Mortification roasted her from the inside. Of course the column painted her as a floozy, skulking about the Newport evenings with Harrison and flaunting an affair under the duke’s nose. A “tainted brush.” Was that how everyone saw her now, as tainted?
You knew this would happen. Why are you even surprised?
Because the reality was far worse than her imagining. Her stomach cramped and she couldn’t move, hardly able to breathe. There was no point in running errands or paying social calls, going out to dinner or seeing a play. Until the next scandal came along, Maddie would be discussed and dissected from Thirty-Fourth to Eighty-Eighth streets. A cautionary tale mothers would tell their daughters for the next ten years.
Don’t be like that Webster girl, the one who was compromised and lost a duke.
“Fellows, if you’ll excuse us.” Harrison stubbed out his cigar and looked at his friends pointedly.
Kit and Preston offered hasty farewells and strode from the room. Maddie hardly noticed. She kept thinking about Harrison’s words in the gazebo, the prophetic promise he made about her and Lockwood.
I won’t let you marry him.
Why hadn’t she heeded those words? If she had, this could have been handled with more delicacy, quietly. But no, she allowed herself to be compromised and humiliated.
Suddenly, she was lifted up in strong arms, carried to the sofa and placed on Harrison’s lap as he sat. The warmth of his body surrounded her as he nestled her into the cradle of his arms, and she pressed her face to his throat. He smelled like cigars and leather. “I am not sorry we are married,” he whispered into her hair. “But I am sorry that anyone would dare speak ill of you because of it.”
Sighing, she closed her eyes. “I’ve never been at the center of a scandal before. It feels awful, like I’ve disappointed everyone.” Lockwood, her parents, her friends . . . the guilt was threatening to crush her at the moment. “I wish I’d let you hide the papers from me.”
“I’ll always try to spare you any pain, if possible.”
She stared at the cold hearth, the unfairness of their world pressing down on her. “Men never suffer for their indiscretions. Society looks the other way, allowing them their mistresses and chorus girls. You are barely mentioned in that column and Lockwood is the poor man caught up in my schemes. I, on the other hand, am the jezebel. None of my friends will speak to me for a long time, let alone invite me anywhere, after this.”
He kissed the top of her head and squeezed her. “I’m sorry, Mads. I don’t know what else to say.”
“Why did you stay away so long?” If he’d come home sooner, then all of this might have been avoided.
“Because I wanted you too much, even when I thought there was no chance. It tore my heart out every day. I couldn’t be around you and not have you.”
“Harrison . . .” It was hard to remain upset with him when he confessed like that. “Stop being sweet when I am annoyed with you.”
A slight chuckle ruffled her hair. “I cannot help it. I’ve always hated to see you sad.”
“I hate being sad.”
“Just remember—they will move on in time. Another scandal will take the place of ours. This won’t last long. And it’ll be worth it in the end.”
“It will?”
“Of course. You’ll still be married to me.”
She rolled her eyes, even though he couldn’t see it. “You have a healthy opinion of yourself.”
“Hmm. As I recall, you were calling me a god this morning.”
Ignoring that comment, she put a hand on his shoulder and leaned back. “Aren’t you upset about the column, too? They practically labeled you a fortune hunter.”
“They can write whatever they wish, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. Unlike Lockwood, I don’t need your money.”
“Yes, but your mother was going to cut you off if you didn’t marry.”
“Hmm.”
A sinking feeling settled into her chest, below her ribs. Deep into her bones. This wasn’t adding up. What was he withholding from her? “Harrison?”
His chest expanded and fell as he exhaled. “I’m not broke . . . but the Archers are.”
Chapter Nineteen
The words tumbled from Harrison’s mouth but he wouldn’t take them back. He’d intended to tell her the truth after her tennis tournament, but she deserved to know that he wasn’t a fortune hunter. That he’d married her because he wanted her, period.
Maddie stiffened then jumped off his lap to stand in front of him. “Explain.”
“I have my own money.”
“And the other part, about your family?”
He folded his arms across his chest and lifted a shoulder. “They’re broke.”
Her mouth fell open but she quickly recovered, her lips pressing flat. “You lied to me.”
“Well . . .” He could feel the ground tilting, shifting, under his feet in the face of her disapproval. But he’d started this so there was no choice but to finish it. Carefully. “Not entirely. I said my mother had threatened to cut me off if I didn’t marry, but the reality is my father cut me off years ago.”
“Wait.” Closing her eyes, Maddie put her hands together under her chin, as if she were praying. He knew she often did this when struggling for calm. “Start at the very beginning, Harrison.”
So he began talking. He told her of being disinherited and how he’d made his own fortune in Paris. The telegrams from his brother, which had prompted Harrison to hire an investigator into the Archer company finances. Then his efforts to buy up company stock over the next few months.
“You plan to save the company for them?”
“No,” he said. “I plan to take the company from them.”
“You want to buy Archer Industries for yourself.”
“Yes, but I want more than that. I aim to bankrupt them.”
“Your family?” After he nodded, she stumbled to an armchair and dropped heavily into it. “When were you going to tell me all of this?”
He sat forward and reached for her hand, clasping her fingers tightly. “I was not keeping secrets from you. I hoped to spare you from my family’s drama, especially before Nationals. The Archers have caused enough destruction already.”
“Wrong. That explanation is sensible for a petty squabble, not when you are planning to wage war on them. Do you understand the difference?”
“I suppose, though I will try to protect you from any ugliness if it is in my power to do so. Specifically in regard to my family.”
She jerked her hand out of his grip. “By lying to me? There shouldn’t be any secrets between us. We’re married.”
“I am aware.” As if he’d ever forget. “And I didn’t exactly lie.”
“Semantics. I don’t like being surprised like this, feeling as though you are keeping things from me.”
“Maddie, if someone finds out what I am doing, the stock price will be affected.”
She slapped her thighs and stood. “Oh, well. We cannot affect the precious stock price.” Putting her hands on her hips, she looked at him sharply. “Stock prices, bankruptcies, French mistresses . . . Who are you?”