The following day Cal, Emm and the girls returned home after their morning ride to find Aunt Agatha waiting for them. “I wish to speak to you in private,” she told Emm.
Cal sent the girls on their way with a jerk of his head, took Emm’s hand and sat with her on the chaise longue. “What is it, Aunt Agatha?”
She gave Emm a narrow look. “Are you sure you want Ashendon here?”
“Quite sure,” Emm answered. “I have no secrets from my husband.”Not anymore, she thought guiltily.
Aunt Agatha’s brows rose. “Very well, then. There is a disgraceful tale circulating, that you had a lover—multiple lovers, in fact—before you married my nephew. Is it true?”
“It is partly true. I had a lover. Just one, long before I met Cal.”
“Outrageous! I knew you were unworthy of my nephew, but never did I imagine you werethatkind of female.”
“I’m not!” Emm snapped. She’d had enough. She might regret Sam, might have been imprudent and reckless giving herself to him, but she would not go on being punished for it the rest of her life. Her husband had accepted it, and that was good enough for her.
She went on the attack. “Did you never fall in love, Lady Salter? Never take a lover?”
To her amazement the old lady flushed. “None of your business, Miss Impertinence!”
Emm twirled her wedding ring. “Mrs.Impertinence.”
“LadyImpertinence,” Cal interjected with a wink at Emm. Something settled inside her. She was not alone. He was here, supporting her against all comers.
“Just as your past is your business and nobody else’s, Lady Salter, so is mine.”
“Except when it’s your husband’s. And his family’s. Andthe whole wide world’s. Besides, I went to my wedding a virgin.”
“To your first wedding, perhaps,” her nephew reminded her. “In any case, Emmaline told me about her lover before the wedding, so what does it matter?”
If it hadn’t already done so, Emm’s heart would have melted at the gallant lie.
“So you admit it brazenly, do you, gel? Showing no remorse, no shame, no guilt?”
Emm shrugged. “What’s done is done. Spilt milk.” Of course she regretted it, but she wasn’t going to bare her soul to this horrid old tartar.
“The rumors say multiple lovers, grooms, stableboys and farm boys, that you lay down in the fields and rutted whoever wanted you, like a bitch on heat.”
“Filthy slanderous—” Cal exploded. Emm gripped his hand tightly and he calmed.
“It’s not true,” she said coolly. “It was all a vicious campaign to force me into a marriage I didn’t want. All the stories came from him.” And for the third time in two days, Emm found herself explaining, only this time to a stiffly judgmental and hostile listener.
When she’d finished, Lady Salter said nothing for a long time. “Most edifying,” she said at last. “The truth of the matter is neither here nor there—it is the damage it can do now that matters. You’ve been invited to the Braxtons’ party the day after tomorrow, have you not?”
Cal confirmed it with a nod.
“You will not attend it. Send your apologies. Take your wife back to Oxfordshire, Ashendon; keep her and the girls there until the season is about to start, give it all time to blow over. Another, newer scandal will have taken its place by then.”
“No,” Emm said. “I’m going to the party. I won’t run away and hide. I will face down these cowardly spreaders of old muck. I know from whom the story started this time—”
“Who?” Lady Salter demanded
“A Mrs. Oates, née Carmichael, who had it from her cousin who lived in Bucklebury, the village I came from. Imet her the other night. She’s a nasty, spiteful piece of work, and I will not be bullied into leaving. I have nothing to be ashamed of.”
The old lady made a scornful noise. “Confronting the mischief makers would only give people more reason to believe there was truth to the tales. No smoke without fire.”
Emm gave an angry shrug. “They will believe it anyway, and if I retreat, it will certainly confirm their suspicions.”
Lady Salter lifted her lorgnette and gave Emm a long, steady look. Emm lifted her chin and stared back, refusing to be cowed.
