"Unlikely," Judith said, trying to respond normally. If Agnes Barret could behave as if there were no history and the things that had been said in this room had never been spoken, then so could she. She drew on a lifetime's experience with a masquerade and showed her own mask of insouciance.
"But how did Sebastian know?"
"He's been playing with the earl for the last two months," Judith said, shrugging, averting her eyes from Agnes. "I imagine he realized something wasn't quite right before."
"Miss Moreton, my lady." The door again opened and an excited Harriet bounced in.
"Oh, Judith, I could barely contain myself… such extraordinary news. Is it true that Sebastian discovered the Earl of Gracemere cheating? Oh, how I wish I could have been there." Then Harriet saw Agnes and subsided, blushing furiously.
"You have, of course, never cared for Gracemere, have you, my dear?" Agnes remarked. "Nevertheless, one shouldn't gloat over another's misfortune."
"I find it hard to call it misfortune, ma'am," Isobel said, scrutinizing the plate of sweet biscuits on the coffee tray. "When a man deliberately sets out to injure another man and is unmasked, misfortune seems a misnomer." She selected a piece of shortbread.
Agnes bowed coldly and began to leaf through a periodical on a console table. Cornelia kicked Isobel's ankle with lamentable lack of delicacy and an uneasy silence fell for a minute. Then Sally spoke with customary good nature. "It's quite shocking news, of course. But one can only assume that the earl had a compelling reason to play in that manner. Debts of unmanageable magnitude… what other explanation could there be?"
"You're right," Cornelia said. "We shouldn't be the first to throw stones."
"No," Sally agreed, thinking of four thousand pounds' worth of pawned rubies.
In the next half hour, it seemed that half London was indeed beating a path to Judith's door, agog to learn any details that might not be generally known. Judith dispensed hospitality, asserted she had no inside snippets of gossip since she hadn't seen her brother since the previous evening, and all the while her head spun with conjecture. What possible revenge could Agnes and Gracemere have in mind? The speculation took her mind off her trouble with Marcus to some extent, but did nothing to restore her equilibrium. She waited impatiently for her guests to take their leave, so that she could go to Sebastian.
"Judith, I must go home, Annie has the croup." Sally appeared at Judith's elbow. "Nurse is quite good with her, but the poor little love frets if I'm away too long."^
"I'm sorry." Judith received this information with less than her usual attention. "It's not serious, I hope."
"No… Judith, is something the matter?" Sally regarded her friend closely. "You seem distrait."
"It's hardly surprising," Judith said, trying to pass it off, gesturing around the crowded room. "After last night."
"I suppose not. What did Marcus have to say?" It was a shrewd guess, but Sally was good at guessing games when it came to Devlins.
Judith shook her head. "Not now, Sally."
Sally accepted this with a nod and a compassionate kiss. "Oh, I was forgetting, Harriet had to leave… some errand she has to run for her mother. You were deep in conversation and she didn't want to interrupt, so I said I'd say good-bye for her."
"Thanks. I expect Sebastian will be able to answer all her questions later." Judith smiled, but the strain in the smile was obvious. Sally pressed her hand briefly and left.
Judith looked around the room and realized that Agnes Barret had also made a discreet departure. But then she wouldn't have expected her to make any farewells.
Judith walked to Albemarle Street as soon as the last visitor had left. Sebastian had been watching for her from his front window and came to open the door himself. "I've been hiding," he confessed. "I saw Harry Middleton this morning, but I've had Broughton deny me to everyone else."
"Wise of you," she said. "My drawing room's been full since midmorning with people trying to pry some additional tidbit out of me." She unpinned her hat and drew off her gloves.
Sebastian poured sherry. "You look the very devil," he said frankly. "What happened to you last night? I looked up and you'd gone."
"Marcus took me away just as you were exposing Gracemere."
Sebastian whistled soundlessly. "He saw." She nodded. "All of it." "Bad?"
She nodded again. "Very. As bad as we knew it would be if he found out."
"I'm sorry, love." Sebastian took his sister in his arms and she wept quietly for a few moments while he stroked her hair. "When he's had time to calm down, to look at it clearly, he'll understand. He knows you love him. He'd have to be a blind man not to know it."
"I hoped he loved me," she said drearily. "But love is easily killed, it seems. He despises me." She heard again his voice telling her to go away… to get out of his sight. Such furious contempt.
"Stuff," her brother said. "Of course he doesn't despise you."
"Yes, he does. Anyway, let's not talk of it anymore now. Agnes Barret paid me a visit this morning."
She explained what Agnes had said and Sebastian listened attentively. "There's nothing she could do," he said at the end. "Neither of them has any redress, Ju. Gracemere will have to leave London. He's already been obliged to resign from his clubs, according to Harry. He can rusticate in the country or go abroad. But there's no place in Society for him now… or ever again." "And Agnes?"
"She's untarnished. She can continue as before."
"But without her lover. And if her fortunes are tied with Gracemere's then his ruin is hers, one way or the other."
"Either she ends her relationship with Gracemere, or she abandons her place in Society and joins him in exile. Not comfortable choices. Now, what are we going to do about Marcus?"
Judith shook her head tiredly. "I don't believe there's anything to be done. I'll leave him as soon as I can decently do so without causing remark. We'll concoct some story to put me out of the way, and Marcus will be free to marry or to continue to live as he did before he met me."
Sebastian could think of nothing to say in the face of this dreary future. Any option he might offer would be just as wretched when compared with what might have been.
Judith reached for her hat and gloves. "I'd better go home. Maybe Marcus will be back by now."
She walked back to Berkeley Square and found Harriet's maid on the doorstep. "Beggin' your pardon, m'lady, but Lady Moreton sent me." The girl bobbed a curtsy. "She asks as 'ow could you send miss 'ome as soon as possible."
"Send her home?" Judith stared at the girl. "But she went home a long time ago." It was a mere ten minutes' walk from Berkeley Square to Brook Street. "Oh, but she said she had some errands to run for Lady Moreton. I expect that's where she is."
"Oh, no, m'lady," the girl corrected. "Miss already sent the footman home with her ladyship's tonic."
"You'd better come in," Judith said, and the girl followed her into the house.
"Gregson, did you see Miss Moreton leave earlier?"
"Oh, yes, my lady. She left with Lady Barret."
Judith felt the blood drain from her face. Harriet… with Agnes. She saw again those tawny eyes, glittering with maleficence, heard again the hissed threats.
She thought of Harriet, the perfect means of revenge upon Sebastian.
"Tell your mistress that Miss Moreton went with Lady Barret. I'm certain she'll be returning shortly," she instructed the maid. "Gregson, send someone to find his lordship." Her voice was crisp, offering no hint of the terror she felt. "In fact, send as many people as necessary. He may be at one of his clubs, or at Jackson's Saloon… at one of his friends' houses. But he must be found immediately."
"Is there a message, my lady?"