“Yes, I know.”
“Lady Millicent has obviously lived a different life for some time. After all, it has been—what? Four years since you last saw her. The changes have been dramatic, and not for the better. I would also stake your stallion on there being no other man.”
“Why are you staking my stallion and not yours?”
“I own a mare. However, the point here is that you need to do something to bring this to a resolution, Joseph, before someone else recognizes her. Especially if you intend to bring her back into society.”
“That decision is not mine alone.”
Joseph felt his brother’s eyes on him.
“You’re still angry with her,” Rory said softly.
“I was angry that she left with another man, but if that is not true, then I am angry that she did not come to me with her reasons for leaving. I could have helped her, stood beside her, or done what needed to be done.”Whatever that was.
“Which suggests that the reasons she ran from you, the man she loved, were very powerful, and indeed life threatening.”
“I think we’ve discussed this enough,” Joseph said, not wanting to continue, because the thought of Milly forced out in the world alone was not an easy one to contemplate. How had she suffered? Had Milly cried alone? Had she been abused and mistreated? The thought made him furious. Had she thought about him?
“As least she is safe for now with the Wimplestow family. They may be unorthodox and....”
“Grubby,” Joseph supplied.
“The very word. But they are kindhearted, and will treat her as part of their family. They have no notion how to treat servants other than as one of their own.”
“It is a trait to be commended.”
“Do you know, Joseph, I believe it is.”
“Keep this information about Milly to yourself for now, Rory. I am unsure how to proceed at this point.”
“Find the truth, Joseph. Should she wish it, she could return to society, especially if she has support from people. Even if it is her ex-betrothed.”
He didn’t add anything to those words, because Joseph had mulled these details over also and come up with no definite solution to the problem.
“Go and dance with Apple-blossom now, brother.”
Rory’s sigh was loud. “If I must. I only wish I had placed reinforcements in my boots.”
Joseph watched his brothers for a while, but knew he would not be alone for long, and so he moved. He walked slowly around the room until he came up on Milly from the right; as luck would have it, her head was turned to the left. She was standing alone, looking like an outcast while around her people chatted and laughed.
“Do you dance, Miss Higglesworth?”
She turned to face him and then took a step backward, placing a good distance between them.
“Good evening, Lord Ellsworth.”
“Do you dance?” he said again.
“I do not. Nor will I, and please leave at once, before someone should see us talking.”
“Why can we not talk?” Joseph knew the answer but didn’t give a damn about it. She was still wearing her disguise. Glasses, padding in the cheeks; it was remarkable how unattractive those things could make her, and yet Joseph still felt a stirring inside him as he looked at her.
“Because we cannot. Now please go away.”
Her eyes were flitting from him to the room and back.
“I’m not sure you should be speaking to me, an earl, like that.”
