“He had made a wager,” she said. “It was in the betting book at one of the gentlemen’s clubs-I do not know which. He was to seduce me within two weeks. He had persuaded Mr. Gooding to sprain his ankle, and then he had persuaded his sister to allow him to escort her instead.”

Elliott’s blue eyes were boring into hers. Both Meg and Nessie were standing as still as statues.

“And?” Elliott asked, his voice rather like a whip. “Did he succeed?”

Katherine shook her head.

“No,” she said, her voice a mere whisper of sound. “No, he did not. And he went back to his club and said so. He did not claim victory. And he was not lying. He did not win that wager. He did nothing to me.”

She could not after all bear to tell the full truth.

Vanessa had one hand pressed over her mouth. Margaret was weeping with choking sobs, which she was trying to smother.

“Forester-Sir Clarence Forester,” Elliott said, sounding suddenly weary, “will be answering a few of my questions as soon as I have found him-he was not at any of the clubs when I tried them earlier. Whatever grudge he may have against his cousin, his manner of taking revenge is unpardonable. Then I will need a few answers from Montford himself. Maybe he did not win his wager, Katherine-indeed, I trust your word that he did not-but I have to dispute your claim that he did nothing. He took on that dastardly wager, did he not, and set about winning it?”

Margaret spoke up.

“Sir Clarence Forester and his mother are the pair who stopped us in the park,” she said, her voice trembling, “and made us all feel so very dreadful as if we had done something wrong. They are the ones who have done wrong-vicious, deliberate, irreparable wrong. What has Kate ever done to deserve their spite? Oh, if I could just get my hands on them.”

“I’ll do it for you, Margaret,” Elliott said grimly. “In the meanwhile, you had best stay in the house here, both of you. There is much-”

The door crashed open again and Stephen strode in, his hair a halo of unruly curls about his head after a morning ride, his eyes wild, his face as pale as his shirt.

“I am in time, thank God,” he said, fixing his eyes on Katherine. “You are on no account to go out this morning, Kate. There is a damned scoundrel and liar loose on the town and I have just drawn his cork. I would have done more, but the sniveling bast-The sniveling coward ran away. He took a purple nose and a bloodied shirt with him, though, by thunder. I know this is all a pack of lies, Kate-Monty is a friend of mine and you are my sister. But even so-”

The door did not crash open again for the simple reason that Stephen had not shut it behind him. But Constantine, when he appeared in the doorway, looked as if he would have come through the door without opening it if it had stood in his way.

“Constantine,” Katherine said, holding up one shaking hand. “If you have come here to tell me that you told me so, I shall first scream very loudly and then slap your face very hard.”

And she burst into tears to her own terrible chagrin. Soon she had four arms about her, and Meg and Nessie were murmuring words of comfort when really there was no comfort to be found.

“Forester is a clever bastard,” Constantine said. “By the time I appeared at his door a short while ago, he had his mother stationed there instead of a servant, and short of planting her a facer, which I was sorely tempted to do, I could not get in. If she is to be believed, Forester met with an accident this morning at the hands of a large gang of fierce footpads and lost a courageous battle against them.”

“They were me, Con,” Stephen said.

“Glad to hear it,” Constantine said. “It’s the first good news I have had all morning. I missed that damned soiree last evening. Oh, sorry for the language, Margaret. Sorry, Vanessa and Katherine. But now I have seen that Katherine is safely at home, I’ll pay Monty a little visit.”

“You can safely leave that to me,” Elliott said stiffly, and Katherine looked up to see the two of them-first cousins who had grown up like brothers and who looked more like twins-glaring at each other and almost squaring off.

“Oh, stop it!” she cried. “It is not Lord Montford who has been spreading spiteful stories-and untrue ones too if they claim that he won that ridiculous wager all those years ago. He did not win it because he chose not to pursue it. He told me about it and… and we had a laugh over it. I do not suppose he is enjoying this scandal any more than I am. It is all stupid and ridiculous, and I will not have everyone bloodying everyone else’s nose and fighting one another to be the one to defend my honor and all the other stupid stuff that goes by the name of manly honor. I will not have it. Do you hear me, Stephen?”

She had risen to her feet again. Her sisters stood at her sides, silent sentinels.

“I hear you, Kate,” he said. “But it is not-”

“And do you hear me, Elliott?” she asked.

“Loudly and clearly,” he said. “But-”

“And you, Constantine,” she said, “do you hear me?”

He shrugged with both shoulders and both hands.

“And I will not have you and Elliott carrying on your ridiculous feud in my presence or Meg’s,” she continued, unable to stop, it seemed now that she had started. “I have no idea what it is about, and I do not want to know. I do not care. Men are so foolish. Take your quarrel elsewhere if you must. Shoot each other if you must. But not here. Now go away all of you. All of you. I want to be alone. No, better yet, I shall go up to my room-alone.”

She swept past them all, her chin up.

She neither knew nor cared what they decided to do about her predicament or about the two men who between them had brought her to this.

She was ruined.

She was in no doubt about that.

And, as she had admitted to herself when she was with Constantine in Hyde Park, she was at least partly to blame.

She had thought herself far more grown up and worldly wise this year than she had been three years ago. But she had fallen prey to the practiced charms of a rakehell just as easily this time as last. It would be useless to deny it.

And now she was ruined.

She did not stop to consider that perhaps the punishment far exceeded the crime.

12

BY the time Jasper arrived at the house where Lady Forester and Clarence were staying, they had already left it and were presumably bowling along the highway to Kent as fast as wheels would turn or horses gallop.

He did briefly consider going after them, but unfortunately there were more pressing concerns to keep him in London.

He did, though, have the satisfaction of hearing from one of the recently hired, newly dismissed servants, who had not yet left the house-a man who clearly felt no loyalty whatsoever to his erstwhile employers. Clarence, it seemed, was taking home with him a purple, bulbous nose and two black eyes, which he had claimed-the servant had paused to look both skeptical and contemptuous though his questioner was a grim-looking gentleman-which he had claimed came from a gang of ruffian footpads. At least her ladyship had claimed it since Sir Clarence himself had not been saying much of anything.

Even that news, though, was only marginally satisfying to Jasper. Either Moreland or Merton or Con Huxtable had done what he ought to have done-except that he would have considered a bulbous nose and two black eyes a mere preliminary to a more complete drubbing.

Those same three men were doubtless still breathing fire and brimstone and plotting to do the like to him.

He returned home to change into clothes more suitable for a morning call and discovered Charlotte in tears in the library. Miss Daniels was not having a great deal of success consoling her. There was an open letter on the desk.

“What has happened?” he asked from the doorway.

What now?

“Jasper!” Charlotte looked up sharply and it was obvious to him from the redness of her eyes and face that she had been crying for some time. “Aunt Prunella is going to have me fetched to Kent. Great-Uncle Seth has said I must go there, that you are an unfit guardian for me. It is not true, is it? You have not d-debauched Miss Huxtable.”

Oh, Lord!

“Charlotte, my dear,” Miss Daniels said, looking excruciatingly embarrassed.

“It is not true,” Jasper said grimly, only thankful that he was not quite lying. “But that is the story Clarence put about last evening and that is what everyone believes today. Have you heard from Great-Uncle Seth himself?”

He glanced at the letter.

“N-no,” she said. “From Aunt P-Prunella.”

“Then it is probably wishful thinking on her part that he will agree with her,” he said. “I had better go and see him again, though. He will not like it above half and neither will I, but it must be done. Go and dry your eyes, Char, and wash your face. Tears are not going to solve anything and they threaten to transform you into a gargoyle.”

“Everything is ruined,” she said, fresh tears running down her cheeks. “Everyone will suddenly discover that they cannot come to my party after all or if they do come, I will not be there to receive them. Aunt Prunella will have dragged me off to Kent and I shall die. I shall simply die, Jasper.”

“The thing is, Char,” he said, “that you will not, and would not even if all that were to happen-which I do assure you it will not while I have life and breath in my body. But I have to go. Why I learned of all this only this morning when the whole world knew it last evening I will never know. Remind me never to stay home of an evening again. But I am off.”

“What must Miss Huxtable be suffering this morning?” she asked him. “I am being very selfish, am I not? What of her?”

As if he had not thought of that for himself!

“I am off,” he said firmly, and strode from the room-and from the house-without stopping to change his clothes after all. And his main purpose must be postponed for a short while.

He was admitted at Seth Wrayburn’s house. He would not have been at all surprised if the door had been barred against him, but it was not. He found the old gentleman in a towering rage, though.

“God damn it all to hell, Montford,” he said as soon as he saw him, “what the devil is this all about and why do I have to be dragged into it? If I had known the trouble it would be to see one chit of a girl safely to adulthood, I would have hauled that will off to court and flatly refused to be her guardian.”

“I do not blame you in the least for being annoyed,” Jasper said, strolling farther into the room. “Clarrie has been spreading vicious lies about town, seconded by Lady Forester, and they have left enough damage in their wake to clog a river. However-”

“Where there are lies,” Mr. Wrayburn said, “there is usually at least a modicum of truth, Montford. I suppose there was once a wager? Concerning young Merton’s sister? The most obscene, disgusting wager ever written into a betting book? And I suppose you did try your damnedest to win it?”

He glared at Jasper and waited for an answer.

“I am afraid so,” Jasper said. “But she repulsed me in no uncertain terms-sent me away with a flea in my ear. She is blameless in all this.”

“I hope,” the old gentleman said, “she gave you a good swift kick in the arse too, Montford-or somewhere where it would hurt even more. Give me one good reason why I should leave my ward under your care.”

“Because they are damned liars,” Jasper said. “And sending Charlotte to live with them is unthinkable.”

“Clarence is a fool,” Mr. Wrayburn said, “and Prunella is a crashing bore. I do not doubt they are both liars too, but then most people are. But they are respectable. You are not.”

“I will be setting this mess all right in the course of the day,” Jasper told him. “After I leave here, I will be paying Merton a call and then his sister. There is only one thing to do, and by God I will do it.”

“If she will have you,” Mr. Wrayburn said. “She will be a fool if she does.”

“I am not sure,” Jasper said grimly, “she has much choice.”

The old gentleman picked up a cane from beside his chair and pointed it at his visitor like a weapon.