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He would turn her own words on her? She would not allow it. She straightened her shoulders.
“How dare you plead innocence when this stain has ruined poor Miss Danbury? You are steeped in the mire sir. Do you lie to save you own honor when you have besmirched that of another? I have nothing more to say to nor to do with you. You are a cad and a reprobate of the lowest order.” She narrowed her eyes and looked upon him like he was some offal that she had stuck to her shoe. “You are so bored, that you must accost innocent ladies for your own amusement.”
“Accost?” he repeated, and she knew she had over stepped the bounds of polite society but she would not take the words back. He had clenched his jaw and the tic moved in his cheek, but she pressed on.
“Innocent ladies,” she repeated, gripping her fan tightly between both hands.
“There are no such creatures,” he spat. “You do not know the difference between lies and truth. You are but one of your sex, filled with guile and falsehood to the brim. You claim honesty, but you would not know an honest word if it bit you like a snake. You would cozy up to Macrum and Danbury like birds of a feather.”
“Which am I now? Snake or bird?”
“Viper, if you must know; and ladybird as well for they are one and the same and both as filled with falsehood as the devil himself.”
Wentwell looked like he might explode. “Miss Macrum should have kept her mouth shut and Miss Danbury should have kept her legs shut, and that is the end of the matter.” He snarled.
“Wentwell!” James interrupted. “You forget yourself! Go cool down before a new rumor is brewing. Lady Charity with me, but Lady Charity pulled from James. Her temper stoked, she was determined to get the last word.
“Shame, sir,” Charity shot back.
“My only shame is that I should have hired a more respectable stable master,” Wentwell spat
“We will speak at the club,” James said as he practically dragged Charity from Wentwell, who stood gripping the railing as if he would break it in two.
It occurred to her that James never got the chance to ask after the Earl’s brother. For that, at least, she felt remorse. Charity felt the tension in her stomach roil and she clenched her fan her fist. It snapped like a twig. Why was it that every man who was the least bit attractive seemed to be a rogue?
“Charity,” her cousin said. “You were quite rude.”
Well that was certainly the understatement, Charity thought. But Wentwell was just as rude, or moreso. He made her blood boil. She turned to James and stared up at him gesturing to herself with the remains of the fan at her chest. It wobbled like a broken wing.
“Me? How can you chastise me and defend a cad like him? How can you be friends with such a man? He admits to spurning Miss Macrum. He had ruined her friend, but then goes on as if it never happened, without even so much as a by your leave. He is an insufferable man.”
James smiled at her indulgently. “What do you think happened, Charity?”
She would not be swayed.
“I know what happened, James. Lavinia and your sisters told me everything.”
James sighed deeply.
“What?” she demanded. “Pray tell?”
James shrugged, “Is my word not of value?”
She started to reply, but James patted her hand and led her back to the edge of the fountain. “Come. Let us not worry over these matters. It is not like Wentwell would offer for you anyway.”
“I would not accept him,” she said smartly.
James chuckled. “Good,” he said, “Because he is the last man I expect to get married.”
“Yes, I agree,” she nodded. “He could not limit himself to one woman.”
James shook his head. “You misunderstand. In truth, he is not one to be tricked a second time and will slip free of that noose easily enough.”
“Noose?” Charity repeated indignant.
“You see!” James cried. “You only focus on one part of what is told, that which might make him look a rake.”
“Well,” Charity scoffed, “I cannot think him the type of man to be too deeply hurt by it. Perhaps his pride, nothing more.”
