“Your cheeks are frightfully flushed,” Lord Mangue pointed out.
“Yes, I was feeling unwell, looking for the water closet, as I told you.”
“This isnota water closet,” her mother pointed out.
“Is everything all right?” Daphne asked, and if not for Lord Mangue, leaning against the door, she would have opened it.
“We are fine,” Lady Chimes said. “My daughter didn’t feel well and wandered in here by mistake. Will you clear thehallway please, Lady Hollidge, to give her some privacy? I shall take her home at once.”
“I will still marry you,” Lord Mangue declared.
“Marry?” repeated Caroline and Geoffrey at the same time.
“Yes, as arranged. I know this rascal was kissing you, but that is forgivable. I have kissed a few ladies. It meant nothing.”
Geoffrey turned to her. “Did you know about this? That you were promised to him?”
Caroline nodded. “I knew that —”
“I don’t want you speaking to my daughter. I don’t want you even to look at her.” Lady Chimes spoke with a tone of icy determination. “I know you did this deliberately, exactly as your father did with your mother. Is that the only way a Diamond man can get a woman to marry him? By compromising her?”
Geoffrey went tight-lipped, clenching his jaw until Caroline thought he might grind his teeth to powder.
“She’s not compromised,” Lord Mangue insisted.
However, Caroline kept her gaze upon Geoffrey. “Did your father risk your mother’s reputation?”If Lord Diamond had, wouldn’t Geoffrey have known better than to do the same?
“Risk it?” her mother exclaimed. “He shredded it. And yet for that, I have the Earl of Diamond to thank.” She turned to Geoffrey. “Otherwise, my dear Chimes might have been saddled with your debauched mother as a wife.”
“If you were a man,” Geoffrey said, “I would call you out for those words.”
Caroline stepped between them. “If my mother speaks the truth, then there is nothing over which you could call her out.”
She ignored Geoffrey’s livid expression and turned to her mother.
“As I said, I don’t feel well. I’m glad you came back to fetch me. Take me home, please.”
“Move aside,” Lady Chimes said to Lord Mangue, who was still hovering.
“Yes, my lady. Of course. I shall call upon you tomorrow.” Opening the door, he stepped into the hallway. “There is no one visible.”
Without another word, her mother walked out, knowing Caroline would follow. Her mantle was on the bench by the front door, thoughtfully put out by Daphne.
Lord Mangue accompanied them to their awaiting carriage and even assisted them inside.
“Thank you,” her mother said frostily.
And then neither of them spoke another word for the brief journey home, except when Caroline asked, “What made you return?”
Lady Chimes shrugged. “Mother’s intuition.” Then she sighed and lapsed into silence again.
Caroline had behaved abominably, as had Geoffrey Diamond. She hadn’t even looked back to see what became of him.
When they reached their own front hall, Lady Chimes dumped her cloak and hat on the hall stand and mounted the stairs. Following her, Caroline watched her mother’s rigid, regal rear heading along the hallway.
Outside her own bedroom door, Caroline knew she ought to at least offer thanks.
“Mother, I—”
