“Shall I try this again.” James approached and took her hand in his. “I’ve not stopped loving you Diana. I tried, but it is not to be.” He cleared his throat. “With Lynwood’s permission, of course, would you consent to be my bride?”
She wanted to screamyes, but she couldn’t. “I’m sorry, Lord Somerton, but I heard more that evening.” Her face heated once again. “Dreadful things that I willneverever repeat and wish I could forget, and for those reasons, I fear I cannot agree to be your wife.” With that she yanked her hand from his and ran from the room. In fact, she ran all the way back to Hollybrook with the knights hounding her the entire way. But as much as they begged, she couldn’t tell them the truth any more than she could tell Somerton.
If only he had claimed what she heard were just rumors, she might have believed him. But, as Somerton admitted he had planned to remain a bachelor for so long, and he didn’t deny his mother’s intentions. The only thing the gentlemen had gotten wrong was the reason he courted her in the first place. However, as everything else was correct then she could only surmise that the most horrible thing she’d heard—the one that involved her mother—was true as well.
Chapter 12
What the blazeshad just happened? What had he done that was so dreadful she could not speak of it?
James looked to Lynwood. “Do you know what she is talking about?”
“I haven’t a clue.”
James pushed his fingers through his hair and wandered back to the settee and fell onto it. “She’s maddening!”
“I’ve always believed so, but she is my sister, so there is that.” Lynwood took a seat across from James. “Were you serious about marrying her, of loving her, or did those words come about because I walked in to find my sister on your lap being kissed quite thoroughly.”
James groaned. Did nobody in the Vail family trust him? “I’d not lie about something so important.”
Lynwood simply nodded, leaned back and folded his arms across his chest and studied James. “You’ve no idea what Diana believes is too horrendous to overcome?”
“I’ve not the foggiest idea,” James admitted. “You’ve known me for years. Can you think of anything I might have done that she finds so offensive?”
“You’ve done nothing worse than most bachelors.” Lynwood frowned. “Actually, there are many who have done far worse, so I’ve no idea what Diana has gotten into her head now.”
James leaned forward. “Can you perhaps find out for me? I’ve no way of combatting what other rumor she heard without knowing what it is.”
“I’ll try my best,” Lynwood offered. “But don’t anticipate an answer.”
“Why?” Certainly, she’d tell her brother, wouldn’t she?
“I knew of your courtship of Diana in London. In fact, I received letters almost daily advising me of the progress.”
This took him aback. “Who wrote to you?” It couldn’t have been Diana’s mother. The woman never supervised her daughters. In fact, she carried on as if she had no children, so James couldn’t imagine who else might have taken an interest to inform the viscount.
“My wife’s brother,” Lynwood answered. “Redgrave.
Now that he thought about it, Viscount Redgrave was often about with his wife, and always near Diana and her sisters, but James hadn’t given it much thought.
“Her mother was never a very good chaperone,” Lynwood explained.
That was common knowledge of anyone in London. The woman had always been far more interested in taking a lover to her bed than protecting and chaperoning her daughters during the Season.
“And as I couldn’t be present this spring, I found someone I could trust to watch over my sisters.”
“That still doesn’t explain why Diana won’t tell you my apparent sins.”
“Because when she returned from London, I asked about you and she forbade me, or anyone else, from ever speaking your name.”
James let his head fall back against the seat. “Blast it all.”
“Yes, well,” Lynwood stood. “I’ll still ask, but don’t hold out any hope that I’ll learn anything.”
“You must know what you did,” Lady Isolda insisted as she materialized after Lynwood had left.
“I honestly have no idea.”
The ghost frowned. “None?”
