After greeting Adam and Brentworth, the dowager turned to Clara. “Are you quite satisfied now?”
“I am.”
Face pursed, the dowager surveyed her company.
“Should you not begin, Countess?” Lady Farnsworth asked.
The dowager glared at her, then composed herself. She looked at Adam, or rather at his crown, not his eyes. “I asked you here, Duke, in order to explain some family matters to you. Why my granddaughter insisted you also attend, Brentworth, is beyond my understanding. As for Lady Farnsworth, that is utterly incomprehensible to me.”
“She wanted witnesses so no one will ever believe your claim that Stratton lied about what you are about to say,” Lady Farnsworth inserted. “Should you ever decide to recast any of it later, that is.”
“Please, Lady Farnsworth,” Clara whispered. “Let us allow my grandmother to do this her own way.”
“That way will take two hours,” Lady Farnsworth muttered.
“Not at all,” the dowager said. “I have no desire to prolong this. I will get right to the heart of it. Stratton, neither of your parents sent that jewelry to France. I did. Not to support that Corsican, I assure you. However, it was not them, but me.”
Adam hoped his expression remained bland, but he suspected not. Such a public admission cleared his father’s name and answered the remaining question in one sentence. Clara rose and came to sit beside him. She smiled at him sweetly, delighted by his relief and astonishment.
“If not to support that army, then why?” Brentworth asked. “If you do not explain that, the world will damn you no matter what the real reason was.”
“She assumes her word will be enough,” Lady Farnsworth said. “Don’t you, Hannah?”
If looks could kill, the swords in the dowager’s sharp glance would slay Lady Farnsworth on the spot. She then closed her eyes, as if to steel herself. “The real reason is embarrassing. I must ask that my grandchildren hear it with generosity in their hearts.” She glanced at the earl, not Clara. Theo no longer appeared bored, but concerned.
“When I was a much younger woman, I formed a tendre for a young man. A Frenchman. This was before all the trouble there. I met him while visiting that country, and I fell in love.”
“But you only went there with Grandfather, so—” Theo caught himself. His expression fell in shock.
“Thank you, Theo, for articulating that which I had hoped might not be said.” She cleared her throat. “Of course, that love was doomed. I returned here, and life went on. That young man survived the revolt in France by straddling the fence as best he could, but in the end, of course, that proved impossible. When the Corsican came to power, he was one of the ones banished for opposing the emperor and sent to a penal colony.”
“You seem to know a lot about what happened to him,” Theo said suspiciously.
“How fortunate we are to have you here, my dear boy, to provide statements of the obvious.” She sighed with strained forbearance. “While love does not last, I kept his memory in my heart. So after Napoleon’s defeat, I sought to release him from that prison by bribing certain government officials in Paris. The jewels were sent with the understanding they would buy his freedom. Regrettably, I was betrayed, and they were used for other purposes.”
“It is understandable you would not want to admit to this when questions started,” Adam said.
Something like gratitude softened the dowager’s face. She looked at him with tears in her eyes. This explanation had humiliated her. It had diminished her, and she felt it clearly.
“I do not understand, however, how you came to have that necklace and diadem,” he said. “I am almost positive the ones in question were owned by my family.”
“Your mother gave them to me. She wore them once, and I admired them, and she made a gift to me of them.”
Lady Farnsworth leaned forward, toward the dowager. Her eyes narrowed. “Tell him why, or I will. Some of us already know this part, after all.”
“I have no idea what you mean,Dorothy.”
“It was not a gift, it was tribute,Hannah,” Lady Farnsworth said. “She made you that gift so you might cease your cruelty. So she might not be cut left and right, and ignored, and she might be received as the duchess she was. She gave them to you so you would take your boot off her neck.”
The dowager’s face turned to stone. She did not look at Adam or anyone else.
“Are we done?” Brentworth asked. “I have heard enough, should any questions ever arise in the future. I will take my leave now.” He bowed to the ladies.
“I will go out with you,” Lady Farnsworth said. “I daresay Stratton will be glad for our absence. He no doubt has much he would like to say in private. I know that I would if I were he.”
The door closed on the two of them.
“Do you have anything you want to say, Adam?” Clara asked quietly.
