CHAPTER FOUR
Teresa crept down the stairs, eyes stinging with lack of sleep, listening out for any unusual sounds coming from the manor. She would have preferred to stay in her bed, beneath the covers, hiding from the inevitable explosion of her reputation, but a heroine’s courage had coaxed her out of her bed, made her put on her clothes, and urged her to face the music.
It will be better coming from me,she told herself, continuing down the final curve of the staircase, her hand gripping the banister tightly.
It had been late when they had returned last night, and Vincent had already retired to his bed. Julianna had suggested that they should not wake him with the unfortunate news of the scandal, and Teresa had been glad of the reprieve. Now, she wished she had just gotten it out of the way; the thought of her brother’s reaction had already robbed her of her sleep and her appetite for breakfast.
Although, she would have been lying if she had said that was theonlyreason she had not been able to sleep. Her imagination had been granted a taste of reality, and it had been relentless ever since, taking her back to that room at the masquerade again and again, taking her back to the moment just before the door opened and the flame of possibility had turned to ash, taking her back to the anticipation of a kiss that had never come.
“What is the meaning of this?” a sharp bark ricocheted through the hallway on the left of the entrance hall.
Teresa froze, cringing. She was too late. She had not beaten the morning papers, nor the scandal sheets tucked away inside.
Itcouldbe that his eggs are cold, or the toast is burnt.She held onto that fragile possibility as she hurried the rest of the way down the stairs and along the hallway, only slowing as she came to the partially open door of the dining room.
In an echo of the eavesdropping that had gotten her into this mess in the first place, she paused, held her breath, and waited.
“Tell me this is a mistake!” Vincent roared. “Mother, I suggest you start speaking, and I would urge you to explain why this is a gross misunderstanding.”
There was the faint clink of cutlery being set down on a plate, and a nervous clearing of Julianna’s throat. “Yes, about that…” She hesitated. “I regret to inform you that it isnota misunderstanding, nor is it a mistake. I had hoped, perhapsfoolishly, that it might not make its way into the scandal sheets, but I see that is not the case.”
“Caught alone in the embrace of a lion, Lady Teresa, sister to the Earl of Grayling and the Duchess of Davenport, certainly had nopridewhen she was discovered,” Vincent bellowed, clearly reading the ungenerous article. “Let this be a warning, that a masquerade is no place to do as one pleases—indiscretion will always be exposed, mask or no. As for the lion himself, he is certainly no King of Beasts, but the beastly Cyrus Deverell, the Duke of Darnley.”
Cyrus Deverell?
Teresa’s throat tightened, her mind stubbornly wandering back to that room again, with him, his lips so close that if he had just bent his head a little more, she would have known what it felt like to be kissed. He had had no name then, no title either. He had just been the rude man with the list and the lion mask, who she had ruined herself for in a moment of vengeful madness.
Cyrus…An exotic name. A name that suited him, even if she had only seen his eyes and the lower part of his face.
“Did you think I would not find out?” Vincent snapped. “Did you not think it important to inform me yourself, instead of letting me read this… this… awful thing?”
“You were asleep,” Julianna replied.
“And would have preferred to be woken!” Vincent shot back, punctuating his words with the sound of paper crumpling, as though he had crushed the scandal sheets in his hand. “It wasyourduty to protect her from this sort of thing, Mother. I trusted you to protect her! She is not a debutante anymore; she is already short of options. Mercy, why were you not more careful?”
I wishIcould answer that. I am the one who made the mistake.And Teresa still could not fully explain what had possessed her. Revengedidseem like the simplest reason, but it felt somewhat flimsy as an excuse. After all, true revenge would have been taking the list out to the ballroom and exposing it to the ladies in attendance.
Julianna coughed. “I… confess, I lost sight of her. She was with Beatrice and I thought?—”
“You let her wander off withBeatrice, of all people?” Vincent gasped, and Teresa could picture him running his vexed hands through his hair. “That girl has always been trouble. I said I did not like Teresa being acquainted with her, butyouinsisted. Now, look where we are!”
It is not Beatrice’s fault. She was helping me.
“Vincent, Beatrice is her only real friend,” Julianna tried to argue. “Would you have me separate her from her only real friend?”
But Vincent was past listening. “I expected you to show wise judgment, and to take your role of chaperone seriously! As for Teresa’s friendships: she got on well with Lionel’s sister. And though Rebecca is a little… lively,sheis at least respectable. You are as much to blame for this as Teresa, Mother. How could you allow this to happen?”
Teresa burst through the door, her hand on her heart as she cried, “Vincent, do not blame her and do not blame Beatrice. It is not their fault.Idid this.Icaused all of this.” Her voice faltered. “If I had not fled from Mama, none of this would have happened. I heard her coming and I… ran off.”
Vincent, drained of all color, the scandal sheets crumpled in his fist, turned his wild eyes toward his sister. “Why on earth would you do such a thing?”
“Because I… did not want to be introduced to another unpleasant gentleman,” she murmured, bowing her head.
“So, you thought you would just find an unpleasant gentleman of your own, and throw our entire family to the wolves?” Vincent snarled, rising from his chair. “Do you have any idea who that man is?”
Teresa shook her head.I did not have a helpful list like he did.
“If you wanted to be thoroughly miserable, you chose well,” Vincent remarked, shaking with the force of his anger. “There are… stories about that man that I do not dare to repeat, even though you deserve to hear them after this utter foolishness!”
