Finally, just when his patience was waning, she returned, concern in her expression.
“Come,” she said, linking her arm through his as they quickly walked down the path, agreeing without discussion that they should leave the park.
When they appeared to be completely alone, she looked up at him. “The ladies were discussing rumors about you.”
“Aboutme?”
“That you were seen alone together with Lady Evelyn at the Spring Soiree shortly before the chandeliers were lit. Another said that she fainted once they were lit, and you carried her out.”
“That’s ridiculous,” he blustered.
“Of course it is,” she said. “Someone is spreading rumors. They say that you have wanted the diamond for yourself, and that you know more about the theft than you let on. They also wonder how a bluestocking like Lady Evelyn could ever catch your attention.
“She’s a bluestocking?”
“That is the part of the conversation which concerns you?” Thalia gaped at him. “Oh, Asher, perhaps youareinterested in her.”
Joy lit her features, and Asher quickly shook his head, not wanting Thalia to get any hopes up that he was interested in settling down withanyyoung woman.
His frustration grew, not because he was involved in rumors about Lady Evelyn. It was that he was slowly losing any control he ever thought he had.
The next day,Evelyn joined her father for breakfast, finding him already poring over the scholarly journals that had arrived that morning. He was an academic man, one who would have been suited for a way of life outside of the aristocracy. He still reluctantly saw to all of his responsibilities in Parliament and to those involving his estate, but he far preferred to be in London, near his academic societies and research libraries.
Evelyn didn’t much care where they resided, as long as her father continued to allow her the freedom to study as she pleased and did not force any potential suitors on her. He often said that he wanted to see her looked after, but she had a feeling he didn’t like the idea of being without someone to look afterhim.
In companionable silence, they each ate their breakfast, drank their tea, and read their papers.
Her father reached for the lemon scones, setting one on Evelyn’s plate before she could ask.
“You almost forgot one,” he said mildly before returning to the paper.
Evelyn smiled despite herself. He noticed more than people gave him credit for.
The easy conversation was shattered when Evelyn jumped in surprise as her father slammed down the paper.
“What’s wrong?” she said, staring at him in surprise as he glared downward. Her father sometimes had fits of frustration when a project didn’t go his way, but he usually tried to keep such displays of anger from her.
“You are in the gossip column.”
“What?” she said, her eyes widening in surprise. “I didn’t even know you read the gossip column.”
“I peruse it,” he admitted. “But that is not what is at issue here. It says that you were seen with the Duke of Ravenscar. Alone. Multiple times — at the Spring Soiree by the Paragon Diamond, and again on Bond Street.”
Evelyn’s spine stiffened. While both had some truth to them, they were completely isolated, innocent incidences.
“That is ridiculous,” she said. “I have never been the subject of gossip before, nor is there any reason for me to be.”
“This is intolerable, Evelyn,” her father said, any semblance of the mild scholar having vanished. “You were alone with him? How could this happen?”
Evelyn forced herself to take a breath before responding. How could her father so readily believe a gossip column?
“Father,” she said in as calm a manner as she could manage, “I barely know the duke, and I believe the only words we exchanged at the Spring Soiree were a ‘pardon me,’ as I steppedby him. Then I was speaking with him while I waited for you outside of Mr. Pine’s office. But that is all.”
“That is not what thetonbelieves.”
“What does that matter? We know the truth.”
“My academic reputation depends on us being unattached to scandal, Evelyn, to say nothing of your own prospects.”
