She stopped as if too outraged to continue, and Devlin took advantage of the moment to point out the obvious. “Had you married me as we had planned, you wouldn’t have been ruined. We’d have raised some eyebrows, and that would have been the end of it. Calling me out for not rushing to your side three years after the factis a bit thick, don’t you think, since you didn’t even have the courage to marry me when you had the chance. Oh, but you were happy to marry your cousin, the heir to the title, weren’t you, when the opportunity arose?”
“So thatiswhy you did it.” She stared at him as if surprised, though he hadn’t a clue why. “Well, there we are, then,” she whispered. “Jo was right after all.”
“Right about what?” he asked, his own anger giving way to sudden uncertainty. “What does your little sister have to do with any of this?”
She shook her head and laughed, but there was no humor in it, and none of her previous scorn, only what might have been disbelief.
“Not only her,” she said. “But my parents, too, and some of my other relations, and the few friends I had left. Everyone on my side tried to tell me that’s why you did it, but despite everything, I never quite believed them, not really. I couldn’t believe that even you could be that low. How naïve of me.”
He still had no idea what she was talking about, but he did know everyone in her family and his had deemed him entirely to blame for the whole ghastly business, and he was weary of it. He hadn’t kidnapped her, for God’s sake.
“I’ve taken as much of this as I can stomach,” he shot back, any shred of patience he possessed now utterly gone. “Will you stop talking in riddles and tell me what you’re driving at? What were you urged to believe? Among my many sins,” he added when she didn’t reply, “just which one are you referring to?”
“Those rumors about our elopement started up three years after the fact.” She lifted her chin, her gaze boring into his. “Right after Giles and I became engaged.”
“I’m quite aware of that, thank you. Since, being a gentleman, I’m the one who was obligated to refute those rumors, it’s quite unnecessary for you to remind me of the date I was forced to do so. What does that have to do with any—”
He stopped, realizing the answer to his question before he’d even finished asking it. “Wait,” he ordered, taking a step back from her, his mind reeling as he appreciated what she was really accusing him of. “You think I’m responsible for the news of our elopement getting out? And that I did it because you threw me over for your cousin?”
“Threw you over?” she echoed. “Is that how you justify yourself? By claiming thatyouare the injured party in this? Of all the unmitigated gall.”
“I don’t have to justify anything! God knows, I have plenty of reasons to hate your guts, but I am in no way responsible for the news of our botched elopement getting out. You want to lay blame for that, you’ll have to look elsewhere.”
“And just where would I look?”
“Damned if I know. Your friends, the Duke of Westbourne’s sisters, seem the most likely suspects.”
“They would never have told anyone.” She shook her head. “Never in a thousand years.”
“The duke himself, then.”
“He admitted the truth to my father because it was dawn before he and his sisters got me safely back to the house party, and by then, Mama had noticed my absence, found my note, and told Papa I’d run away. But no one else knew. And my parents certainly wouldn’t have let such news get out.”
“Then it was your maid. Or one of the duke’s servants. Or,” headded as she again shook her head, “perhaps someone that one of us knew saw us together on the train to Birmingham, or at the train station, or at the inn where we stopped that night. Maybe the chambermaid at the inn or another servant there put it all together and got a nice bit of money for telling Delilah Dawlish all about it. How does anyone know how secrets like this get out? But they often do. It’s quite obvious that someone told, but it was not me. The only person on my side to whom I have ever confessed the truth about what happened was Calderon.”
“Well, then, we know how the scandal got out, don’t we?”
“Not possible. I didn’t even admit to him my denials were a hum until long after the whole mess was public knowledge. Besides, Calderon would never have told anyone what really happened. He’s straight as a die.”
“Not so straight, since he discarded my reservation of the Pinafore Room and gave it to you.”
“I’m sure it was just a mix-up. We didn’t steal the blasted thing out from under you. Hell, I didn’t even know you were engaged again until you told me the news yourself this morning in the flower shop.”
“So it’s just a coincidence that Lord Calderon, your closest friend, took away my reservation for the Pinafore Room and gave it to you?”
“Since I never asked Calderon to take it from you, and since Calderon would never comply with such a dishonorable request anyway, even for my sake, then, yes, a coincidence is exactly what it is. And in any case, it’s just a banqueting room. I can’t see why that is something to make a fuss about—”
“Don’t you?” she cried. “Then allow me to enlighten you on thesubject. When the rumors got out, I was ruined, jilted by my fiancé, abandoned by most of my friends, and shunned by nearly everyone in society. I was in virtual exile. No man would look at me twice. It’s taken me over a decade to rebuild my reputation.”
He pressed his lips together and looked away. He tried to take refuge in his own righteous indignation with the reminder that she wasn’t the only one who had suffered the consequences of their mutual decision to elope, but he found little consolation in that.
“I’m fully aware of what you’ve endured, Kay,” he said at last.
“You may be aware of it, but you can’t possibly know what it’s been like.”
“No,” he admitted, the concession bitter on his tongue. “I suppose not.”
“Well, it’s been hell. Mud slung at me, doors slammed in my face, me having to bow and scrape to anyone in society who’ll give me half a chance, watching everything I do and every word I say, knowing I can’t afford to make a single misstep. I have finally managed to be grudgingly accepted again, but not by everyone. Even after all this time, though not a whisper of scandal has touched my name in over a decade, there are those who still see me as damaged goods, who ridicule me behind my back, or pity me, or look down their noses at me. It’s a miracle I found any man willing to marry me at all. The only way I will ever be able to lay this sordid episode to rest for good is to have my wedding be the event of the season, with as many of the people I’ve been bowing and scraping to in attendance as I can muster, both at the ceremony and at the wedding banquet afterward. But that plan is curtailed now, thanks to you.”
