Mr. Barton laughed and planted a kiss on top of his wife’s head. “True. I am certain no one even noticed your singing, thanks to my excellent playing.”
Nicholas managed to exchange a few more pleasantries with the pair before turning around. Mercy was gone. She and her family must have bid Patience good night and retired for the evening.
He strode to his sister, grabbed her arm, and propelled her out of the room and into the adjoining corridor.
“How could you have invited her, Patience?” he hissed. “How dare you?”
Patience’s face fell. “Not you too, Nicholas. I know she hurt you, but I thought you might be willing to forget your resentment to help their family.”
He dropped her arm as if she had burned him. “What do you mean, help them? Why would they need my help?”
Patience blinked and narrowed her eyes. “You haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?” His heart stumbled. The look on Patience’s face was desolate. Was Mercy sick? He had only gotten the one glimpse of her when she walked in the room, but shewasmightily changed. “Is someone unwell?”
Patience shook her head. “No. As far as I know, everyone in the family is healthy. But they’ve been shunned from all good society. No one of quality will have anything to do with them.”
Nicholas rubbed a hand on his forehead. Shunned? Why would Lord and Lady Driarwood be shunned? “What do you mean? Lord Driarwood is well respected.”
Patience put a hand on his arm. “You really haven’t heard?”
“No. I haven’t been listening to gossip from London. I’ve been here.”
“Sulking.”
“Not sulking. Ignoring Society.” He brushed aside Patience’s sardonic assessment of his character. What could have happened to Mercy’s family? Had Mercy run into trouble? Memories of Mercy leaning toward him, pulling off his cravat, flashed before his eyes. She had been so forward and trusting. “She hasn’t had trouble with a man, has she?” His hand fisted, the thought making him ill, and then another thought made his stomach churn. What ifhewas the problem? Did Lady Plymton or Miss Morgan say something about the two of them? They had ended their courtship abruptly, without any explanation, and if any wind of what had transpired between them in the drawing room had reached gossiping ears...
“Not Lady Mercy. Her sister.”
Nicholas blinked. He knew almost nothing of Mercy’s sister, except that she was married to Donald’s brother and Mercy adored her. “What happened to her sister?”
Patience took a deep breath, as if what she was about to say gave her no pleasure. “It seems she has run off with a composer. And not a significant-enough composer for Society to forgive her for leaving her husband behind. The whole family is disgraced.”
Nicholas ran a hand down his face. What a mess, and Nicholas hadn’t heard anything about it. He should have reached out to Donald’s family. Blasted woman. How could she do that to her husband? And to her family?
Patience eyed the corridor, making certain no one was within earshot. “It’s been quite the ordeal for everyone. The Driarwoods have spent most of the last month secluded, partially by choice, but also by lack of invitation. I know they’ve hurt you, but I saw a chance to ease them back into a good social circle, and I took it.”
Nicholas gritted his teeth together. “And you couldn’t have invited them toyourhome?”
“I have. But there was only so much I could do. You’re a duke, Nicholas. This visit could be a turning point for them.”
It would have been easier to be mad at Patience, but he couldn’t fault her reasoning. He took a steadying breath. “I appreciate you trying to help them. It is kind of you.” The words were hard to produce. He’d looked forward to an opportunity to rejoin Society on a small scale during this house party, but his reintroduction would have to wait. There was no possible way for him to participate in festivities with Mercy so near. He was ready to be around people again, but he was not ready to be around Mercy. “I won’t do something ridiculous like make them leave.”
“Thank you, Nicholas.” Patience beamed up at him. “I’m quite fond of Lady Mercy. It is a pity for her your courtship didn’t turn into an engagement. If she’d known what was coming, she would have held on to you for protection’s sake.”
Nicholas smirked. His sister didn’t know Mercy as well as she thought. There was nothing that would make Mercy marry for anything but love. “No, she wouldn’t have. If anything, the practicality of that arrangement would have sickened her. And if she’d loved me, she never would have hidden behind—” Nicholas froze. Patience furrowed her eyebrows at him, but he ignored her. Snippets of his courtship with Mercy played through his mind. Their first meeting when she was trying to find out what her father was speaking about. Her parents’ excitement about their courtship. He’d assumed that had been because of his title, but what if it had been more than that? What if they’d known what was coming and had planned the whole thing hoping to save Mercy from disgrace? And if so, when had Mercy learned of their plan? She’d been so blasted naive; he doubted she could have been a part of it. “How long ago did you say thishappened?”
“The scandal?”
How many nights had he relived their time in the drawing room, certain she had felt for him what he had felt for her? But then she’d changed so drastically after speaking with her parents. He’d gone mad searching for a reason, any reason she’d rejected him, besides not wanting him. “Yes.”
“A month ago. Which is why I thought you would’ve heard by now.”
A full month after she had spurned him at the ball, then. The tiny sliver of hope he’d had vanished like a puff a smoke.
“Where is her sister now?”
“In Austria.”
