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She breathed deep, wanting to calm herself and Matthew.She failed.“Did you blackmail them too?”
“Of course not.I didn’t need to.I was trading in information.In intelligence.All the while I worked my fingers to the bone.”He sighed and turned his gaze toward the window.
“And that is what you did with one letter from me to my sister?You traded on my great shame to obtain a wife from the aristocracy?”
“I was helping.I was going to make sure no one shamed you.Nor your child.I’ve lived through it, Rose.What was I going to do with the knowledge except watch it happen?Had you not gone to Alice DuPuis for help, you would never have known I existed.Or that I had ever read that one letter.But you did go, and I found that out too.Why should I not desire the most beautiful woman in London?One who is intelligent and kind?Do you think such a woman crosses my path every day?Or ever?”
“It’s unseemly, Matthew.To spy for your own benefit.How will you explain it when someone finds out because eventually someone will?”
He shrugged.“I no longer need to do it.”
“Oh my God!You enjoy it on top of the practice being underhanded and despicable.”Her faced burned with indignity.What did he know about her and her friends that he hadn’t confessed?The privacy, the heartache, the truth that one wrote in a letter—it was shockingly unhinged to delve into someone’s personal life that way.
“Don’t try to tell me that yourtonfriends haven’t done something equally questionable.They are reprobates.”
“And yet you aspire to their ranks.”
“Not after today.”
“Today should make no difference.If you were privy to theton’s secrets via their written words, you should have known exactly what you were getting.”
“Since you are angry now, I should tell you that I have several of your letters to your sister in my possession.”
“What?How—?Oh my God, you took them when we were in Sturry Park?”Rose wondered if her hair was standing on end?What other shocking things was she about to learn?She pressed her hands against her cheeks.
“To protect you.”
She took a deep breath, trying to calm her rising anger and shock.“She’s my sister.I was in no danger.”
“No danger, Rose?How easy it would have been for a servant to stumble across such letters.I removed the temptation.”
“That is despicable.”
“Of all the things I’ve done, you think this is the worst?”
“That is hard to judge since I am only finding out now the depth of your hatred and the breadth of your vengeance.”
“Then judge what happened to my mother.Was Welliver wrong in what he did?”
“You weren’t the only boy in London who didn’t have a father.And even if you were, that doesn’t justify your willingness to destroy people who—”
“Who have I destroyed?No one.At least, not yet.”
“Not yet?So, you have plans now that Welliver is brought to heel?What horrible person must be punished next?”
“One you know well.Sandhurst, of course.”
