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“He knows,” Lia said. “My guess is he heard a rumor from a friend, hired a detective or something to verify it. I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s probably been looking for something to hold over me for four years. And I handed it to him on a silver platter.”
“He’d go that far? Really?”
“When I sent him packing, he had to cancel a lot of commissions. A million pounds’ worth. I called him, after he left that note, and he said I’d have to pay him the money by Friday or he’d call the police and the papers on me. So yes, he’d go that far.”
“I wouldn’t worry about the police. At most they’ll get you on evading tax.”
“I’m no shirker. I would never evade tax,” she said with pride.
“Really? What do you put down as your source of income?”
Lia pointed at her loom. “Selling tapestries.”
“Ah...shrewd as Penelope.” He applauded.
“If I were shrewd as Penelope, I wouldn’t have gotten caught by David,” she said. “Daddy’s titled and rich as Croesus. He’s even related to the queen—distantly but still... There’s no way it won’t be the scandal heard round the world. Jane’s family might kill her. Georgy’s family might kill me. Rani wants to be a barrister. This could ruin their lives, too. Not just mine. My parents are rich. I can fly away and start over somewhere. They can’t. God, August, it’ll be a nightmare. I’m so stupid.”
“You aren’t stupid.” August spoke firmly, sounding almost angry at the very idea. “And I won’t let that arseface ruin anyone’s life. If I have to put an arrow through his liver, I will. Two arrows.”
“One for me and one for Mum.”
“One for you. And another one for you.”
He feigned shooting an arrow. Lia felt a sudden knot in her throat. How did August always know exactly the right thing to say to her?
“Now I get it,” he said, meeting her eyes again.
“What?”
“Andromeda...accidentally betrayed by her mother.”
“It’s not my mother’s fault,” Lia said, though there was a time—a humiliating time—when she had blamed her mother. But now she knew better. “Women always—always, August—they always pay the price when men act like bastards. David used her just as much as he used me, and I’d rather die than let her find out.”
“You’re a very noble soul, Lia. I still think you should tell your parents, but I admire you for wanting to protect her.”
“Even if I told Mum and Daddy, what can they do? Other than shoot David, hide his corpse in the cellar, what is there to do? He had sex with me when I was seventeen. So what? It’s not illegal here. And then I blackmailed him—and thatisillegal. ‘Leave the country or my father will destroy your art career’? That’s bad.”
“You were a heartbroken teenager, too hurt to know any better.”
“I was a coward,” Lia said. “I wasn’t kicking him out of the country because I thought it was a just and fair punishment for his crime. I was kicking him out because I couldn’t bear the thought of ever seeing him again. And if I didn’t kick him out, he would go on his merry way, living under our roof, eating our food—”
“Shagging your mother.”
“Yes, thank you for putting it so delicately.”
August took her hand in his and kissed it.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go to bed.”
“Bed? My bed?”
“Your bed. Us. In it. Now.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Many good reasons,” she said. “Starting with...no.”
