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Isabel crossed her arms over her chest. “What do the rumors say, exactly?”
Richard waved a hand.
“No. You are not about to tell me he killed his wife and wave your hand at details.”
Richard resumed his pacing. “Does it matter? Because to me, it does not. I have enough trouble worrying about Sam. I am not about to hand you over to an abusive man.”
Isabel crossed her arms over her chest. “I am not leaving until you tell me.”
“Lord, why do you have to be so stubborn?” Richard threaded his fingers through his hair in frustration. He walked toward his side table, poured himself a drink, and downed it in one gulp.
Isabel stared at him, unblinking. He must have been truly beside himself to drink in the middle of the day, in front of Isabel no less. “Richard?”
He turned to her, his eyes wild. “Apparently, there was gossip around thetonthat he mistreated his wife. After about a year of what everyone thought was a happy marriage, his wife started appearing at balls and other functions by herself. And she started telling people that he was cruel and unkind.”
“She was walking around London spreading those rumors herself, and everyone believed her?” Isabel had a hard time believing that a cruel man would just let his wife spread those vile stories about him.
“Not at first. Everyone thought she just wanted sympathy and attention—things she probably did not get from her husband. But a year later, she ran off with her lover. That was enough reason to start the rumors, but when her ship was lost at sea, the rumors took a more ominous tone. Isabel, what woman would leave her husband and face ruin if he hadn’t treated her badly?”
Isabel wrinkled her nose. Richard made some good points. A happily married woman would not spread vile rumors about her husband and then leave him alone to…
But she hadn’t left him alone. She’d left her daughter with the man she called cruel and beastly. What woman would do that? There was more to the story, Isabel was certain. And she needed to know more before she retracted her decision. “Richard, I know you are worried—”
“No, don’t take that mothering tone with me. You are not my mother, and even if you were, I would not allow you to sacrifice yourself for this family. How can our family prosper if you are in harm’s way?”
There. And that was what solidified Isabel’s belief that Vane’s wife was not as innocent as she proclaimed. There was no better future for the person who left their loved ones in harm’s way.
So either she’d lied about Vane’s beastly nature to escape with her lover, or she’d left her daughter in the hands of a beast.
Perhaps there was a third option Isabel was not taking into account, but she wouldn’t damn her family and drag them all to ruin based on a rumor. She needed to know more. And she knew exactly the person who could help her with that.
