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“And I thought you were one of Aphrodite’s protégés,” he said, anger and frustration growing in his face and voice. “You have deceived me, Miss Greentree.”
“I am…well, I’m Aphrodite’s daughter. One of her daughters. There are three of us.”
“I am a gentleman, and I do not take advantage of a lady unless she is experienced in these matters. Do you know how close you came to being compromised?”
He seemed very upset about something.
“I…don’t care about that,” she said quickly. “I am already ruined, Max.”
He blinked at her. “I don’t believe it,” he said quietly. “You seem to have an aversion to telling me the truth, Miss Greentree.”
But Marietta gave a little shrug. “Why didn’t you tell me you were Lord Roseby?”
“Because I am no longer Lord Roseby,” Max’s voice was suddenly both hard and bitter. “I lost the right to call myself by that name when my father declared me a bastard.” He turned swiftly to Aphrodite and bowed. “Good evening, Madame. My apologies if I have offended.”
The door closed behind him.
Aphrodite came and took Marietta’s hand, her fingers firm and cool where Max’s had been so strong and hot. “Whatever has been happening here, Marietta? Dobson says that Vivianna has had a little boy.”
Memory returned and Marietta smiled—for a moment Max had wiped everything else from her mind. “Oh yes, she has! A dear little boy. I came to tell you. You must see him, at once.”
Aphrodite’s face lit up, and then, just as suddenly, it dulled into the cool aloofness that was her shield. “I cannot,” she said. “It would not be proper for me to be there among Lord Montegomery’s friends and family. I would embarrass Vivianna.”
Marietta laughed in disbelief. “I don’t think so!”
Aphrodite smiled wryly. “No, well perhaps Vivianna would not be embarrassed,
but…I would feel…awkward. I will come to Berkley Square a little later. Thank you for taking the time to call and tell me the wonderful news, Marietta. It was good of you to think of me.”
“Good of me?” Marietta retorted. “Of course I thought of you! Aphrodite, you are a grandmamma now.”
Aphrodite turned her dark gaze on Dobson, who was standing so solidly behind her. “Mon dieu,” she whispered, “I had not thought of that.”
He cast up his eyes. “It had to happen one day,” he said. “Makes no difference, does it? You’re still my beautiful girl.”
Aphrodite laughed, pleased. Marietta watched the by-play between them. Clearly there was far more to the relationship of Aphrodite and Dobson than mistress and servant, but she didn’t have time to consider it, not now.
“May I wait for you, Aphrodite?” she pleaded. “I promise I won’t speak to any more gentlemen, and I’ll stay out of the way until you’re ready.” The journey to Berkley Square would be the ideal time to broach Aphrodite with her plans for the future.
The courtesan’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You will not flirt with men like Lord Roseby?”
“Of course not,” she said innocently. “What an idea! I don’t like Lord Roseby very much, anyway.”
Aphrodite smiled. “He wasn’t very happy with you, was he, Marietta? You made him feel foolish, and gentlemen do not enjoy feeling like fools.”
“Why did he feel like that? Because he thought I was one of your protégés? That was his own fault. He didn’t ask me, he just presumed.”
Aphrodite shrugged noncommittally. “That and other reasons.” She glanced at Dobson, and some unspoken communication passed between them. “Very well, you may wait. Dobson, show my daughter into the smaller sitting room. And see that she stays there.”
Dismissed, Marietta followed Dobson to one of the doors leading into the vestibule. In a voice as artless as she could manage, she said, “Dobson, what is the scandal about Lord Roseby? Is he really a…a…”
“A bastard?” Dobson said with a matter-of-factness that was refreshing. “That’s what they say, miss. His father disinherited him, and as the estate and the title aren’t entailed, there was nothing he could do about it. Lord Roseby’s mother had been dead only a short while when his father came out and declared that Max had never been his son. Put it in all the newspapers and everything, refusing to allow the boy any further claim upon him, and acknowledging Max’s cousin, Harold, as the new heir.”
Marietta was genuinely shocked. “How cruel!”
“Maybe Lord Roseby’s Mama should have thought of that before she cuckolded the old man,” Dobson retorted unsympathetically. “Now, you go in there, miss, and don’t you stir a whisker until Aphrodite comes for you. Got that?”
“Yes, Dobson,” Marietta replied meekly.
