Felicity dismounted from her horse and walked over to join the group, now clustered together in the misty field. “Father, I will not do what you say anymore,” she said firmly. “I will not tell any more lies.” She sounded confident, but Sebastian could see that her hands were shaking.
Sebastian watched as Victor responded to his daughter’s defiance. He balled his fists at his sides and looked almost as if he were about to explode. But he could do nothing in front of so many other people.
Sebastian felt a flurry of anticipation as Isabella stepped forward, grabbing Felicity’s hand and pulling her along with her.
“Felicity has something to tell you all,” Isabella declared, her voice clear and strong in the early morning silence. He thought she looked like a goddess as she stood there, proud and brave, wrapped in her riding cloak, with her hair streaming down her shoulders.
Felicity’s cheeks were burning as she opened her mouth to speak. “Sebastian – um, Lord Ashcroft. He did not try to seduce me. It was all me. I threw myself into his arms, trying to create a scandal so that he would be entangled with me and have to marry me.” She paused and looked at Sebastian for a moment. “It was not his fault. He did nothing wrong.”
Sebastian, of course, had always known this was the truth, but he was astonished to hear Felicity admitting it. He was convinced that Isabella had forced her into it somehow, although he had no idea how she had found out. He stared at Isabella in amazement. She met his eye for a moment, then looked away. His heart leapt.
“Felicity, what are you talking about?” Victor interjected. “You said that he pounced on you, that he took advantage of your innocence! You told us all what had happened last night when we met in the parlour. How can you deny it all now?”
“I only said those things because you told me to, Father,” she said softly. “I did not want to do it, not really.” She turned to Sebastian. “But I suppose I thought that if you had to marry me, then eventually you might learn to love me. I know I was wrong about that, and your heart belongs to another.”
Isabella glanced at Sebastian again, and he felt something inside him pulling towards her like an invisible magnet. It was almost too much to bear, standing here so close to her and not being able to go to her. But he waited, trying to be patient enough to allow things to play out by themselves. Because he had a sense that the secrets were flowing now, and there would be nothing to stop the truth from coming out.
“Felicity, stop talking, please!” Victor demanded. “You are a stupid girl; you do not know what you are saying!”
Thomas had been quiet up until this point, but now he spoke up. “Victor, I am uncomfortable with you speaking to Felicity this way. I feel that perhaps there is more to be uncovered here. If she is speaking the truth, which I do not doubt, then what could possibly have been your motivation for making her try to entrap Sebastian?”
“Ha! Well, you say you believe her, but everyone saw his hands on her!” Victor said. “I do not know why she is denying it now, but what happened is obvious.”
“Actually, I do not think that is the case at all,” Adrian interjected. “From what I can gather, it was dark on the terrace and very difficult to see what was going on.”
Sebastian glanced at his friend. He had not realized that Adrian had been working quite so hard behind the scenes to discover the truth. He gave him a grateful look, then returned his focus to Felicity, who looked as if she was about to cry but took a deep breath before speaking again.
“Father, it is all going to come out in the end anyway. It would be better if you just admitted it now,” Felicity said, looking at her father a little fearfully.
Victor huffed. “I do not know what you are talking about.”
Sebastian could bear it no longer. “I will have the truth!” he declared. “You have been exposed, Lord Harrow. There is no escaping it anymore.” He felt like he was on the edge of a momentous discovery, but he could not help glancing at Isabella to see how she was responding to what was happening around her.
Soon, she would learn that he had only come to the Evermere estate to find out about what had really happened to his father, and she would realize that he had used her. When uncovering the truth, he could lose the one thing that mattered to him.
She held his gaze for a moment, then turned back to Felicity. “Tell them about the letter, Felicity,” she urged. “You must tell the whole truth. You promised.”
Felicity nodded. “I know, Isabella. I am so ashamed of what I have done. Perhaps if I tell the truth now, then that will be my penance.”
Sebastian moved closer to her, determined not to miss a single word. “What letter?” he demanded.
Victor let out a yelp and surged forward as if he intended to seize hold of Felicity, but Adrian and Thomas held him back. All the while, George stood to one side, his face a picture of astonishment and shock.
“I found a letter in my father’s room,” Felicity said, her voice a little steadier now. “It was about your father, Sebastian.”
Sebastian stared at her. “Tell me what it said,” he demanded. “I came here to find out the truth and will hear it now!”
***
Isabella stared at Sebastian. After the moment of clarity she had felt when she had learnt that he had not tried to seduce Felicity, everything now seemed to be falling apart. What did Sebastian mean when he said he had come here to find out the truth? She waited, barely able to breathe, to see what came next. She knew what the letter said, of course, but it was Sebastian’s response that she was watching carefully.
Felicity cleared her throat before the final moment of truth. “It said that my father was the one who betrayed Julian Ashcroft.”
Victor let out another cry, but Thomas and George held him firmly back.
“I knew it!” Sebastian roared. “I have suspected it for days now. For many years, I was convinced that it was you, Lord Evermere, who was behind it all. I thought that you were the one responsible for what happened to my father. But as the days have passed, I have realized that it does not add up. And now, here is the proof!”
He looked triumphant but glanced at Isabella a little doubtfully before Felicity continued speaking.
