Talbot laughed. “As you should be.”
She took a bite of the honey cake, wanting to give herself time to recover from the embarrassment of practically admitting she was engaged in marital bliss in her husband’s arms into the late hours of the night.
“I’m happy to hear that the marriage between you and Carrington seems to be going so well, considering.”
Guinevere swallowed the food in her mouth, which suddenly tasted like dust. “What do you mean ‘considering’?”
He looked wholly uneasy, which did nothing to help Guinevere’s sudden discomfited feeling. “I—Well, I—Please forget I mentioned it,” he said, starting to rise.
She couldn’t say what made her do it, but she reached out and put a hand on Talbot’s arm to stop him. “Please,” she said, “what do you mean?” He was surely speaking of her and Asher’s past, and she should not be allowing herself to worry at all, but it was an odd comment for Talbot to make.
With a wary yet resigned look, he sat with a sigh. “I wish I had not said anything,” he muttered more to himself than to her.
“Talbot,” she said, now determined to hear what he had to say. “We have been friends of sorts for a great many years. If you know something you think I should—”
“I thought you knew,” he interrupted, jerking a hand through his hair. “I would not have said a word if had I known that Carrington had not…” He let his words trail off, and he started fidgeting in his chair as if he wanted to be anywhere else.
“I’m very pleased to see that you feel loyalty to your brother,” she said, meaning it, her heart now thudding a loud, hard rhythm in her ears, “but a marriage cannot prosper with secrets.” The minute the words left her mouth, she thought of the secretshewas keeping from Asher. She was a hypocrite. Guilt snaked through her stomach and coiled into a hard ball. She had to tell him—and she would.
“I suppose you are correct,” Talbot said, his tone heavy with reluctance. “What I meant byconsideringwas, well—This is deuced hard to say.” He gave her a pleading look. “I fear it may hurt you.”
“Please just tell me,” she murmured, her body now trembling. She threaded her hands together in her lap so that Talbot would not take notice.
“Very well,” he said, sounding defeated. “I was referring to my father’s will and Carrington’s other marriage proposal.”
A tumble of confused thoughts and feelings assailed her at once, and all she could do for a moment was sit there.
Finally, Talbot broke the silence. “Perhaps you ought to speak directly to Carrington about this.”
She somehow found the strength to shake her head. If Asher had intended to tell her, why had he not done so before the wedding? “Please continue.”
Talbot’s gaze darted to the door, as if ensuring they were still alone. “My father’s will stipulated that Carrington had to wed one of three women my father had selected before his death in order to inherit all the unentailed property and family fortune. If he failed to meet the stipulation, I was to inherit it in his stead.”
“No,” she said, the hardness of her voice startling her. “That cannot be.” She was horribly hot, and her blood had joined her heart to roar in her ears. “Asher would not relent to such a thing.”
When Talbot reached out, took her hand, and squeezed it, she felt she would lose the little bit of food that was in her stomach. “I’m sorry.” He paused, swallowing, his eyes glinting into hers with pity that made her want to scream. “I’m certain seeing the two of you now that he wed you for more than the inheritance.”
She was certain of nothing. She was going to be sick. She sucked in a long breath, then reached a trembling hand for her hot chocolate and drank a long swallow, allowing the liquid to push the horrid feeling lodged in her throat down a bit. “Who—” God above, she could not believe she was asking this. “Who, besides me, was on your father’s list?” She didn’t know why Asher’s father had created such a demand, except that he clearly had wanted to control Asher until the bitter end. Good heaven! That’s what Asher must have been referring to last night, and when she had asked him what he meant, he had not answered her. Her stomach clenched.
Talbot hesitated but finally said, “Lady Henrietta Burgh and Lady Constantine Colgate.”
Her mind immediately started racing. Lady Henrietta had scandalously eloped right before Asher had returned to London. He would have been told this, she was sure. But Lady Constantine… Guinevere heard herself groan, and she compulsively pressed a hand over her mouth to hold in anymore horrid, wounded animal sounds. Her throat ached with a ferocious need to cry as memories fell. Asher unexplainably showing up in the library the night she had intended to rescue Lady Constantine from ruination. Asher and Lady Constantine seeming friendly. Lady Constantine inexplicably aiding Asher in stealing a moment alone with Guinevere at the house party. Asher’s sudden attention to Guinevere.
A raw, primitive grief threatened to overwhelm her, but she fought it. She didn’t want to accept that the love she thought was within her grasp was not. That the man she loved was a liar, an opportunist. Was just like all the other men who had not wantedherat all.
“Was I—” She paused, struggling to ask the embarrassing question. “I wish to know, do you know, well, did Carrington ask Lady Constantine to wed him before he asked me?”
It occurred to her then quite painfully that Asher had not initially asked her. He had compromised her. Never mind that she had been a willing participant. He had followed her on the hunt, he had kissed her, and she had been compromised.
“I do not know, Guinevere,” Talbot said, using her familiar name. She did not have the heart to protest. Her heart was breaking.
“You do not know, or you will not say?” She had to choke out the words. The room was spinning a bit, and she blinked several times to bring it still.
“I, well—Devil take it, Guinevere, don’t make me hurt you like this. Please talk to Carrington, or even Lady Constantine, but I cannot do this. I cannot stand to hurt you.”
Talbot shoved up from the table then and was out of the room in the blink of an eye. She was too distraught to stop him. Her rebellious emotions got away from her, and tears of humiliation and anger overflowed, streaming down her face. Every breath she took burned her throat as she tried to think of what to do, how she could have possibly been so foolish to believe Asher loved her.
No. No, she would not give up on them—on him—yet. She needed confirmation.
