“No,” he exclaimed in shock. “God above, no! Never! Not a word of that is true!”
For a long moment they looked at each other, he in dismay, she in shock. Then she gave a gasp of laughter, then another. “I know,” she gasped, holding her side. “I knew you couldn’t have done that!”
Impetuously he charged across the room to her and seized her hand. “Who said I did? Tell me, and I will?—”
She laid her other hand across his mouth. “Never mind them,” she whispered, still smiling. “They don’t matter.”
“You believe me?” he asked cautiously.
She nodded. “I told myself to be on guard, because men have lied to me and I believed them, to my detriment. But Idobelieve you. I can see all of it happening just as you said, and I couldn’t say that for the rumors.” She put her hands on his cheeks and leaned in to kiss him lightly. “Forgive me for doubting you.”
“Forgive me for giving you cause,” he said, kissing her again, feverishly. “Forgive me for being so stupid?—”
She laughed. “You haven’t been any more foolish than I have been. Oh, Richard.” She let him pull her into his arms, and as she rested her cheek on his shoulder, the tension seemed to drain out of him. He held her close, gently, breathing deeply of her soft perfume.
After a moment she raised her head to look at him. “Tell me, please. Fanny and my sister-in-law told me what some of the gossip is. I would like to know the truth.”
“I will tell you only because I keep no secrets from you.” He drew a breath. “Halesworth called you names: Lady Lightskirt. The Countess Courtesan. He said you were an enthusiastic... whore, and he suggested forming a club of men who had—who had?—”
“Been my lovers?” Evangeline’s mouth twisted. She sighed. “What a mistake I made with Halesworth. I wonder if he ever managed to pay his debts, after I refused.” Richard glanced at her in astonishment, and she nodded, two spots of color in her cheeks. “It was a long time ago,” she said quietly. “Not long after Court... Well, I was widowed, and somehow a rumor got around that Court had left me an enormous fortune. It wasn’t true, of course—he left my widow’s portion and no more. I suspect his heir started the story because Court had drained his own fortune pursuing various pleasures, and the heir preferred to think I’d made off with his money rather than that it was gone on drink and cards.
“But obviously Halesworth put enough credence in that rumor to have a go.” For a moment she was quiet, her face shadowed with hurt. “He was so engaging and solicitous, in the beginning,” she said with some bitterness. “I thought, perhaps he would be different... But he wasn’t. He expected me to paynearly twenty thousand pounds in gaming debts. He was... He didn’t take it well when I refused.”
Richard had to will his breathing to stay regular. He wished hehadshot Halesworth, or at least cut him. Evangeline stepped back and he let her go. Belatedly he realized there was a desperate scratching at the door, which Evangeline opened. Louis burst into the room, leaping and barking frantically. She scooped up the dog and sat on the sofa, hugging him to her bosom while the Pomeranian licked her hand.
“I suppose I should tell you the rest,” Evangeline said, sounding self-conscious and resigned. “Perhaps it will give you a disgust of me, but you might as well hear it now.”
He sat beside her and gripped her free hand. “Never,” he vowed in a low voice.
“Well.” Flustered, she stroked Louis’s head until his eyes closed in satisfaction. “I had a flirtation with Sir Elias Burton, but he turned out to be a man after Court’s heart, not mine. Fortunately I discovered it before things had progressed too far. He got his parlor maid with child and sacked the young woman when she began to increase. I called him a lecherous goat and refused to see him ever again.” She took a deep breath. “The poor girl. He’d turned her out without a reference, and I still suspect he coerced her. He was very handsome and couldn’t believe any woman wouldn’t yield to him.”
She sighed again. “And then there was Ramsdale, who decided he was in love with me and refused to take no for an answer. He persisted until he frightened me. I tried to persuade him kindly, and then firmly, but in the end my brother had to speak to him. I don’t know what George told him, but he finally went away.” She looked at him. “And that’s all, the complete, wretched history of my unlucky love life.”
“Until me.” He brought their clasped hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “I will never betray you like they did.”
Her fingers tightened in his. “No?”
He shook his head. “I swear it.”
She bit her lip and leaned against him. It felt so good, so right; his eyes burned, and he kissed the top of her head before he could stop himself.
“I admire this dress,” he said. “It suits you.”
Her expression grew a shade brighter. “Do you? Your Mr. Salvatore made it, with Mrs. Hutchins’s oversight.”
“The man is a genius,” he declared. “First waistcoats, and now gowns worthy of the most beautiful woman in London.”
She smiled a little. “Would you really have faced Halesworth over pistols?”
“I would. Gerhard stepped in. As he keeps telling you, he has saved me many times.”
She gripped his hand tighter. “You think Halesworth might have prevailed?”
“No. I would have shot him in the heart and been obliged to go abroad again. That is what Gerhard saved me from, not death.” He kissed her soft hair again. “I have no desire to go abroad. Not while you are here.”
She looked up at him, misty-eyed, and he kissed her mouth. It was all that needed to be said.
That night he stayed to dinner. He didn’t go home until after breakfast, and within days that became their pattern. He walked to her house through the woods, and she beamed with joy when he arrived. Sometimes she would walk over to Humberton Hall for tea, or they would share a picnic by the pond while the dogs splashed in the water. Hercule loved the water, while Louis danced along the edge, barking in excitement and making them both laugh until their sides hurt. It was more than enough for him, even if all of London called him a savage and a maniac.
