"Will no-one answer my question?"
"I will, Mother." Thomas did not move away from the door but stood exactly where he was, perhaps afraid that if he moved, then Tyrone would make his escape. "Yes, it is the same Miss Jennings who was Lady Prentis's companion."
"But she is only a paid companion," Lady Tyrone said, making Clara's eyebrows lift. "Why would either of you even think to connect yourself with her?"
Thomas scowled. "I did not. However, I do not agree with your assessment of her as being worth very little simply because of her standing. It was I who discovered her one afternoon, broken beyond all comprehension because of my brother's cruelty."
Lord Tyrone snorted. "Nonsense. It was the other way around. Thomas is lying to protect himself. As I have said, I sent him away so that his connection to Miss Jennings would not be discovered. I quite agree with you, Mother, we could not have a paid companion joining the ranks of our family!"
Lady Tyrone frowned. "You mean to say that you promised her marriage, Thomas?"
As Clara watched, her younger brother threw back his head and let out such a roar of frustration, it made everyone in the room jump. At the very same time, Lord Rutland rose to his feet and walked to where Lord Worthington sat. Saying a few words into his ear, Clara saw Lord Worthington nod and then, as Lord Rutland sat down beside her, excused himself from the room. She shared a glance with Lord Rutland as he took her hand in his again, understanding what he had done. Lord Worthingtonwould now go and wait for Miss Jennings' arrival. How fervently she prayed that the lady would come.
"This is all a great confusion," Lady Tyrone said, her face white now. "One of you has disgraced himself by forming a connection with a paid companion."
"And what of Miss Jennings herself?" Clara could not help but say, as her mother frowned. "You may call it a disgrace for one of my brothers to have connected himself to her but think of Miss Jennings for a moment, Mother. To have been encouraged into an affection for the gentleman, to have been promised marriage --- only to have it all pulled from her, leaving her with nothing. Can you not have any sympathy for her in that?"
It took a few moments but eventually, Lady Tyrone's gaze softened and she looked down at her hands. "I suppose that I can, yes," she said, softly. "I am all the more disappointed to hear that one of my sons has behaved so, however." Lifting her head, she looked to Lord Tyrone and then to Thomas. "I would like to hear the truth."
"As would I," Clara added. She looked long at Thomas, who was rubbing one hand over his forehead. "Miss Jennings stated that she had a connection with you, brother. Not with Tyrone, as I had first thought."
Thomas closed his eyes and dropped his hand, just as Tyrone threw up his own. "She is mistaken."
"She is not!" Lord Tyrone exclaimed. "Can you not understand, Clara? I came upon Thomas and Miss Jennings in an embrace. I was horrified, as you can imagine, and had no choice but to act. I sent Thomas away and informed Lady Prentis about what had taken place."
At this, Lord Rutland broke in. "You spoke to my aunt about the affair? Why?"
Lord Tyrone's expression darkened. "Because I did not think well of Miss Jennings. She could not be a paid companion to alady such as Lady Prentis! Not when she was so willing to throw herself into the arms of my brother!"
"But she had been promised matrimony, from what we understand," Lady Alice put in, as every eye turned to her. "She did no wrong in that. Why would you treat her with such disdain?"
Lord Tyrone wrinkled his nose. "I will have no such stain upon my family. To have a paid companion as one's betrothed would have been mortifying --- for us all, of course. Her father was disgraced and she left to dig around for whatever goodness she could get out of others! Why should I even think about such a creature when my brother is the son of a Marquess and I the Marquess myself?" The arrogance turned Clara's stomach, even as she recognized the cold logic behind it --- the same logic Josiah had confessed to understanding in the garden, and that understanding had shamed him. Tyrone felt no shame at all.
"You could have allowed them to marry all the same," Lord Rutland put in, as Clara nodded. "There may have been a disparity in their standing but if they cared for each other and there had been a formal connection, then would it not have been best to push them together instead of pulling them apart?"
Lord Tyrone's lip curled. "I do not recall asking for your opinion, Lord Rutland."
"And yet, I give it anyway," Lord Rutland responded, with just as much sharpness as her brother had sent towards him. "We are to be family after all, are we not?"
With a scowl, Lord Tyrone turned his head away from both Clara and Lord Rutland, evidently choosing to ignore his last statement. Clara's heart squeezed painfully but rather than railing at her brother for it, she used his dismissal of Lord Rutland to push into her next question. "You dismissed Thomas and thereafter, made certain that Miss Jennings was also pushed from her position. You did all you could to cover any trace ofthe connection, so that no-one could say anything about it. The matter, you supposed, was closed."
"Except it is a falsehood," Thomas said, a vein throbbing in his temple. "Our brother is more manipulative than you might like to think, Clara. He has lied and deceived you all."
"Then explain," Lady Tyrone said, her voice weak and her shoulders dropping low. "Tell us your truth."
Lord Thomas's jaw tightened. "There can only be one truth, Mother, and this is it. I came upon Tyrone and Miss Jennings in the grounds of Lord Rutland's home --- in the stables, in fact."
Clara snatched in her breath, her face burning at the picture that was being painted.
"Tyrone was furious," Thomas continued, as Lord Tyrone shook his head vehemently. "He roared that I was to say nothing to anyone about what I had seen, declared that Miss Jennings was nothing more than a distraction and that if a single word about the matter passed my lips, he would make things very difficult for me indeed." His jaw tightened, his eyes narrowing as he turned his attention to Lord Tyrone, and Clara's heart began to fill with sympathy and compassion for Miss Jennings. She was the true victim here, the one who had suffered the most --- but at whose hand?
"Miss Jennings, upon hearing all of this, let out the most desperate wail I have ever heard," Thomas continued, jabbing one finger in Lord Tyrone's direction. "She was utterly broken by all that Tyrone had declared to me. She came to him, tears pouring down her cheeks, asking him in breathless sobs about all that he had promised her. Namely, marriage, security and love."
Clara closed her eyes, pain striking at her heart.
"I told my brother precisely what I thought of him," Thomas finished. "I demanded that he make things right with the lady but by the time evening came, the matter had been dealt with--- but in the cruellest way possible. Miss Jennings was sent from the house by Lady Prentis and I was sent to Devon, to our spinster aunt there."
"In what way were you 'sent' there?" Lady Tyrone asked, sitting up a little straighter in her chair. "I do not understand. How could you be forced to do what you did not wish to?"
