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“Come, come, Lady Hester. You are both wondering how it comes about the world has got hold of Mary’s secret.”
Maidie snorted. “You are not suggesting Delagarde put it about? Humdudgeon! He was the one who insisted we should tell no one.”
“I acquit Lord Delagarde of any malice. It was not intentional. Merely carelessness—or stupidity.”
Again, the pressure of Lady Hester’s hand on her arm kept Maidie from bursting out. Why her instinct should prompt her to fly to Delagarde’s defence, she did not know. But she found she could not bear Adela’s criticism.
“Do enlighten us, Lady Shurland,” Lady Hester invited.
“It was on the day after you fell ill, Mary. You were there, I think, Lady Hester—at Lady Riseley’s. I wondered at the time if he had been overheard.”
“But what happened?” asked Maidie, impatient.
Adela smiled again, clearly enjoying this evidence of anxiety. “We were talking of you, Mary. I had asked after your health, for I was truly concerned. I happened to mention Eustace, and his continued desire to press his suit. Lord Delagarde made a most cutting and unforgivable remark with regard to my dear brother’s motives.”
“Mentioning my fortune, you mean?”
“Inadvertently, I am persuaded. But that is not all.”
“Then what isall, Lady Shurland?” prompted Lady Hester.
“Lord Delagarde must have forgotten his own decree of secrecy, for I distinctly overheard him discussing the matter of Mary’s fortune with those friends of his.”
“Corringham and Riseley?”
“Yes, Lady Hester.” This time Adela’s smile was malevolent. “It is obvious by tonight’s showing I could not have been the only person to overhear their conversation.”
Maidie stared at her. She did not doubt the story’s truth, but she was ready to swear the spread of it owed more to Adela, and perhaps Eustace, than to Delagarde. Adela might have felt some advantage to her brother in being only one among a number of fortune-hunters. He would thus escape notice. But that Delagarde had let out the truth could not but affect Maidie. She remembered all at once his grim look earlier. He must have recalled the meeting.
“It is to be hoped,” Adela continued sweetly, her sly mission apparently incomplete, “it will not now be rumoured Lord Delagarde kept the secret of your fortune from the world because he wants you for himself, Mary.”
“It is certainly to be hoped not,” said Lady Hester, with more steel in her voice than Maidie had ever heard.
Looking at the older lady, she thought her eyes were sending a warning to her cousin. She lost no time in voicing it herself. “If you spread such a tale about, Adela—”
“I? What have I to gain?”
“Perhaps nothing,” said Lady Hester, “but then again, it might suit you to ensure such a rumour wasoverheard. It could only be to Delagarde’s discredit. Fortunately, his reputation is so well established I doubt anyone would believe it.”
“They would not believe it, in any event,” Maidie chimed in, her voice a trifle unsteady, “if they have seen Delagarde and myself together. Only an idiot could be so blind as to suppose anything of the kind, and if it was suggested to Lord Delagarde himself, I am sure he would laugh.”
A little of Adela’s assurance left her, and she frowned. “I do not understand you.”
“Delagarde is too polite to let you see it, but the truth is he was utterly averse to bringing me out.”
“Maidie, hush!” Thus Lady Hester.
“Why, ma’am? It is as well to have the truth, if people are going to talk. He did not want me, Adela, and he does not want me now. He has been brought to tolerate my presence in his house, but I assure you he cannot wait to be rid of me. There! Now what have you to say?”
She felt hot in the face and was near to tears, hardly understanding herself what had prompted her to tumble it all out. Somewhere inside her a voice was crying out at the ghost of a memory of Delagarde’s dark eyes, which had caught hers so compellingly in a dream of starlight.
Delagarde looked unseeingly through the window in the little downstairs parlour, his back to Lady Hester. He was dressed with his usual impeccable elegance, in a green frock-coat over buckskins and top boots, his cravat neatly tied, but he had not yet breakfasted, and it might be hunger causing the hollow within him. Aunt Hes, unusually, had risen before he did, although they were both late following last night’s evening party. The last guests had departed at some time after one in the morning.
“I have not told you in order to upbraid you, Laurie.”
He turned his head. “If you had, it would be no more than I deserve. Do you think I had not realised all this last night?”
His great-aunt’s explanation of the change in attitude towards Maidie had been unnecessary, for he had immediately seen its significance for himself. Recalling that conversation with Adela, Lady Shurland, his first thought was his friends had betrayed him. Indeed, he had sought them out there and then.
