“I’m sorry,” were the first words Sebastian said to her. “I should have been more careful and attentive to you. If you wish me to leave, I shall. But first, you must know that I don’t know the woman who thrust herself at me during the ball. What you witnessed was a mistake. It wasn’t real. If anything, it was a sour attempt to fabricate a lie.”
Thomas scoffed. “Impossible.”
“It is unlikely,” Isabel murmured. She rested a hand over her stomach, trying to stay composed. Trying not to get her hopes up. “Can you prove it?”
“I can.”
Thomas grumbled as Sebastian paused to catch a droplet of blood from his knuckles. Once they were wrapped in his kerchief, he reached for a paper in his waistcoat that was neatly folded. “It was all a ploy to turn you… to turn us against one another.”
Isabel reached for the offered paper as Thomas let out a squawk. “It’s not your turn,” she reminded him.
“He is lying. It is all he knows what to do. Don’t read it, Isabel. It’ll ruin everything.”
“Will it ruin everything for me or will it ruin everything for you?” She felt the need to ask. There was a flash of guilt in Thomas’s eyes that left a bitter taste in her mouth. She glanced at Sebastian’s somber expression before opening the paper.
Only two lines were written out in a pretty scrawl. A woman’s handwriting. It was an apology for playacting that wasn’t supposed to hurt another a woman, only she had been duped into it. Signed… by Thomas’s mistress.
“I found her this morning,” Sebastian said when she looked up in confusion. “She confirmed she was led to believe it was a trick.Playacting. She wishes for a life on the stage. Thomas paid her a hundred pounds for it.”
Half of what I gave him just the other week. Oh dear. How… How could he? How could I?
Isabel dropped the paper. She didn’t need to read it again as the truth of it slowly sank in. Sebastian hadn’t hurt her. He hadn’t had another woman. It was all a trick from her very own brother, the one whom she had slowly begun to agree to help.
“Why?” she asked, unable to keep the emotion from her voice.
Thomas’s anger shifted as he stepped back, uncomfortable by the visibility of her tears. His expression twisted when he glanced at Sebastian before slowly shifting into a slump.
Don’t look at him. Thomas, look me in the eye. Tell me what you did! I will hear it from your own lips. Sebastian and you are not in control here. It is me. Tell me.
“I didn’t… I wasn’t trying to hurt you.” His excuses only grew weaker. “I needed you, Isabel. You have everything now. Why couldn’t you simply share?”
“I would have if you had been truthful with me.” Seeing more clearly than she had in days, she realized, “You toyed with me. You mocked my husband. And you lied to Emilia as well, didn’t you?” When he cringed, she had her answer. Overwhelmingemotions collided within her. All she wanted to do was break down and cry over how poorly she had been used.
Not yet.
Isabel forced her chin up. Despite the heartbreak, she managed to tell Thomas clearly, “This was your second chance that you have ruined. For what you have done, you have now lost me forever.”
“Oh, Isabel, but…”
There would be no standing down. “You wanted to ruin me again. But I will not bow this time. We are done, Thomas. Do what you will, but I will have no part of it. I never want to see you again. Give him what he deserves, Sebastian, for all I care. I simply do not wish to watch.”
“Isabel!”
Striding from the room with her head held high, Isabel went to clear her tears and find a quieter place to breathe. There would be much to clean up soon, but she needed some time to herself first. For it felt like she had lost her entire world, and it seemed unlikely she would ever recover.
EPILOGUE
Mrs. Maple glanced up at him in the doorway. “It’s rather chilly out, Your Grace. Don’t you wish to come in side?”
“In a minute.”
“You don’t think he will leave, will you?”
He took his eyes off the cart for only a second to meet her skeptical graze. “You appear just as hesitant as I feel. Is that right, Mrs. Maple?”
A slight tilt of her shoulders moved before they were watching the cart again. That was what Sebastian had done. He’d already managed to wallop Thomas hard twice in the house. The young man would be sporting a decent shiner and bruised ribs if he was right. And when it came to boxing, Sebastian was always right.
A cart, a coat, and two hundred pounds. It’s more than he’s worth. But for Isabel, it will be just right. I hope.
