With one last look at his mostly untouched meal, Grayson got to his feet and went after the brat.
Chapter Eight
Grayson had seen such dramatics before, of course.London was full of spoiled misses and matrons, even some with real problems caused by husbands, lovers, or gambling debts.Once in a while, he stepped in to pay off some vowels, but he was not the sort of man to give comfort, and women did not seek it from him.They knew better.
Struggling against his annoyance, Grayson made his way to a tall alder, under which the tearful girl was ensconced on a stone bench.He told himself it was the first step in his investigation.She was distraught, and he could use that to his advantage as he pried the truth from her.
Cool and calculating, as usual, he told himself his actions had nothing to do with the look on Kate’s face or how he would like to lift one of her many burdens.He approached slowly, and when the brat did not acknowledge his presence, Grayson took a seat beside her.
“I assure you that I have no intention of putting your beloved to death,” he said.
“So you say!”
“Yes, so I say,” Grayson repeated.Then he deliberately softened his tone.“Suppose you tell me exactly what happened.”
She had her back to him, and she sniffed softly.“What will you do to him?”
He smiled cynically.“I will make sure that he does not use my name again,” he said, without letting on exactly how he would accomplish that.A dead man could not don a disguise, but the fellow might have other uses.“And I would do my best to see that he marries you,” Grayson added.Providing he does not have a wife and five children already.
Lucy whirled to face him.“He will not need to be forced!We would be wed already, if not for some mishap that has prevented his return,” she said, her voice breaking.“Something has happened to tear him away from me.”
“Then let me help,” Grayson said.
She succumbed, nodding as she dabbed at her eyes.For one so stricken with grief, they were remarkably clear, and Grayson wondered just how much of her outbursts were theatrics, designed to gain attention.
She lowered her eyes and frowned daintily.“You cannot know what it has been like here since Papa died.”
“Tell me,” Grayson urged.
Lucy lifted her damp lashes in a move calculated to gain his sympathy, not knowing that he was notorious for his very lack of that commodity.“Oh, it has been positively horrid, locked up here, seeing no one, having nothing.I could not bear it!”
“You have your sister,” Grayson said.
“Kate!She has no care for fancy dresses or balls or handsome beaux.She doesn’t mind working like a servant, cleaning and baking until her hands are ruined.”
Grayson could have argued that point, but he restrained himself.Lucy was talking now, and he did not want to halt her confessions with the reminder that Kate, being the eldest, had no choice but to take care of her.She had done so, too, without complaint, and, apparently, with little enough reward.
As if sensing his disagreement, Lucy pouted prettily.“Oh, nothing bothers Kate, but I am possessed of more delicate sensibilities.I could not stand being trapped here, so I began walking farther and farther afield, trying to escape my prison.And then, one day, he came upon me in the woods.”
Grayson remained silent, hoping for clues to the imposter’s identity.
“He said he had a hunting box nearby and… that I was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.We began to meet.”
“Where?”
She looked blank for a moment, then frowned, as if annoyed at the interruption.“The woods, as I said.”
“So you never actually entered the hunting box.”
“No.He did not want the servants to talk, but there was an abandoned cottage nearby, and we… often went there,”
At least the house had not been broken into, but the lout had seduced an earl’s daughter in some old hut, as if she were a common strumpet.Grayson’s jaw tightened.Although he cared little enough for Lucy, he could not countenance such treatment, and he would like to get his hands on the man responsible.
Still, he kept his face carefully neutral as he fished for more information.“And then?”
Lucy had the good grace to blush and look away.“And then I began to suspect my… condition.When I broke the news to him, he seemed startled, but he was just as kind as always,” she hastened to assure Grayson.
“He told me not to worry, yet I could see that he was concerned.I think he was worried about my guardian,” she said, her voice low and angry.
