“I’m glad you’ve realized it’s your fault. All the same, you should hurry back, or you may findshehas leftyou!”
He swallowed. “Please don’t let her leave before I get back! I shall return to beg her forgiveness, which is what I should have done days ago.”
“I still think you should speak to her now, but I understand why you feel you need to settle things with Ashford first. You were always one for taking responsibility. I’ll tell her that.”
“Thank you, Mama.” He kissed her cheek again, and she patted him with an awry smile.
“You’re very like your Uncle Ingram by all accounts. I never knew him, but your father always said so. It’s why he admired you so much.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Your father loved you, Robert. He thought the world of you, he was so proud. He loved all of his children, but you were special. To both of us.” She blinked and swallowed.
“Oh, Mama.” He hugged her. “I must go, but thank you for telling me that, it—it means a great deal.”
*
Sarah received thenews of Robert’s leaving for London with mixed feelings. She was glad that he was going to talk to Emrys, for only then would he surely understand that he had blown everything out of proportion. But she was sad that he hadn’t come to see her before he left.
The afternoon dragged, and she put on her bonnet and cloak to walk in the grounds. Returning to the house an hour later, she found a dainty carriage with two horses drawn up to the front entrance.
Entering the front hall, Sarah put off her bonnet and cloak and asked, “Who is our guest, Jardin?”
He looked uncomfortable, flushing faintly. Since Jardin never looked discomposed, this alerted her that something wasn’t right. Just then the dowager duchess’s voice, raised in indignation, came to her through the door of the ground floor front parlor.
“How dare you come here with your lies, you strumpet! Leave at once or I’ll have you tossed out!”
Alarmed, Sarah crossed the hall and flung the parlor door open. The duchess stood quivering with indignation before a vision of loveliness. Sarah was struck breathless by the other woman’s beauty.
She was petite and garbed in an expensive green pelisse trimmed with fox fur over a matching green walking dress. She had dark, glossy ringlets beneath a fashionable poke bonnet and her heart-shaped face featured a perfect nose and rosebud mouth, creamy skin and the most unusual violet eyes, large and fringed with long dark lashes beneath beautifully arched brows.
“Sarah!” the duchess changed color from the red of indignation to pale alarm. “My dear, this is nothing you need to be concerned about. Miss Kinsella was just leaving!” The dripping scorn with which she uttered the name made Sarahblink, and she didn’t miss the young lady’s flinch, nor the faint tremor in her bearing under the lash of the dowager’s tongue.
The young woman directed those large violet eyes at her and said in a sweet, winsome voice, “You must be Robert’s duchess.” She curtsied as she uttered these words, and Sarah’s heart flipped and a sick feeling stole into her stomach.
“I am,” she said slowly, swallowing the lump in her throat.
“My apologies, I would have much preferred to speak to Robert about this privately, but I’m informed he is not here. Is that the case?”
“It is.” Sarah gripped her hands together tightly, willing herself not to fall apart. “How may I help you?”
“Sarah, my dear, this doesn’t concern you. Please leave, now!” said the dowager, trying to shepherd Sarah to the door.
Sarah evaded her and said quietly but firmly, “I believe it does. Miss Kinsella, is your name Madeleine, by any chance?”
The other woman colored faintly. “You’ve heard of me?”
“I have.”
Behind Sarah, the dowager groaned and tottered to a seat. Sarah ignored her, her heart thudding hard.
“What did you wish to speak to my husband about, Miss Kinsella?”
For the first time, Miss Kinsella—Madeleine!—seemed a little discomposed. “I am sorry to bring this to you, Your Grace, but I am with child.”
Sarah had been braced for it, but the words still hit her like a lash. She stiffened her legs to prevent them buckling and breathed rapidly to stop the wave of faintness that threatened her senses.
“Sarah, don’t believe her. It’s all lies!” urged the dowager.
