“Sheis going to give me the answers I want regardingFather’s disappearance.”
Amelia lifted her chin. “They won’t be anything but lies! He ran off with the chit and scandalized the family name. Honestly, Travell.” She rolled her eyes. “What good can possibly come from revisiting the past?”
He considered the best way to approach the subject, but since he could see no other way around it, he said, “I didn’t tell you everything aboutFather’s return.” He lowered his voice so that his next words wouldn’t travel to Sophie’s ears. “He’s…confused.”
“I’m sure,” his mother returned sourly. “As am I!”
“No.” He sighed. “I mean, he’smad.”
Amelia blinked as understanding finally dawned. She put a hand to her chest and breathed, “Dear Heavens.”
“Indeed,” Travell concurred. “Now perhaps you will see why I need to find out what happened to him.I’ve been employing the services of a mesmerist, but—”
Her mouth fell open. “His condition has been madepublic?”
Travell set his hands on his hips. “Tell me that isn’t what concerns you the most about this entire situation.”
“Well, I—”She broke off and tried again. “After all you did to restore the Abernathy name, I should hate to see it destroyed by your father’s abrupt resurgence.” She sniffed and Travell handed her a handkerchief. She dabbed at her eyes and added, “It isn’t as if he cares about what happens to any of us after what he’s put us through!”
“Lord Trenton didn’t leaveof his own volition.”
Travell and his mother glanced sharply at Sophie. She was still seated in the chair by the desk, her face in profile, but now she turned to look at them. She removed her bonnet andhe clenched his jaw, for shehadrevealedtheexact shade of chestnut he’d loathed for nearly a decade.
Other than Alyssa’sbrunette locks, which made him itch to run his fingers through her silken tresses, any other woman he encounteredover the yearswithsimilardark hairhadmade him cringe.It was one of the reasons he’d always preferred blond or red-haired mistresses.
“What do you mean?” Amelia demanded.“Of course he did. He went to great lengths to tell me that he was in love with you and that you were going to have a family of your own.”
Sophie shook her head. “It was all a lie. I made him believe that I was with child, when it wasn’t true. We’d never even had an affair, butonce the poison began to take effect, it was easy enough to convince himinto thinkingthat we had.”
“Why did you do it?”Travell asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I had no choice.” Sophie’s lips drew into a tight line. “Lady Fremont found out about my affair with…”She swallowed heavily.“…with one of herhousemaids, and threatened to turnherout if I didn’t do as she asked.I couldn’t do that to Amy.”
Travell’s eyebrows winged upward.This certainly put a new twist on things. If Sophie was in love with another woman, then it was highly unlikely that she’d everwished to seduce his father. “Do you know what Lady Fremont told you to give him?”
“No. She just handed me a bottle that she’d procured from India. Each night I was instructed to put a few drops in his tea.But I believe it contained opium.”
Travell wasn’t surprised at this. It had always been a high commodity. Doctors continued to use the highly addictive drug on their patients. But at least he knew why laudanum had been the only thing that had calmed his father.
Even so, it still left one important question unanswered. “What makes no sense is Lady Fremont’s decision to ruin my father.”
“She wasn’t trying to ruin him,” his mother rasped. “She wanted to strike back atme.” She put a hand to her chest and slumped back against the settee. She closed her eyes momentarily, and then opened them to look at Travell, a pleading look in her gaze. “I fear this is all my fault. When Sophie was hired as a scullery maid, I could tell that your father had an immediate interest in her.I was jealous, so one night, when I’d had a bit too much Madeira,I caught the attention of another man—”She shook her head andbroke off, butTravell had a good idea of what she would reveal next. “Lord Fremontwas handsome and charming and before I knew it one thing led to another and…”She waved her hand. “I’m sure I don’t have to reveal all the details, but we embarked on a short affair. It was very discreet and only lasted a few weeks.” She sobbed into her handkerchief. “I only did it to lash out at your father, but it appears I’ve done him a terrible injustice.It appearshe’s paid the price for my misdeeds.”
This sparked another query,and Travell looked at Sophie. “All this time I imagined that my father had absconded with you somewhere on the continent, but since that’s not the case, do you mind telling me wherehe’sbeen for the pastsevenyears?”
Sophietwisted her hands in her lap.“I persuaded Lord Trenton to run away with me thenightof Lady Triana’s ball,saying that I would…kill our child if he didn’t leave everything. He finally acquiesced.” Her voice turned harsh. “Lady Fremont met us in the alley. Once we were there, he became irrational, demanding to know what was going on. I urged him to calm down, claiming that she was merely escorting us to the border to ensure we arrived in Scotland safely. Come morning, we had deposited him at Ticehurst.”
Travell could feel his eye start to twitch. “You committed my father to amentalhospital?”
Amelia instantly broke out into another round of wailing.
“Ididn’t!” Sophie cried. “It was Lady Fremont who convinced the overseer that he was her brother!”
“They didn’t think to question her?Or gain proof of her claims?” Travell shot back.
Sophie’s face twisted in disgust.“She had plenty of coin at her disposalso I guessthey didn’tfeel they had the need to do so.”
Travell ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes. He couldn’t even imagine the sort of horrors that his father had witnessed.After seven years in an asylum, there was a good chance that Lord Trenton might never fully recover.“So that’s where he’s been allthese years?” He didn’t even recognize his voice, it was so jagged with the knowledge that his father had been nothing more than an innocent pawn in this sick, twisted game of revenge.
