“My good name, is that all anyone can think of? I thought we’d already agreed that there is more to life than reputation. I thought we’d agreed that happiness was worth a risk or two.”
“I do agree still. But that was before we were found out. Thank goodness it was only your brother. Had it been anyone else—I can’t even conceive of the consequences.”
Damn Hastings. He must have told Fitz after all.
“Do you really not want to see me ever again?”
“Helena.” Andrew’s voice shook just perceptibly. “You know I would give anything to see you, but I promised your brother—”
“Is your promise to him more important than your promises to me?”
Andrew winced. “I—”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Susie coming back. “You will meet me again. Because you will not let me down and you will not leave me without hope.”
She turned and walked away before Susie could come too close.
Only to see Hastings fifteen feet away, an expression of mild interest on his face. He’d seen her and Andrew together. She did not bother coming up with a task, but only told Susie, when the latter reached her, that she was going for a private word with Lord Hastings.
Before she could excoriate him for breaking his word, however, he said, “I didn’t tell Fitz the identity of your lover. In fact, he punched me in the face when he realized that I hadn’t told him everything.”
“Then, who did?”
“Give members of your family some credit. Do you think they do not remember that you were in love with him? Do you believe they cannot put two and two together? And don’t forgot all those love letters that arrived by the bushel from your beloved. They only needed to stumble upon one to learn his identity.”
There had been the one letter she could not account for after her return from America. “Why didn’t they say anything to me?”
“Probably because they knew you wouldn’t listen to reason.”
“That is pure hog swill.”
“Would you have listened to them?”
“They would have tried to persuade me with conventional thinking—not at all the same as reason. Not all of us live by the same logic.”
“Yet you still have to abide by the same set of rules as the rest of them. The consequences won’t be any different for you.”
“You say it as if I don’t know what the consequences are.”
“You know exactly what the consequences are. But you don’t believe they could happen to you.”
“And why should they? I have been rigorously careful.”
“Have you? Three nights at Huntington I observed you come and go from your assignations—you didn’t notice a thing. On the last night, another couple on their secret rendezvous was headed right in your direction. I had to divert them. After that I had no choice but to speak to your family.”
She had not known this, but still her ire rose. “And bilk a kiss from me besides.”
“For someone who deals with writers, you should choose your words with greater care.” He smirked. “I came by my kiss honestly.”
The lecher.
“And how do you like my book? Does it not astound you with its literary finesse?”
“We are talking about smut with dirty drawings.”
“Ah, so you have been reading.”
“I glanced through two pages and that was enough for me.”
He smiled. “It’s that good, eh?”
Her breath caught. “It is a waste of paper. And what are you doing here, anyway?”
“I’ve come to welcome our duchess back to London. She is practically my sister, too. Now if you’ll excuse me.”
“Where are you going?” she was not so much curious as suspicious.
“Fitz will be here soon. Martin might know everything that happened in East Anglia before Canute the Great made it a mere fiefdom, but I see he doesn’t have the sense to remove himself and avoid giving the impression that he has come to meet you.”
“He hasn’t. He happens to be on his way to Oxford.”
“All the more reason not to give Fitz the wrong ideas. If there is no misconduct, then you shouldn’t waste people’s suspicion.”
He ambled off, took Andrew by the shoulder, and guided him away.
Fitz arrived at the rail station to find Helena and Hastings standing together, speaking in that particular push-pull rhythm of theirs. Fitz listened to their exchange of mildly veiled insults with his usual amusement—and a twinge of melancholy. It was a testament to Hastings’s skill and determination that Helena, after all these years, still did not realize he was in love with her. But what good was such love, too proud to make itself known?
He wondered whether the same applied to his wife. Once she had her freedom, would she be too timid to pursue her fellow, to whom she’d remained chastely devoted all these years?
An odd thing, his continued anonymity. She did not make her debut until after she was Lady Fitzhugh, so she could not have been acquainted with many young men before she married. In the intervening years, Fitz had met most of the Graveses’ social set and never once had he come across a man who elicited any reaction in her.
“My goodness, Mrs. Englewood!” Hastings cried. “What an adorable coincidence running into you.”
Fitz was jolted out of his reverie. Isabelle, in a promenade dress of black velvet, appeared at Fitz’s elbow. She shook hands warmly with both Hastings and Helena. “Adorable, yes, coincidence, no. Fitz told me that the duchess is due back this afternoon. I am dying to meet her new husband and see her again—as well as the rest of you. How could I pass the opportunity when I know that everyone will be gathered here?”
Everyone, including Millie.
Had she been anyone else, Fitz would have suspected her of trying to usurp Millie’s place. But Isabelle was a creature of impulses, not wiles. There was no malice to her, nor machinations.
All the same, this was ill done of her. Inserting herself openly into a family occasion—she might as well take out a notice in the papers stating their intention to set up a household together. No matter how romantic a reunion of young lovers, he would still be committing adultery and he preferred to do so discreetly, and not give his wife reasons to think she’d been publicly thrown over.
He was not alone in his reaction. Once Helena and Hastings realized that Isabelle had come deliberately and would remain with them, they both glanced toward the gates of the platform: It was only a matter of time before Millie arrived.
And then they both glanced at Fitz with uncertainty—and more than a little anxiety on Helena’s part—trying to gauge his reaction, to determine whether he approved of Isabelle’s action or whether he shared their unease.
Venetia’s train pulled into the station. She and her husband, the Duke of Lexington, stepped down from the duke’s private rail coach. The two had supplied the bulk of the gossip for the early part of the Season, culminating in an elopement that had shocked everyone, members of their families included. Fitz had guessed more of the reasons behind their sudden marriage than most, but still he’d worried, until the couple had come for a quick visit to London not long ago and he’d seen for himself how happy and relaxed Venetia was in her new marriage. They had then returned to the duke’s estate in the country for the rest of their honeymoon and were only now rejoining Society, beginning with the ball in their honor, hosted by Fitz and Millie—the same night they would consummate their marriage.