Regency Rumours: A Scandalous Mistress / Dishonour and Desire. Juliet Landon

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СКАЧАТЬ sweet face lit up with a smile. ‘Is he really, my lord? Oh!’ The door closed again, leaving the two opponents to face each other for the next bout. Lord Elyot resumed his seat. ‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘about the duel, if you will. Would it pain you too much?’

      Amelie had sensed it coming and had to turn away to hide her face from him. Now she must control the anguish that came every time she thought about it. ‘Oh,’ she said, taking a slow deep breath, ‘I expect you must have heard. People are usually ever ready to give their own version of events.’

      ‘That’s why I’d like to hear yours, my lady. I heard that Hurst was responsible for your husband’s death. You should have allowed me to have him arrested while there was still a chance, instead of warning him to flee. I take it that’s what your message to him contained?’

      Her curls bounced as she whipped round to glare angrily at him. ‘You have spies posted at every corner, do you? You must live a depressingly dull life to go to such lengths. Yes, if you must know, I did warn him to flee, but he’d already gone.’

      ‘But why warn him? Because you desire his safety? Your amazing generosity is sometimes hard to understand, my lady.’

      ‘Not from where I stand, it isn’t. Surely you can see that for Hurst to face trial would mean a public airing of events I need to forget, sir. He would say whatever he liked about me to try to lay the blame elsewhere. My name would be blackened, and Caterina’s chances of…well, you know the rest.’

      ‘Yes, I can imagine. So Hurst quarrelled with your late husband, I take it? Gambling, was it?’

      Reluctantly, Amelie recounted the story while roaming from one piece of furniture to the next, touching and tracing the outlines as if to keep herself safely grounded. ‘They played hazard together with a group of friends. It was Josiah’s relaxation. Nothing serious. But Hurst became a nuisance. He craved my attention, and it was noticed. The men laughed it off, but the women didn’t.’

      ‘And your husband?’

      ‘Josiah was twenty-three years my senior. I would not have done anything to hurt him…a younger man hanging around his wife…you can imagine what that would have meant to him if he’d believed it. I suggested excluding Hurst, but Josiah saw only that he lost too regularly and drank rather too much. He did everything too much. Rumours began to circulate about his…well…obsession, I suppose one might call it.

      ‘Then one evening at their club, Hurst lost far more than he could afford to Josiah, and he became abusive. He shouted that I was…no, I cannot say it…’ Her voice broke up, and for some time she stood quaking, clinging to the curve of the large harp that stood in one corner, fingering its gilded scrolls. Eventually, as Lord Elyot waited in silence, she found the strength to continue in a voice husky with emotion. ‘He told Josiah that he was my lover and that he should tend his wife better if he wanted to keep me. It was shocking. So shocking.’

      ‘Did your husband believe that?’

      ‘No, my lord, he didn’t. He knew I would never, never have. But the insult was too near the bone, too wounding to both of us, and he challenged Hurst to a duel. Josiah’s brother tried to reconcile them, but Hurst would not apologise and Josiah would not withdraw the challenge. They met in the woodland early the next morning, but Josiah was no shot and Hurst knew it. He was much older, was Josiah, and he died in his brother Stephen’s arms. Caterina’s father.’

      ‘I’m sorry. And Hurst?’

      ‘Well, you must know how the law stands on such matters,’ said Amelie, staring out into the garden. ‘A nobleman may be allowed to get away with it as a matter of honour, but not a man like Hurst. He knew he’d be brought to trial and condemned, so he fled to Ireland and I believed he would stay there for good.’ She came at last to the sofa where she sank down with her back to the light, fighting the tears. ‘You can imagine the rest, I’m sure. The inevitable gossip, the jealousy of what some seemed to think were my favoured circumstances. It would have been easier for them to bear if I’d been penniless, I suppose, as a result. They could have forgiven me that. Some found it hard to understand why a wealthy woman of twenty-two could be so distressed by the murder of her forty-five-year-old husband, or why she should be so grateful to his widowed younger brother and his family who, as it happened, was one of the few to offer me real help and support. The others were all too afraid of their wives, I suppose, and their wives were too concerned about the rumours to believe totally in my innocence. One quickly learns about true friendship at such times, my lord. The moral of the story is never to challenge anyone to a duel unless you are prepared to lose more than your honour.’

      ‘Well, your advice comes too late for me, my lady. But then, I always make a point of winning, you see.’

      Glancing at him, she noted once more the impressive length of his muscled leg as he lounged into the chair, the width of his shoulder, the deep chest and strong hands. At ease, he was a darkly brooding god, and she could imagine only too well how proficient he would be at any physical activity. She had seen his dancing, so unlike Josiah whose keen brain was his most active part. He had provided for her well, however, and he was no stranger to compassion, as some men were.

      ‘Your parents,’ said Lord Elyot. ‘I understand they were lost to you only the year before. Was that as sudden?’

      ‘A coaching accident in Switzerland. Had they still been alive, I would probably have gone back to live with them immediately. But the Carr estate was entailed to my cousin, and his wife couldn’t wait to claim it as soon as it became vacant. Fortunately, when my husband died, his brother Stephen allowed me to stay in my own home until I bought this one, instead of claiming it for himself and his family as he was entitled to do. He moved in after I left, but I suppose you must know that.’ She shot a resentful glance at him, but he received it with no more than a slow blink. There had been gossip about the mutual support of the brother and sister-in-law which, in many people’s eyes, could not have been platonic.

      ‘According to my information,’ said Lord Elyot, ‘you were highly regarded by Buxton people.’

      ‘Really,’ said Amelie, twisting the wedding ring on her finger. ‘What a pity all those charitable people who were glad to accept my husband’s hospitality for so long could not have maintained the same charity for his widow when she most needed it. It comes a little late, wouldn’t you say?’

      ‘I can offer you my help, my lady, if you will accept it. The situation is certainly grave, but not irredeemable.’

      Suddenly fearful of the soothing tone, Amelie leapt to her feet. ‘Oh, come now, my lord. Don’t tell me you came here to help. Why not be truthful and admit that, armed with all you know of my past and present life, you cannot wait to hound me out of here? An upstart northerner with trade connections in Richmond? We’ll soon get rid of her. I can almost hear your parents in chorus, sir. Well, now I’m in trouble with both of them, am I not? Which one will you tell first, or have you already done so?’

      ‘Calm down,’ he said, rising to his feet. He strolled to the chimneypiece and lay an arm along its edge, resting the sole of his shining Hessian boot along the brass fender. He took some time to study her graceful but guarded bearing, the angry challenging tilt of her head upon the long neck, the dark moist flash of her sun-flecked eyes. ‘I have not told either of them, and Todd knows better than to speak without my permission. But my father is expecting some kind of result and so are the Vestry and, yes, you could certainly be in serious trouble if word got out about your involvement in their affairs. And the scandal wouldn’t do much to help, either.’

      ‘Not to mention the СКАЧАТЬ