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“It seems to me that your betrothed did not tell you everything. It seems a surprise to you to know that Mr. Conner broke into the room where Lady Lydia was waiting for His Grace on her wedding night, and Mr. Conner tried to force himself upon her.”
Kitty gasped, anger replacing her fear. Lydia noticed she balled her hands into fists. “He would never!”
“This is preposterous!” Ranora said, starting to rise. Lionel shushed her quickly, though.
“He very much did,” Martha assured her. She turned to Lydia. “What did he say to you?”
“He said that His Grace had abandoned me and that if I agreed to marry him, he would make me his duchess. Then, yes, he tried to force me to lay with him.”
The young girl’s nostrils flared with indignation, which lead Lydia to believe that Joseph’s infidelity seemed to her more of an outrage than whatever he had planned for his cousin.
“What did Mr. Conner plan to do last night?” Martha pressed.
“He decided that he needed to -” she started, her anger and indignation quickly being replaced with despair. She stopped, covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes pressed closely together. Sobbing, she continued.
“Oh, I did not agree with him. I told him that it was a horrid thing to try to do. He told me that if I did not help him, he would cast me aside, that I would never be a duchess.”
“Did he threaten you if you did not help him?” Martha asked.
“Yes! He said that if I told anyone what he planned to do that he would destroy me, just as he was destroying His Grace and Lady Lydia.”
“What did he plan to do?” Lydia interjected, frantic. She leaned forward, gripping her mother’s hand for strength. “Has he harmed His Grace in some way?”
“He planned to ambush him this evening or this morning. He was waiting for him,” Kitty said cryptically, shaking her head.
“The cellar,” Lydia breathed, looking wide eyed at her mother. “Mr. Conner has ambushed His Grace in the cellar. Oh! It might already be too late!”
