That was putting it mildly. “You’re teasing me, Debenham. Who does this scandal involve?”
“I shan’t tell you. In fact, I’ll be honest and say that my informant hasn’t given me sufficient information to act upon beyond saying that it involves a child. A child who is to become heir to a great estate to which he is not entitled.”
Araminta dropped the pearl earring she was about to hook through her lobe. Robbed of air, she could only raise her eyebrows. All the strength seemed to have seeped from her limbs, and she had to sit down at her dressing table once again.
“Why?” He asked the question for her, seemingly unaware of her horror. “Because, of course, the child was sired by the faithless wife’s lover. Now there is just the matter of proof.”
Araminta’s world swam before her eyes. She couldn’t look at Debenham. He was playing with her. Waiting for her to ask the question before he launched into a fierce and bitter diatribe as he threw her past behavior into her face. So he knew, then, that William was not his? Dear God, what would happen now? If he didn’t kill her, he’d make her life a living misery. He’d cast her out, and she’d be shunned. Ridiculed.
“So…you know then?” she whispered between dry lips. He was stringing her along, enjoying watching her squirm. Soon he would confront her with her crime. Araminta couldn’t bear it. She tried to hold back the tears. Debenham would make the most of her agony. He was cruel at the best of times.
He sent a thoughtful look through the window. “To tell you the truth, I’m not entirely certain of the specifics,” he murmured as he chewed his lip. “The seed was sown tonight after someone intimated that such a scenario had occurred within our ranks. My plan, my dear Araminta, is to discover all the sordid details beyond all reasonable doubt, and then reveal it to the world—or else claim a great sum for my silence.”
There had been no pleasure in dancing this evening amidst lavish surroundings. In fact, Lissa considered the night she’d been forced to spend under her father’s roof the most painful of her life.
Everything had been contrived to rub salt into the wound, reminding her of what might have been hers had justice prevailed.
If Lucinda had been difficult, Lady Julia had been a nightmare. A hideously embarrassing nightmare as she’d tried to flirt with Stephen Cranborne, of all people.
Thank the Lord Lissa had finally escaped after having to spend just the one night in that poky little attic room. She wouldn’t have been surprised if Lord Beecham had insisted they were the first to leave. Perhaps there’d been a scene, for Lady Julia had sulked the entire journey home while Lord Beecham had glowered out of the window.
And now, at last, Lissa was here in Ralph’s lodgings Mrs. Nipkins having obligingly left to visit her sister for the evening, enabling two clandestine hours for her to be with the most wonderful, clever, enterprising young man in the entire world.
The moment she’d walked into the kitchen, he’d seated her on his lap. Now he was brushing out her braids while he told her about a play he’d seen the previous week, and for the first time in weeks, Lissa was laughing.
Of course, it was dreadfully tempting to be a good deal more sinful, and indulge in kisses that might get out of control with Mrs. Nipkins out of the way, but both of them had discussed the dangers and come
to the conclusion that if they were to marry with their reputations intact, they must make very sure that no scandal attached to their names. It was one thing to be alone when that was courting disaster by its very nature.
Lissa closed her eyes as she raised her face to the low ceiling and the enjoyment of the moment rolled through her. Ralph was the only person who could make Lissa laugh. He made her forget her troubles and her dissatisfaction with life. She’d hoped her new posting with Lord Beecham would provide her with excitement to make up for her lack of marital prospects in the meantime, but everything had been so dull, peppered by horrible interludes like spending the night at The Grange.
In the midst of laughing at Ralph’s account of two barristers who’d nearly come to blows outside his office, they both jerked upright at an urgent series of knocks at the door. Cautiously Ralph rose, and barely had he turned the knob than the flimsy barricade was thrust open, and Kitty burst into the room and quite literally into Lissa’s arms.
“What’s happened? Is it Mama?” For that was the only calamity Lissa could imagine causing such angst in her little sister.
Kitty was sobbing so loudly it was some time before they were able to get anything coherent from her. Lissa pushed her down into a chair while Ralph rustled up a cup of tea from the kettle boiling over the hob, with a detour to fetch his brandy.
“It’s not Mama,” she finally said when she could talk. She raised her head and sent Lissa a baleful stare.
Immediately, Lissa understood. Her lover. “Oh, then he’s tired of you already,” she remarked as sympathy drained from her. This was the first time Kitty had visited her. For her sister to have tracked her down, she’d have imagined the reason to have been of the utmost calamity. Though she supposed it was when one’s main means of support was suddenly taken away.
“No need to use that tone. I know you disapprove, but the fact is, I ended it!” Kitty faced her sister furiously. “Yes, I ended it after I met Miss Mandelton and realized I’d have to share Silverton. Like Mama. Even though I love him more than life itself.”
“Don’t be dramatic, Kitty.” Lissa couldn’t help sounding short. “Besides, loving someone more than life itself is not possible.”
Ralph returned to the room with glasses for them all and eyed his beloved askance. “You would not lay down your life for me, dearest?” he asked, looking hurt, then pouring them each a tot as he went on, “I’d lay down my life for you. Actually, climbing that drainpole outside the Lamonts was rather risky business. I’m just disappointed it wasn’t appreciated more—”
“Ralph!” Lissa stamped her foot, torn between rushing around the table and hugging sense into him, and maintaining a more sober attitude for Kitty’s benefit. Kitty had to learn, someday, that she couldn’t act like the baby of the family forever, chasing impossible dreams. “You’re playing semantics! You know that I would risk my life for you, but I’d not lay it down passively because my love for you was greater than my own appreciation of my life.”
“But passively loving someone with passion and to distraction is surely as noble as violently loving someone and recklessly throwing themselves into danger in order to save them. My point is that my love for you, Lissa, and I would hope, yours for me, is as valid and noble as your sister’s is for the man she loves. Therefore, she is in as great a need of comfort at this moment as you would be had I not survived a fall from the second floor of the Lamont House when I rescued you all those months ago.”
“Yes, but Ralph—”
“Will you both stop!” Kitty’s shriek had them turn their attention from their minor disagreement to Kitty, who was now sitting up, her eyes flashing as she said, “As I said, he did not ‘cast me off’ as you so derisively put it, Lissa. Our love is purer than that. That is why I made this sacrifice. Yes, sacrifice! I’ve never done anything noble before. I know you think of me as the spoiled little sister who chose her own happiness before that of anyone else’s, but you, Lissa, were not condemned to living for the rest of your days with Mama who has never been grateful to us for anything we’ve done, having to shop every day in the village, never escaping from the horrible whispers. I know that becoming a governess was something you’d rather not have done, but that you did it for the good of the family. But what if you’d been given no choice but to slave away for Mama? Do you not think you’d have found a way to leave? Just because I followed my calling when I got the opportunity and became an actress rather than a governess, doesn’t make me less dutiful than you. Perhaps more scandalous, but not less dutiful, Lissa.”
“She does have a point, dearest.”
Lissa glared at Ralph. “Am I to have no support from you?” she began.