He looked as if she’d slapped him. Sadness filled her that this was how her relationship with Arthur would end. He’d been there for her during her mourning, and she would forever be grateful for that. Needing to know, she asked, “Who decided to switch the missive from Devons?”
They both stared at her silently. Her eyes flicked back and forth between them. She wanted it to be her mother. Please let it be her, she thought.
“I switched it,” Arthur said.
The sadness she felt for the demise of her friendship with Arthur became mixed with anger. She’d almost married this man and he’d been deceiving her.
She stood. “How could you?”
He scowled at her. “In every one of the Ladies of London articles I read, I could sense there was a growing fondness between the two of you. I hoped it was my imagination, but the way you looked at each other in Livorno, there was no denying it. What I did was for your benefit. He is not good for you.”
“Who are you to determine that?” Diana asked, then spun to her mother. “Did you know?”
She shrugged. “Perhaps.”
Arthur scoffed. “She put the idea in my head and also the plan for the scandalous article about your little club.”
Any sadness she held about the demise of their relationship completely disappeared. How had she not seen this side of Arthur? The anger in her surged. “You are the source of the gossip?”
Arthur realized she hadn’t known. “It was more your mother than I.”
Diana didn’t understand why Arthur would stoop so low. “You would have married me knowing our union was only possible because of lies? Why?”
He let out a frustrated sigh. “Our marriage would have made us one of the most powerful couples in London.”
The sadness crept back, not because of the loss of her friendship with Arthur, but because he’d not even taken such drastic measures for love. He’d done it for social status. “I think it is time for you to go.”
“You don’t have to marry him. Even if you have been intimate with him, I would still wed you as long as you aren’t with child.”
Diana stared back at him, appalled and grateful she’d never accepted his suit. “Leave, Lord Tremont. I love Sebastian Devons, and he loves me. I choose him not because of some power grab but because my heart wants him.”
“Be practical.”
“Please go,” Diana said more firmly.
Arthur looked as if he wanted to say more, but he shook his head and stormed out.
“You fool,” Diana’s mother hissed.
Diana spun around. “Enough. Had I known you were scheming behind my back, I would never have felt sorry for you and agreed to let you come back to England with me.”
“Sebastian Devons is beneath you.”
Diana could stand here all day and argue with her but realized it was pointless. Nothing she said or did would change her mother or make her a better person. She stomped to the door and stopped, studying the woman who had birthed her. Diana suspected this may be the last time she saw her. She should have felt sad but felt nothing but relief. “I’m honored to be Sebastian Devons’s wife. Goodbye, Mother.”
*
Sebastian sat inMalcolm’s drawing room, smiling. His niece Penelope frowned at him and whispered loudly, “What is wrong with him?”
His brother’s wife, Sophia, shushed her. Malcolm laughed and said, “Well, tell us.”
“I have proposed to Lady Hensley, and she has accepted.”
Sophia clapped excitedly, then sprang from her chair and placed a kiss on his cheek. “That is wonderful.”
Malcolm rolled his eyes at his wife’s antics. She returned to her seat, grinning like a madwoman. His sister-in-law was mad for a love story.
“So, did she receive your letter?” Malcolm asked.
