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“For the past two days, I have had two people whom I care deeply about do nothing but regale me with all your finer points, Blackburn. I still don’t believe them but thought a quick talk with you might allay some of my concerns.” Selby nodded to a quiet corner of the room.
“Oh, this should be excellent,” Somerton remarked.
“Stay out of this,” Matthew and Selby said at the same time.
“Very well,” Somerton said, then skulked off.
Matthew walked to the corner and behind the large palm. “What do you want, Selby?”
“One simple answer,” he said, folding his arms over his chest. “Do you love my sister?”
“Yes,” Matthew answered simply. “I have absolutely nothing to offer her but my love.”
“And if I take her money away?”
Matthew shook his head. “I would still love her and still ask her to marry me.”
Selby smiled, revealing deep dimples just like his sister’s. “I believe my sources were right.”
“Sources?”
“My wife and Ancroft.”
Ancroft defended him to Selby. The idea tilted his lips upward. “Good people.”
Selby smiled fully. “Yes, they are. And they both care very deeply for Jennette and none of us would like to see her hurt.”
“I will never hurt your sister.”
“I’m starting to believe you,” Selby said, then stepped out in front of the large palm.
Matthew sighed and shook his head, glad the interrogation from Selby was completed. He glanced around the room to find Jennette still in deep conversation with Lady Elizabeth and Lady Selby. Jennette leaned against the wall as if her knees were about to give out.
Something was wrong with her. He stalked across the room to talk to her. The quintet ended their musical set, creating a crush of people moving off the dance floor. Caught in the crowd, he had no choice but to slow his pace.
A woman dressed in a scarlet gown walked to the stage. She hammered a knife against her wine glass to garner the attention of the party.
“What the devil?”
Matthew stopped and turned to see Ancroft grimace. “Not an expected announcement?” Matthew asked.
“No,” Ancroft answered. “And I have no idea who she is.”
They both waited for the room to quiet and the woman to make her announcement. The woman held up her glass and smiled.
“I am afraid most of you don’t know me, but I decided it was time for the truth to come out,” she said.
“This cannot be good,” Ancroft commented.
Matthew tensed. The woman’s voice, though distorted by the crowd and room size, sounded familiar. The sense of unease that had haunted him most of the evening returned with a vicious bite.
“For too long now, a man among you has been scorned and his reputation has been left in tatters. But what most of you don’t know is that Lord Blackburn is and always has been the innocent party in the death of John Ridgeway.”
Whispers circled the party and gazes moved from him to Jennette.
“Oh God,” Matthew whispered.
Ancroft stared at him. “What the devil is she talking about?”
