“How?”
“She hears the servants talking! Of course she has heard. She isn’t dim-witted. Far from it.”
“I didn’t think—how would she—who here would talk to her about such a thing?”
“No one. That’s the problem. She has overheard everything and been told nothing. And it needs to end. I won’t stand for it.”
Shewasangry, he realized, but not because Henrietta was too taxing. No, she was angry on Henrietta’sbehalf.
“We need to discuss it with her. Andyes, I will be there, because I told her I would be. I am not going to let you make a hash of it. I don’t care if you think I am not good enough to guide her. We will discuss it with herandtell her what she can expect from society when she goes into it.”
“You thinkIdon’t think you’re good enough to tutor my sister?”
“You made that very clear this morning.”
“No, not at all.” He had no idea how he had managed to give that impression, when his true feelings could not be more opposite. “That was not what I meant. I only wanted you to wait to speak with her about the scandal.”
“Well, she already knows.”
She looked magnificent in her anger. She was pacing in front of him, her hair coming out of its pins, her hands shaking as she gesticulated.
“I can prepare her and give her strategies. I have a few ideas for how we can make it easier for her, butreally, John, how could you have never talked to her? Or your father? You described this innocent little girl, but she is nearly a woman and a smart, resourceful one at that.”
“Alright,” he snapped, rankled with his father—and himself. How could the old man not have noticed? How could he himself have been so naïve? He saw it now.
“I’m not going to let happen to that sweet girl what happened to me. She doesn’t deserve it—no one does—butespeciallynot her. She’s been through enough.”
John drew a shallow breath. She was right. He had been a fool not to understand that his sister knew about the scandal, that he wasn’t protecting her, but harming her with his silence. Still, that was not what stole his breath. It was Catherine, how she was claiming Henrietta, how she wanted to protect her.
She looked at him, panting slightly from the exertion of her insistence. He stared back, watching how her bottom lip rose and fell.
And then he realized what she had said.
“Happened toyou? What happened to you?”
Panic thrummed through his veins at the idea of her in pain. He would kill anyone who had harmed her in the past. Track them down and tear them limb from limb.
Catherine looked at him like he was cracked.
“My season was a disaster, of course. All the whispers, the implications, the pity. I was hardly ever asked to dance. I was either ignored or met with sneers. The worst was how everyone just stared. As if I were her. Mary.”
“You must have had suitors.”
“No dowry and a cursed name,” she said dryly. “Oh yes, I had many.”
“But you’re beautiful.”
“Don’t,” she said, her voice a warning. For the first time all morning, he saw real pain flicker across her face.
“Why? Youarebeautiful.”
“Not beautiful enough.”
Her words cut through him. She was wrong. Beautiful wasn’t enough to describe her.
She was absolutely magnificent.
She was luminous.
