Chapter 23

'I am very glad you could make it, Your Grace,' Lord Gresham said with a huge grin on his face, on Thursday. 'I was not sure if you would accept, were I to be honest.'

Eleanor forced a smile and placed down the cup of tea in her hand. She could not believe her best friend was marrying this man. She could not fathom what Gabby or the Earl saw in him. The man, upon greeting Eleanor on her arrival, had kissed her hand, lingering his lips over her gloves much longer than she - or any woman having morals for that matter - would like and proceeded to lead her into a private chamber sans attendants for tea. The impropriety! No gentleman would dare go to the lengths that Gresham went to and to think that her most dearest friend, the closest she had to a sister, would have to marry the man if all wasn't right...she could not imagine it!

Gabby could not marry him.

'I am glad I could make it as well,' Eleanor replied stiffly, pasting a grin on her face. However much she was revolted by the man's behaviour - which contradicted much with his behaviour when she had first met him - she had to keep up the demeanour of someone who enjoyed his company.

Gresham took a long sip of his tea before he placed his tea down and faced Eleanor with a severe look, something which unnerved her very much. 'Your Grace, I'm afraid I have not been quite honest with you.'

Well, of course, that is no surprise.

'The reason I invited you here today was to ask you for a favour,' he said in severity.

'A favour?' Eleanor asked with quiet exclaim. 'Kind sir, I do not think I will be able to fulfil whatever it is you want me to.'

Gresham laughed. 'Yes, well, you cannot directly help me, Your Grace. The favour, however, can be fulfilled by the Duke if His Grace permits but I think it would be best if it came from you.'

Eleanor internally seethed. The audacity of the man! She was sure any woman would have either slapped the loathsome man by now and left or been a silly chit and give into his whims. Of course the latter would imply that she was just as stupid as almost every woman in the ton nowadays, as someone she would have been had her father not sold her off.

Deciding to gather more information, she smiled coldly and sat back in her chair, looking at Gresham with cool indifference. 'What are you playing at Gresham?' she asked, tilting her chin up. 'You are a gentleman. You know as well as every other well-bred gentleman that one mustn't invite a lady, certainly not a married one, to their home sans husband when said gentleman is also unmarried and without a wife or other female companion.'

The smile on Gresham's face didn't stir in the slightest as he sat back and crossed his leg, regarding Eleanor as coolly as she did him. 'Well, then, why did you accept my invitation, Your Grace?'

'Curiosity,' she replied.

'Then, I presume, His Grace does not know of your visit?'

Eleanor laughed. 'What makes you think I conduct myself privately without my husband's knowledge?'

At this, his smile dimmed a little but he pushed it aside and continued. 'I am aware you know of my engagement to Lady Gabrielle, your dearest friend and - dare I say - your only.'

Eleanor clenched her fists but didn't say anything as he continued. Well, of all the nerve!

'And what is your point?'

'I recall requesting your husband for a loan, just enough to get my estate up and running again,' he said coldly. 'The duke,' he said with disgust, 'rejected to give me even a penny, leaving me with no means of taking care of my future bride.' He came forward and slapped a hand on the table. 'Ask your husband to reconsider, Your Grace.'

'And what happens if I do not?' Eleanor asked, matching his tone. 'What happens if he refuses you once again which is highly likely considering the state your estate is in.'

Gresham laughed. 'Well, that's simple. Firstly, your friend will live in absolute poverty, married to me. And if you think to reveal my impoverished state to her and refuse me of the little dowry I would have gotten, then I will destroy yours and your husband's reputation.'

Eleanor pursed her lips. 'And how do you plan on doing that?'

Gresham grinned cruelly. 'Let's just say, you and your husband shouldn't trust your slaves so bloody much,' he spat out.

'What do you mean?' Eleanor's hands clenched the chair sides a little more with each passing moment.

Gresham got up and walked to the mantelpiece behind him. ''Tis amazing what people would do for a bit of money. What was his name? Ram, was it? A small bundle of gold and he was willing to out each and every plan you had been unfurling through the course of the last few months. He is ready to testify to the Viceroy as well. An Indian revolution?' He laughed before continuing. 'Who knew the Duke of Wolverhampton cared more for the people of an uncivilized slave country rather than the mighty country that is his motherland.'

Eleanor was outraged and absolutely appalled. Ram had sold them out! It seemed to her that all the men in her life were nothing but greedy cads. She got up and without an utterance, walked outside and got into her carriage. Gresham hadn't seemed to follow her which was good for him, she thought. If he had come behind her with any more insults, she was sure she'd have taken out the revolver from in between the folds of her skirt and fired it at him.

The entire journey back home, Eleanor felt queasy and sick. Her stomach rolled over and over and she was ready to vomit all over the seat in front of her. The thought that all they had been planning was for naught! She couldn't bear to see the shock, horror and disappointment on Nathan's face when he comes to know.

She still could not believe it. Nathan had said they could trust Ram, he was supposed to be his most trusted confidante. And why would Ram go against his cause? His own cause? Nathan was helping him, or trying at the very least.

Eleanor suddenly had the urge to cry. She didn't know why - she normally was not as emotional as this - but she just wanted to burst to tears. Oh, how the world was cruel! Just as everything was finally falling into space, Ram had to go and ruin it.

She had scarcely finished her thought when the carriage halted in front of the manor. Desperate to get out of the confines of the carriage, she threw open the door and ran inside, straight to Nathan.

As she ran down the corridors, she flew past startled maids and even knocked over a butler but she did not care for the only thing that was on her mind was Nathan.

She threw open the doors to his study to find Nathan sitting at his desk, looking through a leaf of paper.

'Eleanor,' he said with a startle and jumped up. 'What in the worl -"

'Ram is a spy!' she cried out, cutting him off. 'Gresham, that bloody cad, he appointed Ram as a spy for him. Ram has been betraying us this entire time.'

Nathan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. 'Well, I'd suspected as much.'

Eleanor stared at him in shock. He had known? 'You had known all along?'

'I had suspected it,' he corrected. 'He had been acting quite strange recently and some of the others had also hinted to me that he had been meeting up with some strange men.'

'What are we going to do then Nathan?' she asked. She was feeling quite dizzy and Ram's betrayal and the current state of things were sending her in a tizzy. 'Gresham says he'll use Ram to ruin us by leaking to the public we're traitors to the Crown if we do not pay him the money to get his estates running.'

Nathan scoffed. 'Knowing Gresham, he'd ruin us even if we did pay him.'

'Well, what are we going to do?' Eleanor said, a little whimper in her voice. She held a hand to her forehead. It hurt so bloody much she felt she was going to die any moment from how much her head was splitting.

'We will find a solution, my dear, don't fret. But I will not lend him the money - Eleanor, are you alright?' he rushed over to Eleanor who was now bent over, her head resting on her hands. He was speaking in a normal voice but to Eleanor, he sounded loud - incredibly loud - and she could not handle it. Moreover, she could smell his signature scent of pine and while it usually calmed her, she wanted to get as far away from him as possible.

'Nathan, don't speak too loud,' she managed to get out in between bouts of pain. 'My head hurts!'

She pressed her eyes shut and willed the pain to go away to no avail. As each second passed, the hammer that was pounding on her head increased its tempo and she was doing her best not to scream out loud.

She was aware of Nathan saying something to her but she could not hear it, she could not concentrate. Her sole focus went to the dreadful beating of her head until she could no longer and fell into the darkness.

**********

When Eleanor finally opened her eyes after what seemed to her like a good night's sleep, she noticed it was pitch dark except for the dimly lit candles around the room. She could be wrong, of course, for her eyes could barely keep themselves open but as she got more of a grip on her surroundings, she noticed that it was half past 3 according to the time piece on the mantel of what seemed to be her bedroom.

'Nathan?' she called out immediately and a dark figure rushed to her side and clasped onto her hand. 'Eleanor, my love,' Nathan's voice said and as her eyes grew more focused on the figure next to her, she saw Nathan's worried face staring down at her.

'She will be alright now, there's no need to fret, Your Grace,' came a woman's heavily accented voice. Eleanor turned her head to find a middle-aged Indian woman in the traditional sari place her hand on Eleanor's stomach. 'But she must worry herself no more. Her body is changing tremendously and stress does not do well with change. It was stress that landed her in this bed and the little one was lucky this time. If she encounters such a situation any more, you will both have to say goodbye to him.'

'Alright, thank you Rajalakshmi,' Nathan said and turned his head back to Eleanor.

'Little one?' Eleanor croaked out. Her voice was rusty from not having used it - for the past 9 hours? - and sore and she desperately needed a glass of water especially after what the woman had just said. She only hoped she meant exactly what Eleanor wanted to hear. She looked at Nathan expectantly to find that Nathan Huntington, the Duke of Wolverhampton, had tears shining in his eyes. 'Do you mean to tell me that I'm...' Her voice trailed off, not able to form the words for fear she might not be right.

'Yes, my love,' Nathan said with a smile on his face. 'You're with child.'