Page 29 of Lady Arabella’s Reluctant Hero

The duchess did not move. She seemed lost in thought. "You told him you know about Linley?"

Arabella opened her mouth, but ultimately just nodded. "I was…well, I suppose I was bluffing. I told him I would go to the authorities and tell him what I know about him, and Mr. Smith, and this Linley fellow."

The duchess looked stricken.

Arabella looked at her. "Your Grace?"

"Once Linley's done?" the duchess repeated. "That's what he said?"

Arabella nodded.

"Do you remember the date, my dear? Of the night you overheard this?"

Arabella glanced at Lord Alderton, but he was watching the duchess with ill-disguised curiosity.

Arabella did not need to think. It was her wedding day, after all. She gave the date, and the duchess closed her eyes as if she'd just suffered a blow.

Lord Alderton was the one who broke the silence. "Does that mean something to you, Your Grace?"

The duchess opened her eyes and gave them a small smile. "I shall need to speak with someone first before I explain. Someone whose discretion I trust absolutely, and whose counsel I require." She faced Arabella directly. "I am sorry to ask this. I would not ask it of you if I did not consider it important."

Arabella stared at her.

The duchess opened her mouth, then shut it, seeming to reconsider. Finally, she asked, "Do you trust me?"

Arabella considered this. She had just told the duchess things she had not told another living person. She had cried in the duchess's drawing room, and she had slept under the duchess's roof. She had no real reason to trust this woman. And yet…

She had also been given no reason at all to distrust her.

She nodded.

The duchess inclined her head. "Thank you, my dear. I shall be very careful with whom I share this. I believe that what has happened to you is part of a larger scheme. The men in that parlor have been pursuing other business since, and I have been pursuing them. What you have just told me changes a great deal."

Lord Alderton spoke up. "How much danger is she in?"

The duchess looked at him. "More than she was yesterday morning, I'm afraid. I expect Mr. Pierce has reported by now that Lady Arabella has been carrying a name she ought not to have been carrying."

Arabella's hand had risen to her throat again.

The duchess saw it and her face softened. "You are perfectly safe in this house, my dear. As long as you remain under this roof, you will not be harmed. I shall stake my reputation on it."

Arabella nodded.

The duchess regarded her for a long moment. Then she sat up a little straighter, and her tone shifted to something crisper and far lighter. "We shall return to all of this in due course. For the moment, however, let us turn to the most pressing matter before us."

The duchess folded her hands in her lap and turned her attention from Arabella to Lord Alderton. "What in heaven's name we are going to do with the two of you."

10

John had never been one for spectacles.

Yet here he was, in the gardens of Lady Hartley's house on a brilliant June afternoon—very much the center of one.

He could feel the attention of the fellow guests like a quiet weight, and he could see it in the small shifts of conversation as he and Arabella moved through the lawn.

Considering how quickly he'd found himself thrust into the spotlight, he felt he was handling it all quite well. After all, he'd only agreed to all of this in the duchess's drawing room one day before.

He could admit now that perhaps at the time of agreement he had not fully appreciated what all of this would entail.