“My sister told me. She also informed me you inexplicably wished to purchase a new one.”
It was coming clear to him. “And hence Lady Purity assumed it was because that one was sullied.”
“Indeed, she did,” Lady Hollidge agreed, “because the female in question confessed to sullying it. With you! Moreover, you just admitted Lady Varley was on it.”
“She came over uninvited, as I told your sister. I neglected to mention how I found her reclining like Lady Muck-Muck because I thought it would upset my fiancée.”
At Lady Hollidge’s doubtful countenance, he added, “I swear it. You need only use the brains God gave you. You said yourself I could not find a finer woman than your sister, and I wholeheartedly agree. So why would I ruin our engagement with a married woman who cannot hold a candle to her?”
Lady Hollidge tilted her head, again reminding him of Purity.
“Mayhap you did it because it was easy, because Lady Varley put herself before you, and because you thought you would get away with it.”
“Ridiculous,” he insisted.But how to prove himself?He didn’t know the words to convince her.
“I don’t agree with talking about another lady when she is not privy to it, but in this case, I must. I broke off my extremely brief entanglement with Lady VarleybeforeI went to the Continent. Thus, it makes no sense that I would take up with her now when she is married, and when I ...” He hesitated, unable to believe he was going to say these words to Lady Hollidge, but he tapped his chest in the vicinity of his heart, the area that had been aching since Purity had fled in tears, leaving him speechless in the Diamonds’ drawing room.
“When I have finally found a woman I adore with every fiber of my being. When at last, I am happy,” he finished.
Like sunshine streaming through a window, the viscountess’s entire face lit up, and Matthew thought her nearly as breathtaking as Purity. When she smiled at him for the first time, transforming from lovely to spectacular, he knew everything was going to be fine.What an absurd but wonderful gift the eldest sister had.
“Well said,” came a man’s voice.
Matthew turned to see the viscount leaning against the door’s casement, arms folded, having taken in the entire conversation.
When Matthew rose to his feet, the man came over and shook his hand.
“I couldn’t help eavesdropping because, well, frankly, I wasn’t going to leave my wife alone with an ill-famed rake.”
Matthew shook his head. “That is all behind me.”
“I am very good at understanding people,” Lady Hollidge said. “Am I not, Alex?”
“You are,” Lord Hollidge agreed.
Matthew thought them a charming couple.
“I can hear your earnestness,” Lady Hollidge continued, “when you speak of my sister.”
“I am entirely in earnest,” Matthew assured her. “It is my greatest desire to marry Lady Purity and make her happy. I will follow all her rules of decorum and politeness and do so willingly.”
Lady Hollidge gave a single clap. “Perfect. Then I shall speak with her. I assume that is why you came here, to plead your case.”
“It is.”
“Why do you wish to get rid of your sofa?” Lord Hollidge asked.
“Lady Varley’s boots,” Matthew explained. “She rudely rested them on the velvet. What’s more, her perfume clings like ivy to bricks. I want to honor Lady Purity when she comes to live in my home and make it her own. That sofa could be cleaned, but it wouldn’t be respectful to allow my beautiful bride to sit upon it.”
He finished with a shrug.
“You really do understand and love her,” Lady Hollidge said, glancing at her husband. “I couldn’t be more relieved.”
Purity waited for thereappearance of her fiancé, as she was allowing herself to think of him again. Both Clarity and her husband had made a point to come over and speak on Foxford’s behalf.
Accordingly, from the upstairs window, when she saw his carriage draw up to the house, she raced down to wait in the drawing-room doorway.
Foxford had come back!
