A Fiery Dalliance

XXVI

Joe forced himself to take a breath, and he silently reminded himself of the purpose of this conversation. He had sought Perrie out to apologise, and that was all. It was not Perrie's responsibility to try and solve Joe's unsolvable problems.

"I'm going to leave this house," Joe decided.

Perrie immediately frowned and recoiled in her seat. "What?" Her voice was filled with astonishment.

Joe nodded, more firm in his decision as each second passed. "I am going to leave. I cannot stay." I do not deserve to stay, was what he meant. Joe could see by simply looking at Perrie that all she wanted to do was understand, and this was not her burden to bear. Neither was it her father's. And Joe had been doing a stand-up job of disrespecting the duke's daughter for long enough.

***

Perrie was in far too much shock to properly formulate an intelligent thought as Joe left her in her father's bedroom. She felt panicked and grief-stricken, of all things, at the very prospect of Joe leaving Ashwood, let alone in the state he was currently in.

Perrie had faced losing Joe once before, and it had been something that she had met with pure and utter elation. Well, she supposed what she thought had been elation.

In knowing what Joe had been forced to endure after living Ashwood distressed Perrie immeasurably. She did not understand how he could sit before her and dismiss any notion of compassion for his circumstances. She could see that Joe did not believe that he deserved any sort of kindness, and Perrie was thankful that she had been brave enough to suggest that someone had made him feel unworthy.

She was almost certain that his father, the viscount, was to blame. Joe would not have reacted the way that he did when it was suggested if she was incorrect.

But Joe couldn't leave. Not like this. Perrie could barely remember now that she had been conflicted in her feelings surrounding the very fact that Joe had kissed her a matter of hours ago. Perrie knew that she would not be able to begin to decide how she felt about that if Joe left abruptly.

Where would he go? Where could he go?

"Papa," Perrie said under her breath, before she cried his name again in a much more anxious tone. Perrie ran to the connecting door between her father's bedroom and her mother's. She passed through her father's dressing room, their shared washroom, and her mother's dressing room, before she burst into her mother's bedroom.

It might have been the early hours of the afternoon, but both of her parents were still in bed. Grace was seated upright in bed with a lunch tray across her lap and her father was still lying down looking rather exhausted. Both of them, however, craned their necks in her direction at the sound of Perrie entering the room.

"Papa!"

Perrie had never seen her father sit upright faster in her life. He had gone from lethargic after the night before, to alert and prepared for battle. He threw back the ben linen and launched out of bed. "What is it? What's the matter? Are you hurt? Are you ill?" Adam reached for Perrie anxiously and gripped hold of hands when she was close enough, pulling her towards him so that he could better appraise her.

"Perrie?" her mother called anxiously as she, too, climbed out of bed.

Perrie looked up at her father and demanded, "Papa, you must make Joe stay. You cannot let him leave this house. I insist upon it. You have to do what you must to get him to stay."

Adam appeared quite dumbfounded before he asked slowly, "Are you hurt?"

Perrie shook her head, frowning.