“Then I shall do so. There are hints that the physical evidence against me—ledgers and some correspondence—appears rather damning from the outside, but I have faith that truth will triumph.” Hadley took an unconcerned sip of his whisky.
Isolde couldn’t share her father’s nonchalance. She had read enough of history to understand that Truth did not always prevail. Generally, Truth required action and a well-planned counter-attack in order to carry the day.
“My greater worry at the moment,” Hadley continued, brow knitting, “is Catriona’s upcoming wedding. Alderton is a bit of a stickler, and he has voiced concern over this turn of events.”
Isolde pressed a hand to her stomach, as if that would somehow calm the nausea churning there.
Catriona and Barnie.
How could she not have anticipated that connection?
“Is the wedding likely tae be called off?” she asked.
“Possibly. Alderton made it clear tae myself last night that he refuses to permit his heir to marry into a ‘family of disgrace,’ as he terms it.”
Isolde’s chest felt wedged beneath a boulder.
“I should never have encouraged Mr. Jarvis’s suit. This whole affair began with my poor decisions.” She drained her whisky in one long gulp, setting throat to coughing.
“Och, Izzy, ye take too much upon your shoulders. I could have denied your request with Jarvis. But ye ken I like tae invest when theprospect looms bright.” Hadley shook his head. “All will come right in the end. In the meanwhile, dinnaefashyourself.”
“How . . . can I . . . not? I was . . . the catalyst,” she managed to say between gasping coughs. “If I hadn’t nagged ye about Jarvis and vouched for him. If I hadn’t made the looming returnsseembright—ye would never have invested in the first place.”
Anxiety buzzed under her skin, wasps swarming and eager to sting. What was to be done?
“Izzy, despite the guilt ye feel, I am a man who owns his decisions. Could I have researched Jarvis and his plans a wee bit more afore giving him money—”
“But ye didn’t, because ye trusted myself.”
“It seemed a sound investment at the time. To be honest, I had been exploring building a similar railroad. Then the opportunity with Jarvis landed, and it was simpler to pass off the minutiae of managing it to him. By the time I realized Jarvis had been such a blackguard to yourself, it was too late for my investment tae be returned. So I chalked it up to a lesson learned and moved on.”
“But now Jarvis’s fraud has implicated yourself.”
“Aye, as I said earlier, something like this was bound tae happen eventually. There are too many in Lords who are jealous or who wish to promote their own preeminence by taking a swipe at mine. How else is Kendall tae convince the Queen he has the mettle to become Prime Minister?”
Kendall’s name dropped into the conversation with a nearly audiblethunk.
“Kendall?!” Isolde could hear the outrage in her voice. “What does Kendall have tae do with this?”
“He is leading the charge, as it were. He was the first to bring forth accusations against Jarvis and then myself. Now, he is rallying votes for impeachment.”
Kendallwas the source of all this?
Oh!
Isolde pressed a hand to her stomach again, fearing she would be sick in truth.
A miasma of regret and horror and fury flooded her veins.
So . . . her father’s situationwasentirely her fault in the end.
Kendall had read her correspondence with Jarvis. Consequently, he knew that Hadley was Jarvis’s first credible investor. And Kendall, the blackguard, had used that information as the starting point for his own investigation.
Guilt and fury pricked her skin.
Of course, the duke’s irrational hatred of their family would reach such heights. He would see Hadley gaoled on trumped-up charges. He would destroy Catriona’s happily-ever-after.
How dare he!
