“You may,” she said.
Lady Deborah nodded imperiously as if there had never been any doubt that she would be permitted to stay. She walked right past Madeleine to the chair Madeleine had been sitting in and settled down in it. Then she looked up at Madeleine, clearly waiting for her to sit too.
Madeleine couldn’t quite believe the nerve. But she supposed Lady Deborah didn’t realize that Madeleine had been sitting there. There was no reason to make a fuss about it. She chose a different seat and sat down.
Lady Deborah leaned forward and braced her elbows on her knees. It was clear that, whatever she wanted to say, it was going to be serious.
“I want you to stay away from Thomas,” she said.
Madeleine’s head spun. This again?
“He’s asked you to refer to him by his title,” she said because she didn’t know what else to say. “You should have some respect.”
“You don’t tellmehow to treat him.”
“I’m his wife!”
Lady Deborah laughed harshly. “Are you? Everyone knows you left Westcourt days ago and you haven’t been back. Everyone knows about the messengers traveling back and forth between there and here. It seems obvious to me that something has gone wrong between you. And all I can say is…we all saw that coming.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Madeleine snapped.
“I don’t need to know any more than that to know you’re a menace,” Lady Deborah said. “I knew from the first time I saw you with him that things would end badly. I warned him to keep his distance. And now look what’s happened.”
Madeleine felt as if she couldn’t catch her breath. “What does that mean?” she demanded. “Look what’s happened?”
“I’m talking about Thomas’smysterious illness,” Lady Deborah said. “Don’t act as if you don’t know what I mean. Everyone knows.”
“Everyone knows?” How could they? There was no way Thomas would have made that information public. He wouldn’t want anyone to know what had happened to him.
Unless he had…confided in Lady Deborah.
That was almost too awful to contemplate. What if she was right to call him by his given name now? What if he had asked her to?
If that was the way it was now…well, Madeleine supposed they had every right, given that she had run away. She had pushed Thomas away so many times. He had tried and tried with her, and he had never been able to persuade her to let go of her fear and stay with him.
Maybe he had given up.
Even now, it shocked her how much that thought hurt her.
And it must be what had happened. That was the only way she could have found out because Thomas wouldn’t have wanted everyone to know.
“He told you,” she murmured.
“Of course he told me,” Lady Deborah said smoothly. “And just why wouldn’t he tell me? We’re very close, you know. I’ve tried to tell you this before, but I never felt as if you were listening to me. You should listen to me about this. He’s my good friend.”
“I listened to him. Not to you. And you really shouldn’t be coming into my home and trying to tell me things about my husband. Who are you to talk to me this way?”
“I’ve known him quite a bit longer than you have,” Lady Deborah said. “I’ve known him since we were young. When I heard my dear friend was ill, I rushed to his side to find out what had happened.”
“And how did you find out that he was ill in the first place?” Madeleine was sure Lady Deborah was not above lurking in the gardens for a scrap of news about Thomas.
“Everyone knows,” Lady Deborah said again. “It’s the talk of high society—the Duke’s mysterious illness, the Duchess’s flight. Everyone has a different idea about what might have happened, but everyone can agree on one thing, and that’s who’s responsible.”
Madeleine’s voice tightened. “I’m sure everyone does know everything now that you’ve told them,” she said. “That’s exactly what you did, isn’t it? You made sure everyone knew what had happened.”
“Of course that’s all you’d care about,” Lady Deborah sneered. “How it affectsyou. That’s all you’ve ever cared about.”
“You’re the one who started talking about how this affected me in the first place,” Madeleine reminded her. “That was you, not me. You were the one saying that I was responsible for what had happened.”
