He blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me correctly.” She dropped her hand away and stared at him. “Kit! That was a lifetime ago. In the heat of one of the worst moments for me, yes, but clearly in the heat of one of her worst, too.”
“Meg,” he began, though he had no idea how he would argue his case because the fact was that he knew Meg was correct.
She waved a hand to silence him. “After that night, Sarahneverhad a real chance in Society again. Simon must have felt like her last hope. And while I am very glad she did not succeed in her pursuit, I am certainly sorry that it led her to this.”
“This?” he repeated. “Working for me?”
“Her mother dead, her fortune gone, her future uncertain,” Meg said gently. “She has been through a great deal in those intervening years. More than enough to pay penance for any rudeness she might have exhibited. Even if she hadn’t, I would never have requested, nor required, that you hold that night over her head for the rest of her life.”
Kit stared off toward the lake. Sarah and his sister were boarding Phoebe’s insisted-upon boat now. Somehow Sarah had gotten her to laugh, and his heart warmed. But also sank. Meg was taking him to task for a behavior he had convinced himself was earned by Sarah’s actions. A loyalty to his friends had driven him, after all.
Meg said it was not required.
To assuage the guilt that followed that realization, he set his jaw. “Whether or not you forgave the young lady,” he said, “that doesn’t change her behavior. I…I was not wrong in believing her to be capable of…bad acts.”
Meg stared at him, unblinking for a moment, and then she shook her head. “Oh.”
“Oh?” he repeated, not liking the brightness that had entered her dark eyes. “What doesohmean?”
“I see it now. How could I have been so blind not to see it before?” she muttered, perhaps more to herself than to Kit.
He lifted both brows. “Would you like to explain yourself or should I go so you can finish the conversation that has nothing to do with me?”
“You weren’t angry about what she said to me,” Meg said softly. “You never were.”
“Of course I was. It was untoward and unacceptable,” he said.
“Well, I suppose that her sharpness with me didn’t help, butthatwasn’t what drew you to such a prolonged and uncharacteristic reaction.”
He shook his head. “You aren’t making sense. What are you talking about?”
Meg leaned in. “You didn’t like it that Sarah was pursuingSimon.”
He let out his breath in a huff. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“That’s it,” Meg said. Her tone had gentled and she reached out to squeeze his arm. “You were jealous.”
“You’re being absurd.” He snatched his arm from her grip and drew back from her, nearly depositing himself into the water to avoid her pointed accusation. The one that didn’t feel as absurd as it should.
“Kit,” she said, reaching out once more. This time she covered his hand with hers. “Sarah only pursued Simon in desperation, you had to know that. Certainly you must know it now, after watching the terrible consequences to her father’s behavior and her mother’s death play out.”
He stared at her and then let his gaze flit back to Sarah. She and Phoebe had begun to row out to the lake now. Even from a distance, he could hear Phoebe hooting in pleasure as Sarah slowly worked the paddles.
Meg was being ridiculous, of course. He had noticed Sarah before that night at the ball when he heard her nasty words. How could one not? She was pretty and accomplished. But he had noticed many a lady over the years. Sarah had never been anything special.
When he learned she’d been invited to James and Emma’s country party, he hadn’t been disappointed. And hehadwatched her with Simon, at the party where he and Meg had nearly brought their entire club to its knees with scandal. Had Kit liked seeing her in his handsome friend’s arms?
It hadn’t mattered. He didn’t recall it mattering, at least not much. Meg was wrong. She was just…wrong.
He was about to tell her so, too. To set her straight so that this ridiculous notion wouldn’t take root in the group of his friends and make them play matchmaker or worse. Only he didn’t get the chance. Before he could say a word, he heard a sound that turned his blood to ice.
It was Matthew, and he was screaming. “Don’t let her stand up! She’s rocking the boat! Stop her!”
Kit pivoted. Out in the middle of the lake, a nightmare scene began to play out in slow motion. Phoebe had risen from her place, off balance in the small boat. As Sarah lunged for her, the entire contraption capsized and both of them disappeared from view.
Kit yelped out a sound of terror, and then he and Matthew were running. Into the water, swimming toward them. And he could only pray they would not be too late.
