Slightly Tempted (37 page)

She opened her mouth to say more but thought better of it. She merely nodded instead. But she was silent for only a minute or so.

"It is notmy final word, though," she said. "My brother suffered from that incident too."

He did not comment.

IT WAS NOT INMORGAN'S NATURE TO LET SLEEPINGdogs lie, especially when people she loved were involved-or aperson she loved. She loved Wulfric.

And something had been niggling at the edges of her mind for a while. It had become persistent since that scene at breakfast.

One table of cards was set up in the drawing room during the evening. Conversation among everyone else was lively. Henrietta sat at the pianoforte half a room away from everyone else, playing quietly. Morgan joined her there and stood behind the bench looking at the music until she had finished playing that particular piece.

"Henrietta," she said then, keeping her voice low, "you werethere the night my brother's betrothal to Lady Marianne Bonner was to be announced, were you not?"

Henrietta looked back over her shoulder, instantly wary.

"Yes, of course," she said. "We were neighbors-that is, the Marquess of Paysley used to spend a part of each year at Winchholme. It was natural enough that he invite all of us to the ball-Uncle George and Gervase and me, that was. Monique and Cecile were still in the schoolroom, and Aunt Lisette had been called back to Windrush because Cecile was indisposed. Aunt Bertha, Uncle's sister, was my chaperon."

"It must have been dreadful for you," Morgan said, perching on the end of the bench. "What happened at that ball, I mean."

"Yes." Henrietta closed the music and clasped her hands loosely in her lap. "It was. Dreadful."

"How did they know where Marianne and Gervase had gone?" Morgan asked, leaning forward slightly to look into the other woman's face. "If it was a large squeeze of a ball, how did they even know the two of them were together? And what made them think that they were in her bedchamber? Why did they go charging in there-apparently without even knocking on the door first? Why all three of them-Wulfric, Gervase's father, and Marianne's?"

Henrietta stared blankly back at her. "I do not know," she said.

"But did you never wonder?" Morgan asked her. "Did you never ask your uncle?"

"No," Henrietta said. "I never did."

"Do you wondernow ?" Morgan gazed intently at her. Surely she must.

"I suppose I do," Henrietta said, running one hand along the keys though she did not depress any of them. "Someone had seen them go upstairs together, I suppose. Some servant."

"Henrietta." Morgan moved to the edge of the bench. "Do you believe that Gervase did what they said he did? Do you believe he betrayed my brother and then stole a priceless heirloom from Marianne?"

Henrietta's eyes were clouded with something that looked very like grief when she looked up. "No, of course not," she said."Of course not."

"You believe, then," Morgan said, "that it was Marianne who was the betrayer? That she drugged Gervase and got him into her bed and had someone send up Wulfric and the two fathers-all because she did not have the courage to tell Wulfric in person that she would not marry him?"

"Couragehad nothing to do with it," Henrietta said, "or cowardice either. You did not know the Marquess of Paysley, Morgan. You did not know what a tyrant he was. And you did not know the Duke of Bewcastle and what a tyrant-" She clapped a hand to her mouth when she realized what she had said and flushed scarlet. "I do beg your pardon."

"Ido know Wulfric and his tyrannical ways," Morgan said. "But he has a sense of fairness for all that, Henrietta. I know he would never force any lady into marrying him against her will. Why should he? He would have to live with her all the rest of his life. You have spoken of these things with Marianne, then, have you? Gervase says she is still your friend."

"We have not spoken much on the topic," Henrietta said. "It is too painful to us both."

"And yet," Morgan said, "knowing what she did and what the terrible consequences were to your cousin-and perhaps guessing the humiliation my brother must have suffered-you continued your friendship with her?"

"A true friendship runs deep," Henrietta said.

"I do not believe," Morgan said, unable to keep all the scorn she felt entirely from her voice, "I would feel very kindly disposed to a friend who had ruined the character of a relative of mine and doomed him to nine years of exile. I believe she would quickly become myformer friend."

"You do not understand," Henrietta said.

"No," Morgan agreed, "I do not. But I am sorry, Henrietta. I did not mean to quarrel with you. I just feel a need to understand the past, to know why it was Gervase who was chosen for such suffering. And why my brother had to suffer so much humiliation."

"I do not know," Henrietta said again, and Morgan was surprised to see tears in her eyes.

"I want to see the lady," she said. "I want to talk with her. Will you go there with me, perhaps tomorrow, and introduce me?"

"Is it wise?" Henrietta asked.

"I have no idea," Morgan said. "But I will go there alone if you will not accompany me. Will you?"

Henrietta drew a deep breath and released it on a sigh.

"If I must," she said. "Very well, then. You are going to be living here anyway after you marry Gervase. It is fitting that you call on her sometime. I just hope there will not be any . . . unpleasantness."

"Gracious," Morgan said. "So do I."

She smiled up at Monique and Eve, who were approaching the pianoforte together.

CHAPTER XX

THE FOLLOWING DAY WAS DRIZZLY IN THEmorning, though it opened out to a dry, cloudy, cool afternoon. Freyja and Joshua, Cecile and Lord Vardon took out the boats, and Eve and Aidan, Monique and Sir Harold took the children on a long walk. The countess spent the afternoon, as she had spent the morning, making final plans for the fete and the ball with her cook and housekeeper and butler. Gervase, who had gone out after breakfast with his steward, had not yet returned.

Morgan set off with Henrietta in the carriage for Winchholme, less than five miles away. The roads were wet but not impassable. The sun was even trying to break through the clouds as they approached the picturesque old manor, its gardens laden with roses, whose sweet, heavy perfumes Morgan could smell even before the carriage rolled to a halt. She and Henrietta had scarcely spoken to each other, each wrapped in thought.

Lady Marianne Bonner met them herself at the door. While she greeted Henrietta by clasping her hands and kissing her on the cheek, Morgan gazed curiously at her. Even though she had passed the first bloom of youth, she was a remarkable beauty, from her shining golden curls all the way down a shapely, perfectly proportioned body to her small slippered feet. When she turned her eyes on her guest, Morgan could see that they were very blue.

This,Morgan thought, was the woman Wulfric had almost married. This was the woman he had loved. Hemust have loved her. Like all the Bedwyns, he believed strongly in love within marriage. He could have had no other reason to marry her-he had not needed her father's influence or her fortune, and he had had three brothers to make the begetting of sons less urgent than it might otherwise have been. This was the woman who might have been her sister-in-law.

Both curtsied as Henrietta made the introductions, and Marianne flushed, looking even more lovely as she did so.

"I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Lady Morgan," she said.

"And I yours, Lady Marianne," Morgan replied.

They were taken into a cozy sitting room on the ground floor that looked out on some of the best of the roses. The French windows were closed against the chill, but Morgan could imagine how fragrant this room must be on a warm summer's day when the doors could be thrown back.

Mrs. Jasper, Lady Marianne's aunt, was in the room, but she excused herself to rest after being presented to Morgan. She was a very elderly lady whose presence at Winchholme offered at least the appearance of chaperonage to a single lady living alone. It was an arrangement that probably suited both.

The tea tray was brought in and they all conversed politely on a variety of topics for a while. But as Morgan prepared to introduce the topic that she had come to discuss, Marianne broached it herself. It was suddenly clear to Morgan that she had known about this visit in advance. Henrietta must have sent a note over during the morning.

"I understand," she said, setting down her plate, "that you have been asking Henrietta about what was to have been my betrothal ball, Lady Morgan."

Morgan set down her own cup and saucer and clasped her hands in her lap. Marianne and Henrietta were sitting side by side on the settee. Both were looking at her rather warily, and Marianne's cheeks were considerably flushed.

"I asked," Morgan said, "if Henrietta knew how my brother and her uncle and your father learned that you and Gervase were together in your bedchamber. They would have had no way of suspecting such a shocking thing in the ordinary course of events at a ball. Who told them? Who sent them up there?"

"I have never thought to wonder about it," Marianne told her.

But Morgan was gazing steadily at her. "I am afraid I do not believe you," she said bluntly. "You must have wanted to be caught. You had drugged Gervase and taken him into your bedchamber from your sitting room. You wished it to seem that you had lain with him so that you would not be forced to marry Wulfric-my brother. But how could you be caught if no one knew you were together or where you were to be found? Your plan could succeed only if you had an accomplice."

Marianne stared right back at her, flushed and defiant-and guilty. "You are calling me a liar, Lady Morgan?" she asked.

Henrietta set a hand on her arm and made a sound of distress.

"Wulfric must have loved you," Morgan told her. "I know him. No other motive would have led him toward marriage. He must have been deeply hurt as well as dreadfully humiliated by what he saw in that room-or what hethought he saw. Gervase was hurt in a far more terrible way. He is still only very gradually recovering. He is still wounded and in some ways permanently scarred. There is no way you can make restitution for what you did. But at least you can tell the truth."

Marianne opened her mouth to speak, but Henrietta spoke first, looking sharply away from them both as she did so.

"I was the one," she said. "Itold them-all three of them. I told them Gervase had dragged Marianne upstairs against her will."

She had suspected it since last evening, Morgan realized. She had hoped she was wrong, since betrayal from within his own family would be far worse to Gervase than betrayal by a neighbor and former friend. Butwhy ?

Marianne passed one hand over her face and turned suddenly pale.

"We planned it together," Henrietta explained. "Marianne's father had bullied and threatened her into accepting first the Duke of Bewcastle's courtship and then his marriage offer. If the betrothal announcement had been publicly made, all would have been lost. She would not have been able to avoid the marriage. She turned to me in her misery and desperation, and together we concocted the plan."

"To frame Gervase for that terrible disgrace?" Morgan asked, aghast. "To make it seem that he had ravished Lady Marianne? Your owncousin, Henrietta?"

"I never really belonged," Henrietta said, getting to her feet and taking a few steps away from the settee while fumbling for a handkerchief in the pocket of her dress. "There were Monique and Cecile growing up behind me, all vivacity and frivolous beauty, everyone's favorites. And there was Gervase, always teasing me and always trying to find me partners and beaux during that dreadful Season. I wanted-all I ever wanted was to gohome . Not to Windrush, but home to my mother and father. But they were dead."

"Ah, Henrietta," Marianne said, clearly distressed for her.

"I am sorry," Henrietta said after blowing her nose and coming back to sit on the settee again. "I recovered from all of that years ago and recognized how unfair I had always been to the family that had nurtured and loved me. I truly love them all now. But we tend to be selfish, self-centered creatures indeed when we are very young. At least I was."

"You must understand," Marianne said, addressing herself to Morgan, "that my only thought was to be rid of the Duke of Bewcastle in such a way that my father could not blame me. The fact that Gervase was my neighbor and friend was a point in favor of the plan. I imagined that I could explain all to him the next day and he would understand and perhaps even explain privately to the duke-they were friends, you see."

"You could not explain to Wulfricyourself ?" Morgan asked her.

"I-" Marianne closed her eyes and shook her head. "No, I could not. You must understand, Lady Morgan, that I was only eighteen. I am not proud of what I did. In fact, it has haunted me ever since. But I was so very young."

"I am eighteen now," Morgan said softly.

Both women stared at her mutely.

"And the brooch?" Morgan asked. "Was it really stolen?"

Marianne shook her head. "Papa would have made me marryGervase, " she said. "I could not have said no-I had told Papa that he ravished me. Andhe could not say no-offering for me was something that was required of him as a gentleman. I had to think quickly, and I did what was truly reprehensible as well as stupid. I wanted to explain to Gervase afterward, but he was gone. I never,never expected the events of that night to have such dire consequences. I almost lost even Henrietta's friendship. She was so very angry with me about the brooch."