Chapter 1 #2
But he had no intention to refuse her and stood as she arrived to him, inclining his head slightly. “Miss Comerford,” he said.
She gave a rusty laugh. “Oh, my lord, you cannot revert back to Miss Comerford after years of calling me Evelina. Just because I’m no longer with Southwater doesn’t mean we aren’t friends.” She hesitated and there was a flicker of concern that entered her gaze. “Unless it does?”
He shook his head. “Indeed, not. I would be honored to be counted as one of your friends. I think I prefer your friendship at any rate. Far less damaging.”
She cocked her head as if she were confused by that statement and then her expression became lined with pity. “We haven’t seen each other in some time. I wanted to say how sorry I am, my lord.”
He reached out for the drink he’d set on the bar top behind him when she approached and downed what remained in one burning gulp. “As am I for you. How are you coping with all this?”
“Well, it’s been a month since Harry and I parted ways.” She smiled but it was clearly forced. “And a courtesan must be sensible, mustn’t she?”
He wrinkled his brow because it felt like they were holding two separate conversations. “I suppose. But I meant about everything that’s come out in the last day or so. It must trouble you, even if you play off the importance of the affiliation.”
“I—” She struggled for words for a moment, her brow wrinkling. “I’m not sure I take your meaning, my lord.”
He felt the blood spiral away from his cheeks as he realized why there had been a disconnection in their interaction so far. Lord, what had he just done? He cleared his throat. “You—you didn’t know. You haven’t heard the news.”
She was staring at him like a doe who’d been startled by a hunter. Like she was frozen with fear about whatever horror he was about to reveal. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He drew in a sharp breath and that self-loathing he’d been contemplating earlier rushed forward even more powerfully.
“My good friend, your former lover, the Duke of Southwater has been fucking my wife. For over a year. And now they’re no longer hiding it.
Apparently when this wretched divorce mess is finally resolved, he intends to marry her, scandal be damned. ”
Not a fragment of Evelina’s expression changed despite the words that burned his own soul.
She was now blank and pale, the only revelation that this shocked or horrified her was the slightest flare to her nostrils.
Slowly, she stepped back, hands clenched at her sides, and then she whispered one word.
“Liar.”
He had hoped she was being pretending her denial that she knew about anything going on. It was apparent now that she wasn’t. No matter how she schooled her reaction, his words had hit her like a sword in a battle and he hated himself for being the one who struck her down.
“I’m sorry, Evelina, I truly thought you must have known. The courtesan network…”
She shook her head. “I’ve been in hiding. And my sisters have been spending much of their time with me lately. Or else they knew but didn’t tell me. But no. No. You are wrong.”
“I wish I was.”
“No!” she repeated, this time more loudly and now those around them started to stare.
She didn’t seem to care, not when her cheeks were bright with anger and hurt, her eyes wide with the same.
“I don’t know why you would say such wretched things, but I don’t wish to speak to you anymore. Good night, Lord Blackburn.”
She pivoted on her heel and stormed back off through the crowd.
“Fuck,” Vaughn said, gripping his empty glass.
He glared at the few people near him who were still staring and started across the room himself.
However much he’d hated himself ten minutes ago, the feeling was now doubled.
All he wanted to do was go home and bury himself in darkness and drink and ledgers so he wouldn’t hurt anyone else.
* * *
Evelina dragged her sister onto the drive and waved frantically at her driver.
The man appeared perplexed as it had hardly been a quarter of an hour since he brought the sisters here, but he started back up to the seat of the carriage regardless, tossing his cigar over the side of the vehicle as he did it.
“What is wrong with you?” Julia asked, pulling her arm free and rubbing it like Evelina had gripped her too hard. “We only just arrived and then you grab me and drag me out to go home. What happened?”
Evelina could hardly breathe and it took a few gasping attempts to formulate words. “Did you know?”
“Did I know what?”
“Don’t lie to me!” Evelina ground out. “Did you know?”
Julia shook her head and her concern was becoming more and more clear, as well as her confusion. “I promise you, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”
Evelina tended to believe her. Not only did her sister look truthful, there was the fact that she’d told Julia that she was going to speak to Blackburn upon their arrival.
Evelina had to assume that if Julia had known anything about his horrible accusations she would have said something.
Surely her sweet sister wouldn’t be so cruel.
Arabella wouldn’t either, but Arabella was also far more likely to know the truth and hide it.
The carriage pulled up to where they stood and she looked up at her driver as Julia got into the vehicle. “Take me to Arabella and Silas’s.”
“Yes, miss,” he said, and she must have appeared quite wild, because he seemed as concerned as Julia. That seemed to be what she inspired now: quiet pity and worry. She ignored the humiliation of that fact and threw herself into the carriage across from Julia.
“Please, what is going on?” Julia asked. “I know you didn’t want to go out at all tonight, but when you came across that room like the demons of hell themselves were at your heels and dragged me out…you are frightening me.”
“Is Harry with Lady Blackburn?”
Julia blinked a few times. “I—what?”
“Countess Blackburn,” she repeated. “The earl’s wife. They are divorcing, it’s all the scandal. Is Harry with her? Has he been fucking her for a year?” Her voice elevated on the last word and she struggled for breath to calm herself.
“That cannot be possible,” Julia said with a small shake of her head. She looked as shocked as Evelina felt. She wasn’t certain whether to be relieved or even more horrified at that fact.
“So you hadn’t heard this horrible rumor, you didn’t drag me there knowing it?”
Julia caught her hand. “You ask me that, truly? You think that I would bring you to a lion’s den without warning you if I’d heard such a dreadful thing?”
“No.” Evelina whispered, trying desperately to control her wild emotions so she wouldn’t burst into loud tears. “No. I cannot think you would ever be so cruel. You aren’t capable of it. But Arabella…”
“Arabella isn’t capable of such a thing, either!” Julia burst out.
“Not of cruelty, no. But of trying to protect me by lies of omission? Oh, yes.”
“But she wouldn’t have sent me to take you out without telling me, at least.”
That made sense and it calmed Evelina a little. “No. You’re right. Still, I need to ask her. To look her in the face and see that she didn’t try to protect me even while she left me open to such a horrible revelation.”
The sisters stared at each other a moment and Julia shivered. “Oh, Evie, is it true? Could the duke have done such a thing?”
“It’s a lie!” she said. “Harry may be many things, I may not understand his motives in ending things with me, but I cannot and I will not believe that he would be so cruel as to take his friend’s wife in such a public manner. He is not so craven as that.”
Julia didn’t seem fully convinced, but she asked, “And who told you?”
“Blackburn himself.”
“Oh.”
Her sister’s gaze dropped away and Evelina folded her arms. “Why do you say it like that? Why oh like you pity me?”
Julia shifted on the carriage seat. “I-I only wonder what motive the earl would have for lying. The scandal around him is so loud and horrible already that it will likely never be fully forgotten. Why would he add to it?”
Evelina shifted. She didn’t want to consider that very rational question overly long. Or think about the true pain and burning rage in Blackburn’s startling green eyes when he told her.
“Well…” She tried to find a reason. “As you say, the scandal is complete anyway. Why wouldn’t he say something so horrible about the countess, even if just to form some kind of sympathy for himself?”
“But haven’t he and Harry known each other since school?” Julia asked. “Why would he be so cruel to his old friend? You knew him a bit before, was that his character?”
“No.” There was no hesitation to her answer.
As much as she wanted to paint Blackburn with a liar’s brush, she couldn’t act as though he hadn’t always been decent and honorable in any interaction she’d exchanged with him.
He’d actually always been her favorite amongst Harry’s friends.
The one she enjoyed talking to and interacting with most.
But to believe Blackburn to be honest was far more painful than to think she’d simply misjudged him for years.
“Perhaps he’s been misled,” she said, trying to find some middle ground where they could both be right.
“Told this untruth by some third party in order to put a wedge between him and his dearest friend in a time of need. There are some who might find sport in such behavior. The men of the ton can be wretched.”
“That is certainly true,” Julia said softly, and then took Evelina’s hand.
“One way or another, we’ll determine the truth of it.
I’ve been out of the courtesan network loop these past weeks as I’ve settled in with Laurence, and I know Arabella is still solely focused on Silas and the life they’re building, but no one can get to the crux of a rumor faster than our dear sister. ”