As Jonathan walked away, Susanna beside him, he could not help but look over his shoulder to see if he might spy where Lady Evelina had gone. He did not know if he could trust her words that she was going to dance. “Well?”
Susanna shook her head. “I do not know. I saw nothing very much in her expression.”
“Nor did I.”
“We did.” Lady Ellen and Lord Kettering came to join them, their expressions grave. “My dear Susanna, I am now quite convinced that Lady Evelina is involved in this in some way. Whether she has done it all or only assisted another, I cannot ascertain, but the anger that flashed into her face when Lord Lancashire was speaking convinced me –” she looked up to Lord Kettering, “convinced us both that she has something to do with this.”
Lord Kettering nodded gravely, running one hand down his face. “Had I not seen the venom in her expression for myself, I would not have been in the least bit convinced.”
Jonathan grimaced. “That is troublesome.Perhaps, then, it is because of her father. Perhaps she knows a good deal more than I have assumed.”
“And now she wishes to injure your happiness and your future in any way she can,” Lady Susanna suggested, as Jonathan chewed on the edge of his lip. “It would all make sense.”
“It would,” he agreed, “but our only difficulty now is in finding a way to prove it… and quite how we go about that, I do not know.”
20
“Mama?”
The Duchess looked up from her writing desk as Susanna came into the room. “Oh, Susanna. I thought you were out for a drive with Lord Lancashire, Lord Kettering, and Lady Ellen.”
“He has been delayed,” Susanna said, “but he will be here shortly. I just wanted to tell you that I would be leaving a little later and, therefore, will return to the house a little later also.”
Her mother nodded. “Very good, Susanna. I hope that you enjoy yourself and that all goes well.”
Still unused to the warmth that her mother now had for her, Susanna stepped out of the room and was about to make her way directly towards the front of the house, only for an exclamation to catch her attention. She paused, coming to a stop in the hallway, hearing another voice joining in with the first.
Ever since the park — since she had watched Maude and Lady Evelina huddled beneath the elms like conspirators in a Gothic novel — Susanna had been paying attention.Not obviously. Not in any way that Maude would notice. But she had trained herself to listen for the wrong notes: the sudden silences when she entered a room, the too-quick subject changes, the way Maude’s eyes would slide past her with an emptiness that felt practiced rather than casual. It had become a kind of quiet vigilance, exhausting but necessary, because whatever her sister was planning was not yet finished.
And now, standing in the hallway of her own home, she heard Maude’s voice coming from behind the parlor door — and it was not the bright, carrying voice she used for social occasions. It was lower. Urgent. The voice of a woman who did not wish to be overheard.
Susanna’s first instinct was to walk past. She had been raised to believe that eavesdropping was beneath a lady of her station, and every lesson in deportment she had ever received demanded that she turn her feet toward the door and leave her sister to her privacy. But the lessons of the last few weeks had taught her something different: that propriety could be wielded as a weapon, and that sometimes, refusing to look was simply another word for choosing to be deceived.
She moved closer to the door. Her heart was pounding — she could feel it in her fingertips, in the hollow of her throat — but her steps were deliberate.
“I am just as displeased about Susanna’s success as you!” she heard Maude say, in such a loud voice that the words carried clearly through the paneled door. “This was not at all what was meant to happen.”
Susanna stilled, her heart catapulting around her chest as her sister’s words struck at her.
“You know as well as I that we did all that we could to prevent this,” she heard her sister continue. “It is not myfault that Lord Lancashire has returned to her, and it is certainly not my fault that he has discovered the truth about the letter!”
With a snatch of breath, Susanna nearly fell back against the wall, her hand going to press against her pounding heart. How could it be? Her sister was behind this? Her sister, along with whoever else was within the room? Why would Maude do such a thing? Why would she try to injure Susanna so?
The carriage. A dull thought pressed forward into her mind, and she stood tall once more, moving away from the parlor and back towards the front of the house. The walk would have to wait. The truth was now before her, hidden away in the parlor and still to be uncovered in all of its fullness. There came a second voice from the parlor, but Susanna did not wait, nor did she return to it. Instead, she made her way to the front door but shook her head when the maid tried to hand her her bonnet.
“I will not be going out today,” she said, her lips feeling bruised and thick as shock swam through her veins. “Rather, Lord Lancashire, Lord Kettering, and Lady Ellen will be joining me here.”
The maid said nothing, stepping back into the shadows and leaving Susanna to stand alone. Her heart was still pounding, her whole body tingling with the shock of what she had overheard. The hallway seemed to tilt around her, the familiar contours of her own home rendered suddenly strange and hostile, as though she had stumbled into a house she did not recognize. Her own sister. The words kept repeating, each repetition landing harder than the last. Leaning against the doorframe, she closed her eyes against the wave of upset and sorrow. She pressed one hand flat against the cool wood of the door and used itssolidity to anchor herself, afraid that without it she might simply slide to the floor.
“Susanna?”
Lord Lancashire’s voice was a welcome relief. Opening her eyes, she saw him jumping down from the carriage, as Lord Kettering and Lady Ellen peered at her from within the carriage.
“Lancashire.” She took both of his hands in hers. “You must all come in, Lady Kilthorn too, if she could. I know this will not make sense to her, but –” Sensing tears filling her eyes, she blinked them back quickly. “My sister is talking with someone in the parlor at this very moment. They are talking about you and the letters.”
Lord Lancashire’s mouth fell open, his eyes widening.
“But we must hurry,” she said, her voice catching. “We have only a few moments with which to announce ourselves and discover the truth.”
