That made sense and it calmed Evelina a little. “No. You’re right. Still, I need to ask her. To look her in the face and see that she didn’t try to protect me even while she left me open to such a horrible revelation.”
The sisters stared at each other a moment and Julia shivered. “Oh, Evie, is it true? Could the duke have done such a thing?”
“It’s alie!” she said. “Harry may be many things, I may not understand his motives in ending things with me, but I cannot and I willnotbelieve that he would be so cruel as to take his friend’s wife in such a public manner. He is not so craven as that.”
Julia didn’t seem fully convinced, but she asked, “And who told you?”
“Blackburn himself.”
“Oh.”
Her sister’s gaze dropped away and Evelina folded her arms. “Why do you say it like that? Whyohlike you pity me?”
Julia shifted on the carriage seat. “I-I only wonder what motive the earl would have for lying. The scandal around him is so loud and horrible already that it will likely never be fully forgotten. Why would he add to it?”
Evelina shifted. She didn’t want to consider that very rational question overly long. Or think about the true pain and burning rage in Blackburn’s startling green eyes when he told her.
“Well…” She tried to find a reason. “As you say, the scandal is complete anyway. Why wouldn’t he say something so horrible about the countess, even if just to form some kind of sympathy for himself?”
“But haven’t he and Harry known each other since school?” Julia asked. “Why would he be so cruel to his old friend? You knew him a bit before, was that his character?”
“No.” There was no hesitation to her answer. As much as she wanted to paint Blackburn with a liar’s brush, she couldn’t act as though he hadn’t always been decent and honorable in any interaction she’d exchanged with him. He’d actually always been her favorite amongst Harry’s friends. The one she enjoyed talking to and interacting with most.
But to believe Blackburn to be honest was far more painful than to think she’d simply misjudged him for years.
“Perhaps he’s been misled,” she said, trying to find some middle ground where they could both be right. “Told this untruth by some third party in order to put a wedge between him and his dearest friend in a time of need. There are some who might find sport in such behavior. The men of thetoncan be wretched.”
“That is certainly true,” Julia said softly, and then took Evelina’s hand. “One way or another, we’ll determine the truth of it. I’ve been out of the courtesan network loop these past weeks as I’ve settled in with Laurence, and I know Arabella is still solely focused on Silas and the life they’re building, but no one can get to the crux of a rumor faster than our dear sister.”
“Yes,” Evelina said, and yet she felt dread not anticipation of that fact. A deep fear that Blackburn hadn’t been lying. That the very small shreds she had left from her life with Harry were about to be burned at last, disintegrated on a fire of humiliation and lies and pain.
The carriage slowed as it turned into the drive in front of Arabella and Silas’s new home. Evelina exited the vehicle without waiting for assistance and hardly looked up at the lovely white brick-faced home with its latticed terraces and brightly painted shutters.
She pushed past Barnaby, Arabella’s longtime butler who had gone with her to the new home, and strode down the hallway, Julia at her heels, saying her name, though it sounded like it was all underwater. Far away.
The door to the one of the parlors was partially shut, but there was bright light flowing from it into the hallway and Evelina went to it. She pushed inside and found her sister perched on her new husband’s lap, fingers threaded through his thick hair as he looked up at her in pure, unadulterated love and passion.
Evelina flinched and dropped her gaze. Walking in on something sensual was one thing, but intruding upon such connection felt wrong. It also made her chest ache, like she’d lost something, though she didn’t know that she’d ever felt such naked affection as what she saw on her sister’s face.
The couple glanced toward her and there was no embarrassment on their expressions. Not that there ever could be. Silas and Arabella were like two sparks who had come together in explosive flame. They gave very little care to how others saw them and were known to passionately kiss on the street, race in the parks and cackle at bawdy jokes they whispered to each other no matter the company.
Evelina had never been so happy for her sister, but at that moment she had to shove all her complicated feelings aside as Arabella slowly got up from Silas’s lap and tilted her head.
“Evie? And Julia. What in the world are you doing barging into my parlor at eleven at night?”
Silas’s gaze flitted over Evelina’s face and any softness he’d exhibited toward Arabella fled. “What’s wrong?” he asked, coming to his feet, his posture suddenly on guard.
Evelina swallowed. She’d come here to confront Arabella, but now that she was standing before her, she didn’t know how to formulate the words. How to demand answers that she didn’t truly want. That she didn’t think she could bear.
“Is it true?” she asked, and hated how her voice shook and barely carried.
“True?” Arabella repeated with a blank expression. She stepped forward slowly and reached out to take Evelina’s hand. “I don’t know what you mean, dearest.”
“Is it true?” Evelina repeated, this time sharper. “Is Harry with the Countess of Blackburn? Has he been with her since long before we parted? Is he…is he planning to marry her when this nastiness of the divorce is over?”
Arabella caught her breath as Evelina asked every pointed, painful question. She glanced at Silas and their eyes met, and in that moment Evelina had every answer she’d sought. She felt her knees give out a fraction and Silas leapt forward to catch her elbow, steady her.
She yanked away and took a long step back. “You did know!”
