“He saidwhat?”Sophia asked, her voice brimming with indignation as she rose to her feet.
Clara sat numbly on the sofa, still in shock. “He told me that it was my choice. I could be a duchess or a slut. Needless to say, I didn’t tell Mrs. Gunther any of that. She is very curious about what happened.”
Sophia walked to the mantel. “I’m so angry I could spit. The Duke of Guysborough of all people. I always took him for a gentleman.”
“So did I. I was stunned.”
“As you had every right to be! He behaved deplorably!”
“Yes.” Clara gazed around the room. “But I, too, behaved foolishly, and I must accept some responsibility for this unpleasant state of affairs. If I had not lost my head with the marquess, none of this would be happening.” She stood up and paced the room. “If you must bar your door to me, Sophia, I will understand. Perhaps I should leave now and go back to America before this situation spins out of control. I don’t want you and James to be sullied by it.”
“Don’t say such things. We would never bar our door to you.”
“James might wish to, and he would have every right. He might want to protect Liam and John.”
“James will not wish it. You are a member of this family, and as far as he is concerned, you are under his protection.” Sophia crossed to the sofa and sat down. “Besides, this is as much my fault as it is yours. I should never have taken you back to that Cakras Ball. I’ve been a terrible chaperone.”
“No. If you hadn’t taken me, I would have found some other way to see the marquess again, and things could have been much worse. Or maybe I would have accepted the duke’s proposal and paid for such naïveté later.”
For a long time, neither of them said anything. The mantel clock ticked and Clara felt a heavy weight upon her shoulders—the uncomfortable, cumbersome weight of her precarious future.
“Sometimes,” she said softly, gazing up at the flowers on the mantel, “when I think about the marquess, I feel possessed. I don’t know if it is love or something darker...something purely hedonistic. But I can’t suppress my desire to give myself to him in the physical sense. Completely.”
She turned her eyes to her sister, expecting shock and condemnation. Instead, she saw compassion.
“I understand how you feel,” Sophia said. “I remember...with James.” Sophia stood again and took both Clara’s hands in hers. “Do not be distressed. You are a normal, healthy young woman with very human desires, and I agree with you on one point—that the marquess acted honorably, having spared your virtue when clearly you could have been easily persuaded. Compared to Guysborough, he is a gentleman through and through.”
“I agree.”
“It appears,” Sophia continued, “that the marquess and the duke are very different from how they are perceived. Things are not always as they seem, are they? I’ve always believed there was more to a person than what is visible on the surface. That’s why I despise the gossip mill.”
Clara sighed. “I’m afraid I might be dragged through the gossip mill very soon, if the duke doesn’t get what he wants—which is undoubtedly a mammoth settlement from Father.”
Pursing her lips, Sophia turned away from Clara. “It is nothing short of blackmail. I will not stand for it. James will not stand for it. We must tell him. He will know what to do.”
A wave of apprehension moved through Clara. It was colored with shame and remorse. She hated causing problems for the two people she respected most in the world, and she did not want her sister’s husband to think poorly of her. “Please don’t tell him about how I snuck out in the dead of night. Everything else, but not that.”
Gazing uncertainly at Clara, Sophia spoke softly. “Don’t worry, it will not change how he feels about you. James is a man of the world. Besides that, hemustknow, because we cannot allow him to take steps without knowing all the facts.”
Clara sat back down. “He won’t go to the marquess, will he? I would die if he did.”
“I’ll ask him not to. Either way, it will not be his first priority. The marquess will not be the one to face the heat of his wrath today.”
In the end, Clara told James everything that had occurred between her and the marquess over the past few weeks. She even confessed to the letters and the scandalous rendezvous in the carriage, though she spared him the more intimate details.
Standing by the window in his study, James gave her a responsible speech about the importance of propriety, then made her promise never to do anything like that again. Clara agreed without hesitation.
James glanced out the window briefly before turning his attention back to Clara, who sat in a small chair.
“You’re certain that the duke knows nothing about the rendezvous in the coach?” he asked.
Clara nodded. “He would have used it against me if he knew. He only mentioned the Cakras Balls and the way the marquess and I behaved at the assembly.”
James nodded. “The duke should have known better than to reveal his knowledge of a Cakras Ball and use it to threatenanyone’sreputation. He’ll pay for that mistake, I assure you. You have nothing to worry about, Clara.”
She gazed up at her brother-in-law. “You’re sure?”
“I’m positive.”
