“Yes,” agreed Cody, slumping into a wing chair. “It’s precisely what he would do when he knew you wanted to divorce her. What are you going to do?”
Brandon took a swallow of his drink, made a face as he realized he didn’t really want it, and set it down. “I intend to get my divorce, Cody. I do not believe I require Aurora’s consent, and her protests will not touch me. I wrote to her out of courtesy and waited for her reply out of respect to those few feelings she had. Now that I know her answer, there is no need to wait any longer. I’m going to Williamsburg at week’s end and speak to Thomas Maine. He will know what is to be done.”
“And in the meantime?”
“In the meantime she may remain here, though I will try to dissuade her. Her parents will welcome her. She has abandoned most of her pride by coming here; she can finish by going home to them.”
Brandon and Auroraate their evening meal alone in the large formal dining room. Cody preferred the company of the servants in the kitchen, and Shannon and Clara were served in the nursery. Neither Brandon nor his wife did justice to the meal Martha laid before them. Turtle soup, oysters, shad, sweetly buttered corn, and honey cakes were for the most part uneaten. Conversation lulled, as Brandon hoped it would, because of the long table separating them.
Aurora refused the sweetmeats she was offered with a small negative shake of her head, staring miserably at her plate. Martha merely snorted and placed the tray in front of Brandon. She left the room, her back stiff with resentment that Miz Rory had come to the folly.
“They all hate me, don’t they?” she murmured. “Cody. Martha. Even Clara. She hasn’t made the least attempt to see me.”
“She is with her governess in the nursery,” Brandon told her.
“Her governess? When did this come about?”
“Some months after you left me,” he said slowly, his eyes narrowing. “Are you telling me you don’t know anything about Shannon Kilmartin? I am finding that difficult to believe.”
Aurora frowned, looking down the long table in bewilderment. “I don’t understand. What is it that I’m supposed to know?” When skepticism continued to pull at the corner of Brandon’s mouth, Aurora stood and braced her arms on the table, leaning forward slightly. “Nothing will come of that look, Bran, for I have not the least idea what you are talking about,” she said, her spirit returning as she defended herself. “I know I have given you reason to doubt my word.” She ignored the derisive toss of his head. “How is it that I should know of Clara’s governess? I have left Belletraine only rarely, been visited not at all, and heard nothing of the folly this last year. And more to the point, why do I have the impression it is important to you? Have you a mistress, Brandon? Is it the governess? Is this what this is about?”
“Sit down, Aurora.” He watched her hesitate, then sit slowly, rather like a balloon being deflated. “Why have you come here now? I wrote you of my intentions more than a month ago. It would seem that Parker should have discarded you then.”
“He did,” she said. “Oh, not immediately. At first I thought it would not matter to him, and later, when I realized he would want none of me if you divorced me, I threw myself at him shamelessly, hoping he could stop you or promise to marry me. In the end he did neither.” Her voice shook and her eyes glazed with pain. “I will not insult your intelligence by saying I cared nothing for Parker. I loved him, Brandon. I begged him to let me stay, and he refused me.”
“And so you have decided that you want me now? Your nerve is not to be believed, Rory. You left me and abandoned your child. This break with Parker has cut your pride, and that is all that has been affected. If you genuinely loved him, then I am sorry for you, but not enough that it will sway me from my decision.”
Aurora’s face was ashen and she choked off the sob that rose in her breast. “No, Brandon! Oh God, please don’t do this! Is there no way I can make amends?”
Brandon watched as Aurora seemed to shatter in front of his eyes. She was like a child, vulnerable, lost, unable to acknowledge that the consequences were born of her actions.
“What is to become of me?” she said piteously.
Brandon hardened his heart. “As to that, I cannot say.” He hesitated slightly. “You can go to your parents, Aurora. They will have you, scandal or no.”
She shrank into her chair, closing her eyes briefly. The corners of her mouth were engraved with pain. “They know?”
“Yes. They visited last month. I told them I was going to divorce you.”
“Oh God,” she said softly. “I can’t go to them, Brandon. I can’t. I have caused them so much grief…and…” She paused. Her confession was made breathlessly, as if torn from her. “They are not my parents. I…they took me from my mother, who did not want her bastard.”
“You know?”
Aurora heard the inflection in his voice and realized that he was not surprised by what she said, but rather surprised that she said it.“Youknow?”
“Yes. Only recently. Paul told me.”
“But why? Why would they tell you and never me? I had to learn of it by accident.”
“So you did overhear their argument.”
“You know of that, too?”
He nodded. “Again, only recently. There were reasons why they thought it imperative to tell me the truth.”
Aurora rose from her chair and skirted the table, coming to stand near Brandon. “What reasons?”
“They met Clara’s governess,” he explained. “She is your sister, Aurora. Yourtwinsister.” He leaped to his feet, catching his wife a moment before she collapsed in a dead faint.
