“No,” she managed to say. “I always believed my husband to be a good man. Recently, however, I have learned that may have been more a cleverly crafted illusion for my benefit than the truth.”
How polite she sounded, describing George’s sins. As if he had not spent the entirety of their union—and likely before their vows had been spoken—engaged in deceit and manipulation. As if he had not been accepting payments to destroy lives and bribe others and heaven knew what else.
Primrose’s expression turned distinctly uncomfortable. “There were some rumors belowstairs. Some of the chamber maids were dismissed by Mr. Shaw directly, and the housekeeper was never told why. One of them had complained to a footman about Mr. Shaw’s conduct before she was sacked.”
Pippa felt ill. “There are some unscrupulous men who take advantage of the females in their employ. Are you saying Mr. Shaw was such a man?”
“I would never suggest it, madam.”
But her lady’s maid’s expression implied otherwise. Indeed, Pippa had known Primrose long enough to be able to read her countenance. “You are not suggesting it, Primrose. I am asking you—nay,beggingyou—for your frankness.”
Primrose fidgeted with the silk skirts of the gown she had laid out, her gaze slipping from Pippa’s. Silence fell.
“Primrose,” she prodded. “Please.”
The lady’s maid continued. “Quite a few of the chamber maids came and went quickly. Another of the footmen swore he saw Mr. Shaw… Oh, forgive me, madam, but he saw Mr. Shaw kissing Betty. And one of the scullery maids, who is no longer with us now, Louisa Bennet, claimed he caught her alone in the servants’ stair and had his way with her there.”
Good God.The blow she had been dealt the night before could not compare to this one. George had been defiling the servants, all while professing his undying love and loyalty to her. Had he forced himself upon them? Had every part of their marriage been a lie? It certainly appeared so. All the years she had been his wife now seemed nothing more than a cleverly crafted fiction in which she played the blissful fool.
How had she notknown?
Pippa was not certain which was worse—the ugly revelations Primrose had just made, the pounding in her skull, or the nausea roiling in her belly. The nausea won, for the next few moments found her retching violently into her chamber pot as her lady’s maid watched on, pale and concerned.
“I should not have told you,” Primrose worried. “Not after the attack on you last night.”
When her stomach finally ceased heaving and she could form a coherent sentence, Pippa took a slow, deep breath, trying to calm herself. But there was no calm to be had. Nor was there solace. She placed the lid carefully on the vessel, putting the evidence of her distress out of sight but not out of mind.
“I am thankful for your honesty,” she said, and that much was true.
Now that George’s manipulations and deceptions had begun to unravel, Pippa knew she needed to see them to the end. She needed answers. She had to know just how blind she had been to the monster she had married.
To the man she had believed she had loved.
To the man who had sworn he loved her.
But that had been a lie as well, had it not?
“It was not in my place to repeat such gossip,” Primrose said, sounding as stricken as she appeared. “If you wish to dismiss me, madam, I understand.”
“Never,” Pippa reassured her. “I wish you had told me sooner, but I can well understand your reason for not doing so.”
“You did not ask,” Primrose said simply.
“That was because I believed I had married a gentleman of honor who loved me as much as I loved him.” But how wrong she had been.
What if she had been wrong about Northwich as well?
“Mr. Shaw never deserved you,” Primrose said simply. “All of us could see it, madam, but it was not for any of us to say.”
“I understand, Primrose.”
And she did. For the first time since George Shaw had come into her life, Pippa understood everything, and quite clearly, too.
The man she had loved had been a monster incapable of loving anyone save himself.
And she had been too blindly trusting of him to realize it.
Chapter 9
