James took a step back. “I’ve done no such thing.”
“Well, Miss Diana believes you have.”
“Who would start such a rumor?” James demanded.
“That I have no way of knowing but it’s the reason she rejected you. She learned that apparently while you were courting her, you were bedding her mother.”
James couldn’t believe his ears. “I did no such thing. Further, the idea never crossed my mind.”
Lady Isolda pursed her lips as if she didn’t believe him.
“I swear. I never touched that woman!” Did Diana honestly believe he’d done so?
He pushed his fingers through his hair trying to figure out where she had come up with such an idea. He barely tolerated the dowager and rarely went near her, and he certainly wouldneverbed her. The woman had taken half the men in London to her bed and James had no desire to end up with the same disease Diana’s brother had died of.
“Tell me everything she said,” James demanded.
“There was something to do with Lady Lynwood having a heightened interest in you, and a mention of a wager until one gentleman proclaimed, and I quote from Miss Vail, ‘I’m afraid the time for that wager has already passed. I heard Lady Lynwood just the other day telling my mother over tea that Somerton was the best lover she’d ever had’. Diana fears that her mother will continue to pursue you, or worse, that you’ll compare the two of them, which was suggested by another, and she doesn’t want to live her life always worried that you’d wish to be with her mother, or might return to her bed.”
“I’d become celibate before I letthatwoman near me,” James insisted and nearly shuddered. “Why in the blazes would the dowager voice such a falsehood?”
Lady Isolda simply shrugged.
Of course, she wouldn’t know, but none of this made any sense. “I can assure you that I’ve never been that woman’s lover.”
“Why would she, or anyone else, make up such a story?” Lady Isolda demanded.
That is what he’d like to know as well.
Lady Isolda glanced at the clock. “You’ve not much time to make this right.”
“Time?”
“Less than an hour. If you fail, I’m stuck here for another year, but you won’t be seeing me again because I would have failed.”
“I will try, but will she even believe me?” James stepped into the ballroom looking for answers, or someone who could assure Diana that James had never been her mother’s lover.
How could she even think such of him? Not only was he insulted, but angry as well, but James set aside those emotions as time was of the essence for Lady Isolda.
Though, did he truly have a right to be angry with Diana? Nearly everything else she’d heard that night was true, and he’d admitted to those facts, so she probably assumed the rest was true as well. “Blast it all.”
Then he spotted his mother. The woman hated Diana because she hated her mother. Was it possible…? Determination coursed through James as he strode across the ballroom.
“What are you doing?” Lady Isolda demanded as she followed.
“I simply need clarification, but if I am correct, I’ll be able to tell Diana why she’s mistaken.”
“Just hurry,” Lady Isolda called after him as he requested a private audience with his mother.
“Why do you dislike Miss Diana Vail?” he demanded once they were sequestered in a small parlor.
“It’s not so much the chit, but her ghastly mother,” his mother sniffed.
“Why, what did she ever do to you?”
“She needn’t do anything. Her reputation is poor, barely better than a harlot and I’d not have you associated with that family.”
James hated to ask this question, but he needed to know and given his mother’s hatred, suspected she knew as well. “Were her and father lovers?”
