He frowned. “You told me you abhorred gossip!”
Lady Ampleforth gave him a smug look. “Oh, I do.” She looked like the cat that ate the cream.
“But you’re the source of that gossip!” He was certain now—it could be no one else.
“Nonsense! It’s not gossip when you speak the truth. I saw you and the Rutherford gel with my own eyes, traveling together.”
He gritted his teeth. “I explained that.”
She gave a scornful huff.
“Andshe had a chaperone with her.”
Another huff delivered her opinion of Betty’s value as a chaperone. “If you’re finished talking nonsense, I wish to enter my carriage.”
He didn’t budge. “Why? Why would you do this? Lady Lily is a sweet young girl who’s never harmed a soul in her life.”
“No doubt she is,” she said carelessly. “I doubt I’ve ever spoken to the gel.”
“Then why would you try to ruin her reputation.”
“Try?”There was a world of meaning in the way she said it.
Ned narrowed his eyes. “You mean youwantedto ruin her?”
She shrugged. “It’s nothing to do with the gel herself. She merely gave me the opportunity.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She is Aggie Rutherford’s—Lady Salter she is now—niece. Aggie Rutherford! She holds herself so high—always has, ever since she was a gel—looking down on the rest of us and thinking she’s soooo perfect!” She gave a self-satisfied smile. “And now we have a scandal involving her precious family—and, oh, how the mighty are fallen. I trustdearAggie is squirming as much as I hoped she would.” She pushed past him and climbed into her barouche.
Shocked by the vitriol in her voice, Ned watched her fussily arrange herself. To ruin Lily for the sake of some ancient feud with Lily’s aunt...
“You vicious old trout! If you were a man...”
She laughed. “Words, words, words. Sticks and stones, they used to tell me.” She smiled. “But words can hurt after all, can’t they, young Galbraith? Coachman, drive on.”
Fuming, Ned watched her drive off. He’d never taken much notice of the old lady before, but she’d always seemed pleasant enough. Did his grandfather know she was such a spiteful old cat? If not, he’d enlighten the old man when next he came to London.
He continued on to White’s, where he greeted a couple of friends and acquaintances with the appearance of cool insouciance. He chatted of this and that, and then, aware of the covert interest of several members, he wandered over to the betting book and scanned it in a casual manner.There were the entries Elphingstone had mentioned, linking his name and Lily’s—Mr. E.G. and Lady L.—with bets made on a variety of possible outcomes. He swore under his breath.
He left White’s and went straight to Jackson’s Boxing Saloon, where he burned off some of his rage and frustration in a couple of fast and furious bouts. All the time his fists were flying, his thoughts were turning over and over, looking for a way out—for both of them.
He was all wrong for her. She was all wrong for him.
He thought of the whispers, the sly looks, the cunning innuendoes she would face; he recalled the smugness of that malicious, gossiping old bat, and the entries in the betting book. The reputation of an innocent young girl, so easily and carelessly ruined.
If it were anyone else but Lily...
Why couldn’t the woman he’d rescued and accidentally compromised be older, plainer, more experienced, more self-reliant; the kind of woman he’d taken as a mistress from time to time. The sort of woman who wanted nothing more from him than his body, and occasionally his company. And usually his money.
Lily would want... so much more. The kinds of things he didn’t have in him to give.
He wasn’t opposed to marriage. He’d gotten almost as far as the altar last year with a woman who was all the things he required in a wife—she didn’t even like him much.
But Lily. Lily dreamed of love. He could see the swirling echoes of those dreams in her eyes whenever she looked up at him.
His fault, for kissing her. For rescuing her.
