AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lady Quinseley made a crocodile smile. “He said, ‘Let’s not waste breath talking abouther.Yourdance card says it is my turn to have a set with the prettiest young lady of them all.’”
Bianca nodded slowly, as if this was no less than what she’d expected. “I see.”
Tina glared at him as though ready to run him through with a branch from the closest tree.
Harry had no defense. He’d said those words because he had just been threatened by his father.Marry Lady Regina or our family is ruined. Harry had spent all month staring at unpaid accounts that would never balance without immediate and drastic action.
Ofcoursehe would rather have married Bianca. But love did not pay the bills.
“Such chivalry,” Tina hissed in disgust. “You are a prince among men.”
“I knew what he was from the start,” said Bianca. “I just wasn’t wise enough to take him at his word.”
“Oh,haveyou always known?” Lady Quinseley asked with faux innocence. “I didn’t think he would have the gall to tell you that he accepted money in exchange for ruining you.”
Bianca gasped.
Harry leapt to his feet and jabbed an angry finger toward the countess. “You’re the one who—”
But Lady Quinseley wasn’t looking at him. Her expression of delight centered straight on Bianca.
“You did do it!” the countess crowed in rapture. “You seduced her just as you said you would. Well done, lad. Now you’ve both lived up to my low expectations.”
“Get out.” Bianca’s words came out garbled, as if strangled in her throat. “Go. All of you.”
Harry spun toward her in desperation. “If you would just let me expl—”
Bianca took a loud, crunchy bite of the apple in her hand and slammed the door in his face.
Lady Quinseley clapped her hands in satisfaction and strolled to her waiting coach-and-four, cackling all the way.
Mr. Somers, who had watched the drama unfold in silence and disbelief, edged backward toward the open road.
Harry squared his shoulders and raised his hand to bang on the knocker.
Tina interposed herself between his arm and the front door.
“Stay away from her,” she snapped.
He let out a frustrated breath. “Tina… ”
“No. I’m done listening to you. Stay away from Bianca and stay out of my life, too.”
CHAPTER25
With a final smirk out her window at Harry, Lady Quinseley rode off in her coach-and-four, her mission more than accomplished.
Harry glared after her, but in truth he was as angry with himself as he was with the countess. She had come to the Gladwells with the intent to shatter dreams, and had succeeded.
But she hadn’t lied. She hadn’t needed to.
It was not Lady Quinseley’s fault that her dearly departed husband’s arrogant conviction that his illegitimate daughter would wed within months of her come-out had spurred the earl to add an ill-advised end date on Bianca’s dowry.
Nor was Lady Quinseley to blame for Harry accepting her devil’s bargain to ruin Bianca in exchange for a few quid. At the eleventh hour, he’d shown some mettle and refused to go through with the plot, sending Bianca off to safety instead… Only to end up in a woodsy clearing a fortnight later, doing exactly the thing he’d sworn he wouldn’t do.
“I’ll flag a hackney,” Tina said without looking at him. “Two hackneys.”
“We can’t afford two hackneys,” Harry reminded her.
