“I know very little,” she admitted, a touch afraid of his emotion.
“Thenwhoare you? It is not by chance that you are the image of her and have her pendant. I beg of you, tell me your story, my lady.”
“I will, if you will tell me who was she to you?” Her heart yearned to honor his request, to know all. However, he had murdered Mars’s father under the guise of a duel. Her husband lived to destroy him. She had to be careful.
Lord Dervil obviously didn’t feel the same caution. “She was quite simply the love of my life.” It was a heartfelt statement. Clarissa would have to be turned to stone to not feel some sympathy for him.
“How did you know her?” Clarissa asked.
He pressed gloved fingers to his eyes as if pushing back the grief, and then he spoke. “I met her at a dance. My cousin had invited me to join a group of his friends. It was nothing like this affair tonight. Just a gathering of friends, music, and... laughter. I remember the laughter. The moment I clapped eyes on Priscilla, I fell in love. My reaction was startling and immediate, and I pursued her passionately. So much so that my father took me aside and let me know that Miss Comstock was not suitable for my attention.”
“What was wrong with her?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She had a laugh that drew everyone to her. She was understanding, kind, and adored a good jest. I wasn’t the only man pursuing her. She was seventeen, barely out of the schoolroom, and right in her prime. I may have been one of a herd of fellows chasing her, but she smiled on me.” He said the last as if it was something akin to a miracle. “I was most fortunate.”
“Then, why did your father object?” she asked.
“Because he wanted me to marry money. He was a terrible gambler. When I say ‘terrible,’ I don’t mean he didn’t play well. He playedverywell, he just lost. Over and over again. My mother had brought great wealth to the marriage along with several estates, including the one in Maidenshop.”
“You know I am from there?”
“After seeing you last night, I’ve tried to learn everything I could about you. Little is known of you, my lady, and Society adores a mystery. Everyone is talking.”
“Talking so much that I was ignored when I was introduced to people this evening,” she countered.
He laughed. “I saw you with Lady Millsaps. She can’t hear. Neither can her friends. It was unfortunate Eleanor steered you there.”
“Eleanor?”
“Your mother-in-law.”
Clarissa had not known Lady Fenton’s first name, and considering her husband’s attitude toward his mother, had not been interested. That is when she remembered the reason Lord Dervil would know. “You were her lover.”
He made a dismissive sound. “One of many. I was the one who was caught.”
“And yet you profess love for my mother?”
“Ah, you are a naïve one, Lady Marsden. We don’t live in a world of happy endings. I’m surprised you haven’t learned that yet.”
“I don’t appreciate your condescension, my lord. Is that why my mother rejected you?”
“Sheneverrejected me. She loved me.”
“And yet, she left you,” Clarissa hazarded. They stood not more than a foot apart from each other. A good distance for exchanging confidences.
“We were from two different worlds,” he said, as if it was a good excuse. Then added, “And neither of us had money. As I said, because of my father’s habits, I needed to marry an heiress.”
“My mother was poor?”
“Did she not tell you her history?”
Clarissa paused and then said not unkindly, “She died shortly after I was born.”
Again, grief overwhelmed him. He was a strange man, calculating in one moment and then giving in to his emotions in the next. No wonder no one trusted him.
He kept repeating the word “dead,” as if he couldn’t believe she was telling the truth. Clarissa studied the texture of the stone railing beneath her gloved hand, knowing she should give him privacy... and, yet, wanting whatever information she could glean from him.
Finally, he straightened, setting his shoulders back, attempting to compose himself. She gavehim a moment before daring to ask, “Please, will you tell me the story?”
