AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Meanwhile, the time he spent with Diana was something he found himself anticipating more and more. It wasn’t even the prospect of engaging in carnality the likes of which he imagined few men ever enjoyed—she had, he’d determined, almost no inhibition regarding anything he wanted to try and had even surprised him with a few shocking suggestions herself—but rather the time they spent talking and laughing together.
At random moments, he often found himself wishing she was with him to share news with or ask an opinion. Nights when they couldn’t be together were the worst. His arms felt empty, his bed cold. On the nights he did spend with her, their time together was far too brief for his liking. More and more, he wished he could wake up in her arms with the dawn, as they did on those special occasions when Harrow extended an invitation to overnight as their guest, instead of having to arrive and depart like a thief under cover of darkness.
There were several flies in the inkwell when it came to their relationship. For one, the stealthy nocturnal visits were both nerve-wracking and exhausting. The possibility of being caught lent a certain excitement to the endeavor, but it was also worrisome. The loss of old friends and the
increasingly emphatic disapproval of his family were both ticks in the negative column. Being called a molly behind his back—and he knew it was happening—was yet another.
But there was one inky fly that bothered him more than all the rest combined. Though he and Diana had shared many personal secrets with each other over the feather mattress, she steadfastly refused to discuss the circumstances which had led to her being disowned by her family.
If Lucas had one grave fault, it was the same insatiable curiosity that had led him to Diana in the first place. He knew the same story everyone else did, that Viscount Grenville had abandoned his fiancé and eloped with her closest friend, telling everyone it was because Diana had been compromised by another and thereby ruining her. Well, Lucas knew that for an outright lie, which meant there had to have been some other reason why he’d done it.
One night as he was coming home after an evening of cards and music with his new friends, Lucas had a clever thought. If she wouldn’t tell him, perhaps Grenville would.
He didn’t request an appointment. He didn’t send ahead to tell the blackguard of his intent to call. He simply showed up on the man’s doorstep the following morning claiming to have business with his lordship.
Unfortunately, Grenville wasn’t at home, but Lady Grenville was. As Lucas was of equal rank with her husband, he was permitted to come inside to leave a message with her on his behalf.
Knowing this woman had once been Diana’s best friend made him fairly itch to meet her. She was a piece of Diana’s past, and part of the puzzle he’d as yet been unable to complete. He was uncertain of her culpability in the affair, but instinct told him one didn’t marry a beau belonging to one’s best friend without there being an element of betrayal involved.
The lady, when she came to greet him, was pretty enough, if a bit wan and tired-looking. Grenville chose a candle for his bride when he could have had the sun. “Madam, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance and must apologize for my unannounced presence here today.”
“What may I do for you, Lord Blackthorn?”
He eyed her and made a snap decision. “I came because I wished to speak with your husband concerning Lady Diana Haversham. Specifically relating to the incident which caused her uncle to disown her.”
The lady’s face went white, and for a moment he feared she might faint dead away. Instead, she turned and went to the drawing room doors to close them before addressing him in a hushed voice. “When I was told of your arrival, I wondered if that was what brought you here,” she said, bidding him sit. “I almost refused to receive you, but to be perfectly honest I’ve been wanting to unburden myself for years. I’m sure she has already told you the truth of what happened.”
Lucas couldn’t believe his good fortune but managed to keep his surprise and excitement hidden. “She has not told me anything,” he said slowly. “But yes, that is why I’ve come. I wanted to know why…” He stopped himself just in time—he couldn’t tell her he’d discovered proof the excuse Grenville had given for abandoning Diana was a lie without exposing Harrow for a fraud. And he couldn’t tell her he was trying to persuade Diana to leave Harrow without sabotaging the ruse they had in place. Damn it all! Why hadn’t he thought this through more carefully?
You must tell her something…think!
His hostess, however, saved him the trouble of concocting a plausible excuse. “It was wrong of us, but we could not help ourselves,” she whispered through trembling lips. “Grenville and I realized we were in love after he asked Diana to marry him.” The lady’s fingers twisted the fabric of her skirts. “My husband invented the story that ruined her to justify our elopement and preserve his honor.”
Sniffling, she looked at the ceiling as if seeking absolution, and he saw her eyes were brimming with unshed tears. When she looked back at him, it was with a brief, shaky smile. “I thought the scandal would blow over once Diana refuted the claim. I was horrified to learn she’d been disowned over it. I wanted to come out with the truth at once, but my husband forbade it. And then…it no longer mattered, because Diana became Harrow’s mistress.”
Tears ran unhindered down her face. Lucas knew he should offer his kerchief, but instinct told him to be still, that there was more to come. As usual, instinct proved right.
“I learned afterward that her uncle had been depending on funds tied to her marriage contract to pay off a large debt,” she continued, her voice thick. “As part of a sealed addendum to her father’s will, Diana’s guardian—which the duke presumed would be her mother—was to receive a tidy sum separate from her jointure in order to care for them both. In the event Diana was orphaned, that sum would be awarded to her uncle upon her marriage in return for caring for her in his stead. I doubt she ever knew about it. I only know because I overheard my husband talking to one of his friends about how Bolingbroke had confronted him in a drunken rage at their club and revealed it.”
Lucas remembered Diana saying Bolingbroke had robbed her. She couldn’t have meant this, since the money wouldn’t have gone to her. She must have been referring to something else.
“When my husband lied, Diana’s uncle believed him,” Lady Grenville went on, her voice breaking. “He thought that money forever out of his reach, and that was what drove him to disown her. By the time he came to his senses, it was too late. She’d run away and taken up with Harrow, making her truly unmarriageable.”
Hoisted by his own petard. He couldn’t bring himself to feel any pity for the bastard. In fact, he hoped that mistake haunted the man and gave him regret and sleepless nights for the rest of his life. He, not this woman’s foolish husband, had condemned his niece. “Thank you for telling me.”
“Will you…will you tell Diana I’ve never stopped regretting my part in what happened to her?” She covered her face with her hands as a sob broke free.
“I will,” he promised. Someday.
He watched as she struggled to regain composure. “I’ve had to live with my guilt, with knowing my foolish heart led to my best friend’s undeserved ruin.” Her voice hardened. “Grenville, however, absolved himself by pointing out how quickly Diana took up with Harrow. He told himself and anyone who would listen that he’d narrowly avoided marrying a harlot. But I knew her,” she said with fervor, “and she was not what he said she was. I’ve never forgiven myself or him for what we did to her. He knows it, and it has made him hate me. What began with love and a lie has ended in misery.”
Lucas had been ready to condemn her along with her husband, but now he found he couldn’t. Grenville was partly to blame, but Bolingbroke was the one ultimately responsible for what had happened to Diana. His greed had been her undoing.
The sobbing woman across from him demanded his sympathy. When he at last addressed her, it was with as much gentleness as he could manage through his simmering anger and mounting disquiet. “I cannot forgive you because the forgiveness you desire is not mine to grant. But what you did, though it was wrong, was for love, and I’m truly sorry for your disappointment.” Discomfort spiked as his hostess broke into a fresh round of sobs, and he rose. “If you will please excuse me, I’ll leave you now.” He paused at the door before letting himself out. “I hope you find peace, Lady Grenville.”
His mind raced as he boarded his carriage for the return home. Now he finally had the whole story, and it hadn’t been at all what he’d expected. Not one, but three people had engineered Diana’s downfall. She’d been utterly undeserving of her fate.
Lady Grenville’s words echoed in his thoughts: But I knew her, and she was not what he said she was. Greed and deception had robbed Diana of the life she could have had.
