Page 112 of The Dangerous Lord

“But something changed that, didn’t it?”

A smile crept over his face. “My wife. She finally made me accept that we all make mistakes. That living with them doesn’t have to mean torturing oneself with them. Or bearing them alone.”

Jordan seemed to accept that explanation. He gripped Ian’s arm, squeezed it briefly in a show of sympathy, then released it. “Your wife is a remarkable woman. Almost as remarkable as mine.”

“I know.” To him, she was more remarkable, but he doubted Jordan would agree.

“As for your uncle ...” Jordan’s tone hardened. “You can’t let him win this. Even if I’d never known the truth, I would have thought it an abomination for your uncle to gain Chesterley. I wonder why your father ever considered it.”

Ian ignored the sudden jolt of pain in his gut. That particular torment wasn’t likely to go away soon. “He thought me more unfit for the position than my uncle.”

“That’s not true.” Jordan’s eyes narrowed. “If he had, he would have disinherited you entirely, but he didn’t. Is it possible he set up that will as a way to make you see your responsibilities? When he died, he had no idea where you were or if you would ever return. Perhaps your father feared you wouldn’t return without good reason. And the threat of your uncle inheriting would certainly be a good reason.”

Ian had never considered that, but it made sense. It was the sort of test his father would have given him. And it might mean that his father had believed him, after all. It was comforting to think it.

“Perhaps you’re right, my friend,” he told Jordan. “In any case, we’ll never know. Right now, I’m more concerned with making sure Felicity doesn’t suffer the same nasty rumors I’ve endured for the past few years. So I think it’s long past time we returned to the ballroom.”

“You’re right,” Jordan said, then headed for the door.

When they entered the ballroom a few minutes later, he instantly noticed a change in the way people regarded him. The coldness that had been there earlier seemed absent. Some of the women even eyed him with interest.

He wanted only one woman, however. As they joined Gideon beside the punch table, it took Ian a few minutes to spot her standing with Lady Brumley amidst a crowd of matrons. Someone glanced at him, then said something to Felicity that made her laugh and cast him a delighted smile. He smiled back. What the devil was going on?

He didn’t have long to wonder. Emily and Sara hurried up to the three of them, out of breath and beside themselves with excitement. “Where on earth have you two been?” Sara asked. “You’ve missed everything!”

“Oh?” Jordan asked, exchanging glances with Ian.

“Your wife is amazing!” Emily told Ian.

“I’m quite aware of that, believe me. What has she done now?”

“I suppose you know about the gossip your uncle spread earlier,” Sara remarked. Ian nodded. “Well, you needn’t worry about that any more.”

It took Emily and Sara several minutes to tell the tale. As they detailed Felicity’s blithe parrying of every accusation made by Edgar, Ian’s astonishment grew. They were right—Felicity was amazing. It would never have occurred to him to attack the problem as she had. Somehow she’d turned all his uncle’s lies into compliments to her husband without so much as calling Edgar Lennard a liar. Incredible.

Sara’s eyes were bright with mischief as she finished her tale. “I believe she’s still complaining about her ‘troublesome’ husband and how miserable she is married to a man who provides for her brothers, supports her profession, and as she puts it, makes her ‘behave most improperly.’ She has them all laughing at your uncle’s claim that you forced her into marriage. And pitying him for his other accusations.”

Ian could scarcely breathe, his throat was so tight with pride and love. She’d said she wouldn’t disappoint him. Then she’d gone on to surpass all his expectations. How had he got so lucky? To find the most wonderful woman in London when all he’d sought was someone to give him an heir. He didn’t care what happened now, as long as he got to keep her.

He looked for her again and spotted her in close conversation with Lord Jameson, another notorious gossip. No doubt she was laying further seeds of doubt on the most fertile ground.

As if she felt his gaze, she looked up, saw who surrounded him, then flashed him a tentative smile, as if trying to determine if he’d approved of her tactics. He put as much feeling into his answering smile as he could manage, and her face glowed. He felt other eyes on them, but could think only of her. And how badly he wanted to get her home and make her ‘behave most improperly.’

Suddenly, he caught sight of someone approaching her, and his smile vanished. Uncle Edgar, damn him. “Excuse me a moment,” he murmured to his friends and hurried toward Felicity.

His uncle said something to her and then they both headed out of the ballroom down a hallway toward the private rooms. Which was just as well, Ian thought as he followed them. What he had to say to his uncle was not for others’ ears.

He found them entering a parlor off the main hall. He hurried toward it, but slowed as he approached the open door and heard his uncle say, “You wouldn’t listen to me, would you? You had to take up with him. You had to defend him and make me appear the fool. Well, I hope you enjoyed yourself, Lady St. Clair.” He spoke the courtesy title with condescension. “You and your naiveté. When you hear the whole truth⁠—”

“I know ‘the whole truth,’” she said fiercely. “He’s told me all of it. What’s more, if I’d wanted to tell it to the world, I would have made sure you came off sounding like the vermin you are.”

Ian paused at the door, curious to see what his uncle would say to that. There was a short silence, but Felicity wasn’t finished.

“The fact is,” she continued, “I don’t want to tell the whole truth—I have no wish to cause my husband further pain. But if you ever reveal what happened that night in your bedchamber, I won’t hesitate to denounce you publicly for the wife-beater you are!”

“That won’t prevent my nephew from going to prison for murdering my wife!”

“You might be surprised. I’m sure your former mistress—who detests you, by the way—would be happy to claim you were the one who pushed your wife. And I’m sure any number of your servants could attest to your sordid habits. So go ahead, try accusing Ian of murder. And Miss Greenaway and I will make sure you go straight to Newgate for it. I won’t let you hurt him anymore!”