit with your grandmother while you still can.”

“Do not try and guilt me today,” he grunted. “I will not have it.”

“Isaac, dear, you’ve every right to be upset. Your mother did a rotten thing. She stuck her nose too far into your business, and right into the business that matters the most to you.”

His throat bobbed. That was what made it so egregious, after all. Arabella could have meddled anywhere, but she had chosen to go meddle with Lucy, when that was something he desperately needed to figure out on his own. He almost had. He had been just about to tell Lucy that he loved her, after all. But how could he tell her now, when he wasn’t even sure if she could be trusted?

“When I found out that she had invited Miss Lucy over, I was upset as well, but I stumbled on something that… surprised me.”

“You spoke to Miss Lucy too?” He stood up.

“Call off your army,” she ordered, pointing for him to sit. “You only heard what you wanted to hear. I said I saw something.”

Isaac returned to his seat, although he made sure to sit on the edge. He gave his grandmother an expectant look, willing her to go on.

“Your mother was crying about something. How would you expect Miss Lucy to react to that?”

Isaac closed his eyes, annoyed by the games he was made to play but obliging to save himself the argument. “I don’t know, Grandmother.” He sighed. “I think she’d be very uncomfortable.”

“She wasn’t. She consoled your mother, even though she had every right to leave.” His grandmother stood up, pacing back and forth. She pointed a finger out and wagged it in the air. “Now, I don’t know what made your mother cry, I am certainly no sleuth. However, I would have to assume that your mother at least felt some remorse for what she’d done. The only thing they could have been talking about, after all, was you.”

“Surprisingly, knowing that I was the subject of discussion makes me feel worse. Thank you,” he grumbled.

She looked unamused, her brows forming a flat line on her head. She reached into her bag and produced a folded piece of paper and handed it off to him. Hesitantly, he took it.

“Miss Lucy relinquished this letter to me. Look for yourself and see what your mother wrote.”

He unfolded the letter and eagerly scanned it. It was a lot longer than he’d expected, but what he hadn’t expected was for his mother to lie so easily about him being there. His mouth fell open, and he handed it back to his grandmother. He couldn’t look at it any longer.

She tucked it away. “If you weren’t aware, Miss Lucy was equally tricked. With that said, my intention is not to villainize your mother. She is hurting, and she made a mistake in her desperation to understand you better.”

“A mistake? That is an understatement.”

“You can use whatever word you like, Isaac, but this is your mother. She at least deserves to be heard.”

Isaac nodded. It would have to wait one more day. He needed some time to think it over. He couldn’t lose his mother and Lucy over one incident. It seemed Lucy had tried to explain to him what had happened, but he had not been willing to listen. Now, in light of his grandmother’s visit, he regretted that wholeheartedly.

“Thank you,” he said. “I will return to the estate first thing in the morning.”

“Good,” his grandmother said. “The breakfast spread has only worsened in your absence.”

“I think we ought to send for the physician.” Emma frowned and looked at Lucy with concern.

Lucy had been in bed for nearly three days straight. Everyone was worried about her, but she had a fairly good excuse.

She had convinced everyone that the promenade had ended quickly simply because she had begun experiencing a feminine illness. And just as she had expected, her father had not dared to meddle in menstrual pains, while her mother felt the excuse was reasonable.

After three days, however, Emma was concerned. She was visiting simply because Lucy had made one terrible mistake—she had dared to play the pianoforte.

Lucy hated the pianoforte, but the music made her feel better, and her poor anxious mother was far too shaky to play anything at all. But this development, of course, had only made her mother even more anxious. Seeing Lucy acting so strange was, in Priscilla’s mind, a sign of something much worse, and so she had sent for Emma right away.

“I do not need the physician,” Lucy insisted, readjusting her pillow. Lying there for so long was starting to hurt her neck.

“Cramping should not last more than a few days. It hasn’t before.”

“It has,” Lucy lied.

Emma crossed her arms, obviously frustrated by Lucy’s terse responses, but trying her best not to show it. “I have never seen you like this. Not since you had that terrible fever a few years ago.”

Lucy shook her head and buried her face in her pillows. “Mama should have never sent for you. I will be out of bed in a few days, and your trip would have been all for naught.”

Emma sighed and cross the room, then sat on the bed beside Lucy. She ran her hand over her sister’s shiny black hair. For a while, she didn’t say anything. It had been just long enough for Lucy to let down her guard.

“I was afraid of this,” Emma said, her voice downtrodden.

Lucy immediately tensed back up.

“I should have not bid your time,” Emma continued. “In doing so, I subjected you to your very first heartbreak.”

Lucy shot up in bed, her face red and her top lip pulled back in a furious snarl. “Get out of my chamber!”

Emma calmly looked at her sister but didn’t budge. “Has he broken your heart?”

Isaac had been on Lucy’s mind constantly. She had imagined everything she wished she could have said to him, but now, at this point, all she felt was anger. He hadn’t listened to her. She hadn’t known he wouldn’t be at Ramsbury Estate, and no matter what he had said, it would have been rude and callous just to leave the moment she had found out.

And just like that, Lucy felt the hot, salty tears flooding her eyelids. She clenched her eyes shut. Embarrassed, heartbroken, and exhausted from hurting, she collapsed onto her pillow and finally let her heartache out.

“I knew he would do this,” Emma said, softly patting her sister’s back. “May I ask what happened?”

Lucy shook her head.

“You can tell me anything, Lucy.”

“Tell you anything?” Lucy’s head shot up. She felt all the resentment she had ever held for Emma at the top of her chest. It was unrelenting, holding her in a chokehold until she finally spat it out. “Tell you? Emma Hale? The perfect, beautiful, well-behaved Emma? I could never. You wouldn’t understand.”

Emma bit her bottom lip and waited until her sister calmed down. “Do you really think that about me?”

“I know that.”

“I do not think you know me at all, Lucy,” Emma said. “If you think that you are the only person who falters or makes mistakes, then you are wrong. I hate to tell you, but the world is full of stupid people who make stupid mistakes, and I happen to be one of those people.”

“I doubt you’ve done anything half as stupid as I.”

“You want to know something, Lucy?” Emma asked softly. “I hated Colin, and he did not care for me much, either.”

Lucy’s face scrunched up. “You guys are in love. You have always been so in love.”

“We are in love now,” Emma said. “But not always. We lied to everyone, and in hindsight, that was stupid. And maybe it was stupid that I kissed a man I hated so much before he’d even proposed, but I did that.”

“You… kissed him?”

“I am not so perfect, after all.” Emma shook her head. “In fact, those are the only faults I feel comfortable sharing. But just know, you are not the only woman in the world to do things that you were not supposed to do.”

“We started off as friends.” Lucy sniffled. “I enjoyed being around him, and I’ve never really been that moved by anyone, but he’s special. I… I did kiss him.”

“How was it?” Emma looked out of the corner of her eyes, folding her lips between her teeth sheepishly.

“Emma!”

“What?” Emma raised an eyebrow. “He has a reputation. I am only curious.”

“I’ve nothing to compare him to, but…” Lucy felt her cheeks redden. “You know I would not do something one or two more times if I hadn’t liked it.”

“That I know,” Emma drawled. “If things had been going so well, then what happened?”

Lucy lay back on her bed. “I got a letter from his mother. She invited me for tea with them, but it turns out, she lied about him being there.” She clenched her eyes shut. “And I tried to tell him, but he thought that I had betrayed his trust. I have not seen him since.”

“Oh.” Emma frowned. “It has only been a few days. I am happy to stay until we can resolve matters, even if it requires my marching down there to have a word with him.”

Lucy shook her head. “Maybe it is for the best. I never thought I was meant to marry. I can’t believe I had actually wanted to for him.”

“No, no, no.” Emma shook her head again. “We will resolve this.”

“I… Are you not angry at him?” Lucy asked. “I expected a different reaction.”

Emma grimaced, and Lucy could tell there was something more on her mind. “The truth is, the day you came for tea and Lord Ramsbury was at the estate for business, I hated him. I thought he was using you or planning on dishonoring you and leaving, so I… I confronted him,” she admitted.

Lucy might have been angry at that, but she was so emotionally spent that all she could do was listen and stare at the ceiling. “I do not like to hear that,” she mumbled.

“He didn’t say he loved you, but he didn’t need to. I know a man who is falling in love when I see one. Lord Weston is acting the same way now that he has met Miss Barrington. The Earl passed on Miss Barrington for you,” Emma explained. “If you have any doubts about whether he loves you, then dispel them at once. He changed a spinster, and you changed a rake… Well, hopefully not too much. You will find that it is much preferable to find a husband who knows how to best—”

“Emma! Stop!” Lucy gasped, swatting at her sister’s head with her hand.

Emma giggled, fending off her younger sister’s attacks. “Fine, fine,” she relented, fixing her hair up as best she could without a mirror. “If he doesn’t come by within the next two days, we will decide how to best mend the situation. Sometimes, men need a few days to think and to miss you.” With that, she leaned down and pressed a kiss to her sister’s head.

“Now, I shall go tell our parents that I have concluded that there is nothing more going on than just a bad bout of feminine illness. They will ask no further questions.” Emma reached for the doorknob but found herself stopping. “And, Lucy, you need to stop believing that you are not as good as other people. I am your equal, although sometimes I too wish that I was half as smart or fearless as you.”

“Really?”

“Really. Maybe if you stop reading for just a week, I will be able to catch up.”

Lucy smiled weakly, feeling exhausted but relieved all the same.

Once Emma shut the door, her youngest sister was finally able to fall into a deep sleep.