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“Indeed I suppose you don’t. I’ve heard the news of resuming your decidedlyoddmarriage.” Lady Wilson rose. “Come, girls, let us be away from here.” She dropped her voice but it was still audible as she hurried her daughters to their feet. “I regret to admit that she isn’t anything like what they say of her, and this is sadly a far cry from the type of environment that could elevate you.”
They sailed out in a cloud of white skirts and trailing ribbons and waving fans.
Robert’s face was white, his eyes wild. “Mother, I am ruined.”
“You think only of yourself, after you invited those horrid people here? In front of Her Grace?” Letty ripped the cravat away from her throat and tossed it onto the sofa beside her.
“I didn’t know they would act in such a manner,” he muttered. “I thought I must have come from some common sense.”
“I am sorry, Robert. I never told you how vicious they are, and how shallow.”
“If you had been more forthcoming, I may not have made such a mistake!” Robert’s voice was shrill.
“Calm yourself,” Anne said crisply. “There is no real harm done. Every family has its difficulties, and at least yours played out in private.”
Robert flushed. “That is more than kind of you to say, Your Grace, asyouwere the audience to this miserable play.”
Letty struggled to get a hold of her temper. “Anne is right. You have lost nothing—”
“I have losteverything!” he cried. “You are so familiar—you call herAnnewithout thinking! You are no better than what the Wilsons said of you, are you? You traded favors with my father for his money, and you trade them now with the duchess for fame and reputation. You told me that hard work would bring its own reward, but I see now what you consider to be ‘hard work’—on your back. Your ambition ruined you once and will again. Meanwhile,myambition was to make an honest living, and I have not even that opportunity left to me!”
“Do not speak to your mother that way,” Anne warned him, standing up. Letty had never seen her so angry. Her eyes were wide and fierce, and every line in her body indicated she was ready to pounce if necessary. Letty would have felt touched if she didn’t feel so humiliated. “Apologize at once.”
“She ought to apologize tome. Mr. Selkirk let me go from my clerking duties months ago because of her.” The color was high on his cheeks, and his eyes were bright. “I wrote to Lady Wilson as a last resort, and she agreed to speak to Mr. Selkirk in exchange for an introduction to the Duchess of Hawthorne, whom she said she greatly admires. But it’s all ruined. She won’t speak to Mr. Selkirk now.”
“You have been unemployed formonths?” Letty reeled at the news.
He scowled. “He heard rumors that you had taken a job with the Degenerate Duke of Hawthorne, and he dismissed me immediately. I told you for months that we had to be beyond reproach, but you refused to help me. I tried every last resource that I had at my disposal—I worked hard, and when that didn’t work, I tried to use what little connection I had and the privilege of my father’s family, and that held no water either.”
He crammed his hat on his head and strode off.
Letty rubbed at her temple where a headache was brewing. “I need to go after him and check that he’s all right.”
Anne frowned. “Robert is a man grown, as you’ve told me many times. He needs to figure out his life for himself, and he certainly needs to work on his manners because he is on his way to being aninsufferable boor. He’s well clear of his dreadful family at this point, at least, so you have nothing immediate to worry about. Stay.”
“Why should I stay? So you can use me as a temporary distraction, something to entertain you while you work through your emotions about your marriage?” Letty knew the words were hateful, but they flew out of her mouth before she could think.
How imperious Anne seemed. Never had Letty so clearly felt the difference between their ranks. Anne might have relaxed her judgment over the months, but she seemed to have kept some of it in reserve. It was warranted against the Wilsons. But how dare she say a word against Robert?
While Anne sat there on the chair that she had designed for her, her hand resting on wood imported from Spain and fabric woven in India, Letty sat across from her and felt as far away as if an ocean had opened up between them.
She didn’t belong here.
Anne’s mouth dropped open. “How could you think that?”
“Because I work for you, and when I’m not working for you, I’m on top of you. This isn’t enough for me, Anne. I don’t want to be a noblewoman’s dirty little secret.” Her voice was bitter. “Robert’s father was no different.”
“You aren’t a secret.”
“This whole affair is built around secrecy.”
“That’s different! It’s to protect us. You agreed as much as I did.”
“It’s no different at all. I am here all the time, in your house, at your beck and call whenever you have need of me.” The night she had spent in Anne’s bed had been nothing more than her trying to grasp on to a dream. She had wanted so badly to believe in it. To believe inthem. “I don’t belong here in your big fancy house with your big fancy life, Anne. You don’t have room for me here. You never made any.”
The Wilsons had reminded her of where she came from—nothing. Letty had fought for what she had, and she was proud of it. No duchess could take away the dignity she felt in who she was.
Not even a duchess that she was in love with.
