“Arrogance? Conceit? Holier-than-thou attitude?” Emma suggested.
Mrs. McLeod’s lips twitched. “Given your short acquaintance, you seem to know him well.”
“One doesn’t have to be acquainted with his grace long to glean those facts.”
“Be that as it may, arrogance doesn’t make a man capable of murder. Strathaven is McLeod’s brother, and I cannot believe a man who shares my husband’s blood could do anything so vile.” Mrs. McLeod’s expression grew somber. “Furthermore, the duke once did me a great favor, one I’ll never be able to repay. I do not speak of that time,”—shadows flitted through her violet gaze—“but in truth, McLeod and I owe him our very happiness. Strathaven does have a heart; he’s not as wicked as he likes to have others believe.”
Emma tried to digest that notion. Could that bepossible? Uneasily, she turned the facts over in her mind, saw the duke overpowering his victim in the garden, heard Lady Osgood’s pleas for mercy...
“Sometimes things are not as they appear.” Mrs. McLeod gave a delicate cough. “Lovers, for instance, might engage in, er, behavior that could seem… odd. To an onlooker, I mean.”
Perplexed, Emma said, “Marianne was trying to explain this earlier.”
“With no more luck than you, Annabel.” Briskly, Marianne said, “To be blunt, Emma, some men have a need for control more than others. The duke is said to be such a man.”
Strathaven’s voice echoed in Emma’s head.I’m going to do whatever I want. And you’re going to enjoy it.She shuddered. She had no doubts whatsoever that the duke was a dominating brute.
“Which is why he must be stopped,” she said fiercely. “So he cannot hurt anyone else again.”
“But, you see, there are ladies who don’t, ahem, mind such behavior from a man,” Mrs. McLeod said, her cheeks reddening. “In fact, they might welcome it.”
Incredulity and confusion filled Emma; what the other was saying didn’t make an ounce of sense.“That’s ridiculous. Lady Osgood wasbeggingfor mercy. I heard her.”
“Are you certain it wasn’t part of a lovers’ game? Perhaps you misunderstood—”
“I misunderstood nothing.” She might not be as sophisticated or beautiful as the other two, but her senses were fully functioning. “I know what I witnessed. Nothing can change those facts, and I’ll not take back the truth.”
The ladies exchanged glances.
With a sigh, Mrs. McLeod said, “My brother-in-law is an odd, haughty gentleman, one who does not march to anyone’s drum but his own. I urge you, however, to reconsider what you witnessed and to ask yourself if youtrulysaw the duke hurting Lady Osgood in any way.”
Emma frowned as the events replayed in her head. Lady Osgood hadbeggedStrathaven to stop, and she’d been tied up, blindfolded... Yet had Emma seen any real evidence of injury? Had she witnessed the duke lay a hand on the lady?
No, but that is because I prevented it... didn’t I?
Mrs. McLeod leaned forward, took one of Emma’s cold hands in both of her own. “A man’s life is at stake. Despite his faults and devil-may-care attitude, Strathaven has suffered much. A little over two years ago, he lost his wife and son in a grievous accident.”
Emma’s heart skipped a beat. He’d had ason? “But they say he was cruel to his wife,” she blurted. “That she died fleeing him.”
“Where did you hear that?” Marianne said.
“Rosie,” Emma admitted.
Marianne’s gaze cast heavenward. “My daughter may think she’s an expert on theton, but she is only sixteen. At that age, she and her friends are as impressionable as wax. Believe me, she doesn’t know half as much as she believes she does.”
“So the rumors aren’t true?”
“Years ago, I met the Duchess of Strathaven. She was undoubtedly beautiful: a blond, blue-eyed angel. Theton—and gentlemen in particular—adored her.” Marianne’s eyes narrowed. “Beneath Lady Laura’s charming exterior, however, I sensed a manipulative nature. I cannot say whether the vitriol she spewed about the duke was true or not, only that her own behavior was far from blameless.”
Leaning forward, Mrs. McLeod added, “It is a little known fact—and I would prefer it remain that way—that the duchess was once engaged to Mr. McLeod.”
Emma’s jaw slackened. “What?”
“She met Strathaven at her own engagement party to Mr. McLeod and promptly jilted one sibling for the other. The duke must shoulder his share of the blame, of course, yet what sort of a woman would come between two brothers?” Mrs. McLeod said with distaste.
Mind whirling, Emma struggled to absorb the new facts. She recalled something else Rosie had mentioned. “What about the heirs? The two who were ahead of Strathaven in the succession and who mysteriously died?”
“My daughter was your source again?” Marianne said dryly.
