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“There is nothing pleasurable about this visit. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
Daggers drawn, then.
When he continued to simply glare at her, she was tempted to roll her eyes.
“Perhaps you could elucidate, sir?” she prompted.
“There are rumors circulating about you, Samantha. Ones so unfortunate, that I was forced to make this trip into the city to apprise you of them.”
For a moment, her mind went blank. Then panic threatened to storm through her body. Samantha forced herself to ignore it, willing herself to respond with polite dismay.
“I cannot imagine what anyone could find to gossip about, much less start rumors. Felicity and I lead exceedingly quiet lives. We barely socialize, and when we do it’s only with friends you approve.”
When his gaze turned flinty as granite, her heart sank. Still, the rumors must have nothing to do with her nocturnal searches through Old Town. If that were the case, he’d have stormed upstairs and immediately dragged Felicity out of the house.
“My source is unimpeachable and quite specific about what she saw.”
She couldn’t hold back a sigh. Beath had many friends and acquaintances in Edinburgh, especially among the old guard of the aristocracy. It was one of the reasons she had to be so careful. One misstep in public and many of those people would be happy to report her misdeeds to the old prat.
“Might I ask the nature of these rumors?” she said.
“Scandalous ones—you, sneaking back from an assignation with a man.” He gave an angry snort. “I could not believe it at first, but my correspondent was quite specific in detailing what she saw.”
Samantha gaped at him. Of all the accusations she’d expected, this wasn’t one of them.
“Ah, I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me, and I demand an explanation. Why were you sneaking into your own back garden the other night with some fellow dressed like a footpad?”
A burst of anger shot through her dismay. “Are you truly suggesting that my neighbors are spying on me and then writing to you with inaccurate—not to mention outrageous—gossip?”
Beath leaned forward in a clear attempt to intimidate her. “Answer the question, young woman.”
“I will not. Instead I will ask one of my own. Have you set one of my neighbors to spying on me?”
He snorted. “I have no need to stoop to such behavior.Yourbehavior, however, is apparently scandalous enough to prompt concern among our mutual acquaintances.”
Samantha wrestled her tumultuous emotions into some semblance of order. She needed to be careful, because the old man would happily punish her if he could.
“Lord Beath, I am certainly not engaging in assignations with any man. Do I occasionally go out at night on foundation business? Yes, and when I do, I take my manservant with me. For protection,” she emphatically added. “If I choose to enter my house through the back garden, I fail to see why that is anyone’s business.”
“Ha, so you were sneaking into your house. I thought as much.”
Samantha mentally cursed the slipup. “Again, I always take my manservant with me when I must go out at night. I would never travel through the city after dark without him.”
Beath smiled with triumphant malice. “I know for a fact that your manservant has suffered a serious injury. Was he hobbling about with you the other night? I think not. You were gallivanting about with another man, and returning from God knows what.”
A spurt of disbelieving laughter almost escaped her. Gallivanting? She and Braden had been trying not to get killed.
“I most assuredly was notgallivantinganywhere. I must add that I find it extremely distressing to learn that my neighbors are spying on me and reporting back to you. Truly, Lord Beath, you cannot think that sort of behavior is either necessary or appropriate.”
The sneer marking his heavy features told her that she was fighting a losing battle.
“I suppose you would accuse me of spying, too,” he said with contempt. “Such imaginings are no doubt the result of your unstable character. I had assumed you had recovered from your unfortunate illness, but I was mistaken, I see. I would not have allowed Felicity to remain here had I known you were not capable of exercising good judgment.”
Everything in Samantha went as still as if she were cornered prey. For him to throw her illness back in her face, to remind her of that terrible time . . .
You can’t let him rattle you.
