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I pull my head back, perplexed by her words. Of all the topics I expected her to have brought me out here for, my arranged marriage wasn’t one of them. While I could admit my engagement has been already severed, it’s none of her damn business.
Removing my mask, I meet her eyes with the full heat of my indignation. “Why would you make such a demand? Are you against peace between Faerwyvae and Bretton?”
“No, that’s not it at all.”
“Because your request sounds an awful lot like treason.”
Maureen pales. Then, with an indignant scoff, she rifles around in her green silk purse and retrieves an envelope. I tense as she closes the distance between us, but she only flourishes the envelope’s contents. It’s a photograph. “I think you’ll reconsider when I show you this.”
My eyes widen at the black-and-white depiction of a couple locked in a heated kiss. Their faces are shown in profile, revealing the unmistakable visages of Albert and Holly. How in the bloody oak and ivy did she get that?
Keeping my voice as level as I can, I say, “How kind of you to be so concerned for my heart, but I assure you, it is at no risk.”
She lowers the photograph, lips curling into a hateful grin. “Because your engagement is a sham, isn’t it? I’ve known from the start, Miss Fairfield. You aren’t the lovelorn couple you pretend to be. You may be fooling others, but you aren’t fooling me.”
I raise my hands in mock surrender. “You’ve caught me.”
“End your engagement or I’ll release these photographs to the public, and everyone else will know the truth. They’ll realize you only entered this engagement to escape your scandal with my husband.”
“Release them then,” I say with a shrug. “Are we done?”
She stammers, mouth flapping before she manages a coherent word. “You…you think you’re above the judgment of society? You think your reputation can survive where mine could not?”
“What is this really about, Maureen? Why are you so determined that I remain unwed?”
She takes a step closer, venom lacing her tone. “I want you to experience at least a taste of the ruin you’ve brought upon me.”
“What ruin? Your name wasn’t the one bandied about in the scandal sheets.”
“Perhaps not, but do you think I came out of it unscathed? Have you any idea what your actions have caused? No, because you’re nothing but a selfish harlot. Bartleby’s banned me from every one of their department stores, all because I told them I’d withdraw my support if they continued a working relationship with you. I had to beg for my invitation to tonight’s ball. Beg! My name has been sullied. Did you never stop to think about me?”
I feel only a flash of pity in the midst of my raging ire. “Mrs. Vance, I regret taking your husband into that dressing room, but my motives were only to do my job. It was a mistake in judgment on my part, and for that, I apologize, but nothing else was my doing.”
“You brought Howard’s indiscretions into the public eye.”
“If we are to blame everyone but your husband, then why not bring Lydia Mangrove and Eaton Farris into the fray, hmm?”
“I do blame them. And I blame my husband too.”
I throw my hands in the air. “Then why aren’t you taking this up with him?”
“I did. I told him how I felt about his hurtful behavior, about his blatant disregard for the rules of our marriage, and do you know what he did? He served me with divorce papers. Our marriage is over. He’ll get the whole of Vance Industries—a company I helped build. All because he can break the rules while I can’t. And if I can’t, you shouldn’t be able to either.”
My pity grows, extinguishing some of my rage. It isn’t enough to excuse her behavior, but it does make me see myself in her. Her talk of marital rules reveals a glimpse at a future that could have been mine. She has the very thing I thought I wanted—a loveless marriage. If I hadn’t called off my engagement to the prince and proceeded with our nuptials with a cold heart, I could be where she is now.
Mrs. Vance shakes her head. “I should have known better than to expect more of you. You think you’re above the rules, coming here with your vulgar gown, ordering your fiancé to violently defend your honor, kissing him in public. You think you can do whatever you like and not pay the price. I’m willing to teach you a lesson by force. Boys.”
She says the last word a little too loudly, and the shrubs at the end of the terrace begin to rustle. My heart leaps into my throat as two large men emerge from the shadows.
22
Itake a step back, but before I can reach the door, a third man strides onto the terrace behind me to block my exit. The three figures watch me carefully but don’t attack. Not yet, at least. The way they shift side to side, fingers curled into fists, knees slightly bent as if ready to spring into action, tells me they are more than capable of violence. A shiver runs up my spine at the terrifying awareness that we are completely and utterly alone. The garden paths are empty. I passed not a single soul in the dimly lit hall leading here.
She chose our location well.
Maureen’s lips curl at the corners.
Rage sparks in my chest, running down my arms at once. Heat laces my palms, a prelude to the flames that beg to ignite. “What do you want from me?”
