The latch clicked.
“Lady Stanford” came the voice—cool, cultured, lethal.
Rose turned. Lady Lockhart stood in the doorway, the feathers on her odd hat trembling faintly amidst the bobbingbird, her eyes bright as a hawk’s. “How very intriguing,” she said, stepping into the room. “I wonder how Mr. Whitmore will react in learning his brother and newly betrothed were found in a questionable tête-à-tête.”
Rose drew in a harsh breath. “How dare you impugnmyintegrity, you…youharlot. After selling your niece to a brothel, you have the gall to accuse me of misdeeds?”
“You sold your niece to a brothel?” Ben echoed.
A mad light entered Lady Lockhart’s eyes as they narrowed on him. “I despise beinginterrupted.” She took a step forward, her fingers clutching something shiny, reflecting the room’s low candlelight. Dear Heavens, she was brandishing a knife!
Rose gasped and darted forward just as the woman’s hand came up and brushed Rose’s arm.
The burning sting penetrated her brain the same instant that heavy treads sounded from the corridor along with the distinct metallic scent of something wrong hitting her. Rose dropped her gaze to Lady Lockhart’s gloved hand and couldn’t seem to register what the red speckles on her ivory kidskin meant.
Shock reverberated through her. She glanced at Ben, but he’d gone pale as parchment, his eyes rolling back in his head. “Ben, wait—don’t…” Her words trailed off as he collapsed to the carpet in a graceless thud.
She rushed to his side and laid her hand on his cheek, taking note of his breath on her thumb as Lady Lockhart’s laughter, soft and delighted, filled the room. “Men are such fragile creatures,” she murmured. “And you, Lady Stanford—” Her voice hardened. “What a nuisanceyouturned out to be. You and that disreputable sister of yours, not to mention the duke’s tasteless duchess. Why, the lot of you should be banned from England. Dirtying the pool of pristine nobility is unfathomable.”
Each uttered word increased the malevolence into a thick aura about Lady Lockhart’s being. But Rose couldn’t seem tostop the leashing of her own fury. “We,my dear, are not of the same sphere, no matter how many soirees you host or children you opt to sell to fill your coffers.”
Said harpy drew in a sharp breath as the door crashed back before she could let loose her rampage, catching Lady Lockhart by her outrageous hat, knocking it askew and felling it to the floor.
“Hear, hear. What is the meaning of this?” Norfolk’s squat body appeared in the doorway like a stuffed sausage in his tightened corset. Despite his florid complexion, Rose had always considered the man a genuinely nice person.
Lady Lockhart clucked her tongue. “Oh, dear.” Mild words that carried an ominous tone. Her hand came up, the blade of her knife glinting.
“Lord Norfolk!” Rose screamed. “Look out.” But she was too late. The blade disappeared in the folds of his coat, and he staggered to his knees.
Rose edged backward until the fire’s heat licked the backside of her gown. “You won’t get away with this.”
“Won’t I?” Lady Lockhart’s eyes glittered with madness. “You’ve no idea who you are dealing with.”
“Perhaps you could enlighten me?”
“Money, of course. That spendthrift nephew of mine has run the family’s coffers to near ruin.” Bitterness seeped from every word. “And do you imagine the world pauses for such inconveniences? That creditors simply…forgive?”
Rose held her ground, though the fire’s heat pressed mercilessly at her back. “At the cost of your own family? Your own niece. She is little more than a child.”
Lady Lockhart laughed, a brittle, cutting sound, and stepped closer, her skirts whispering over the carpet. “Men of rank required discretion. I provided it. My house, my invitations,my accounts—everything arranged so their dealings appeared respectable.”
A chill slid down Rose’s spine despite the heat at her back.
“That fool Stockton would have us all in the gutter. Someone had to act.” For the briefest instant, something flickered, then hardened. “The world does not spare the innocent, Lady Stanford. It consumes them.”
Rose swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat. “Still, Lady Lockhart, surely you cannot think—believe—you cared nothing for Viola.”
Lady Lockhart stilled. For a heartbeat, the only sound was the crackle of the fire. Then her lips curved—slow, deliberate. “Ah, you think I conceived all this myself.”
A cold certainty settled in Rose’s chest. “All what,” she said, her voice steadier than she felt.
Lady Lockhart’s smile thinned. “All what?” she echoed softly, her eyes losing a momentary focus. She blinked and her eyes cleared. “My dear, men far above your understanding have vested interests in ensuring certain funds pass…unquestioned.”
“This is not the work of one woman,” Rose said quietly, as shock rippled over her. “You’ve neither the reach nor the protection for it.”And certainly not the wherewithal.Though she stifled that sentiment.
Lady Lockhart went very still. Then, slowly, she smiled. “Protection?” she echoed. “My dear, you have no notion how the world truly operates.”
Rose’s pulse quickened. “Then enlighten me.”
