“I didn’t tell him.” He looked down into her eyes, seeing both anger and, surprisingly, hurt in them. “I swear it.”
“Still …”
“He isn’t the most thoughtful of men. And, anyway, I’ll wager he saw me as the fool in the story, not you.”
“I don’t believe you. Retelling such a yarn would be very much in keeping with the rakish and charming Julian Laurent, would it not?” She raised her chin. “I don’t care anymore. One day someone will bring you down, and I’ll laugh along with the rest of society.”
“Do you believe my downfall is imminent?”
She smiled. “How would I know? But the sooner it happens, the more I’ll enjoy it.”
“I did not tell anyone about our last night together,” Julian repeated. “I cannot allow you to believe such a lie about me.”
“I can believe what I want, sir.” She eased past him. “In truth, I am sick of the lot of you.”
“Cressida …”
She swung back toward him. “You no longer have the right to use my first name.”
“Then why did you agree to come to this house party if you can’t stand the sight of me?”
She shrugged. “It was Mrs. Sheraton’s idea. She likes to cause mischief. I assumed she was your latest mistress and that she’d decided to show me how happy you were without me.”
“And knowing that, you still came?”
“Perhaps I wished to see it for myself, so that I could finally be free of you.”
“And are you?” Julian asked.
She smiled, the sunlight illuminating her face. “Not quite, but I’m getting there.”
He bowed. “I’m glad to hear it. I don’t deserve such consideration.”
“Another way we are alike, perhaps?” Lady Brenton moved toward the gate, and he walked alongside her. “Neither of us are capable of more than a few fleeting feelings that are easily dispersed when we find our next lover. I’m trapped in my marriage, but you …”
He raised an eyebrow. “What about me?”
“You just have no heart, Mr. Laurent.”
She turned and walked away, her head held high, and disappeared in the direction of the church. Julian didn’t follow her. Their discussion had raised several interesting points. He concluded that she really would relish his downfall and was potentially involved in bringing it about. Her comments as to his character had stung, but he wasn’t prepared to dwell on them while he was experiencing such profound emotions in his relationship with Carenza.
But wasn’t that why Carenza had agreed to bed him in the first place? She, too, thought he had no heart to break? He went through the gate and rested his hand on the warm stone wall that surrounded the graveyard as he stared in the direction of the church. He was tired of being thought of as a rake and not a man of substance. Even his own mother treated him like a wayward child, always anticipating the next scandal.
But he wasn’t that man anymore. Now, how to convince everyone else of that?
CHAPTER18
After their return to London, Carenza and Allegra were settling in for a quiet afternoon reading when Olivia and Maude were ushered in by the butler.
Carenza set her book to one side and sighed. “What is it now?”
Olivia took a seat and smoothed out her skirts. “Apparently, while we were away, Percival started spreading even worse rumors about Mr. Laurent.”
“Such as?” Allegra asked.
“That Miss Cartwright is his mistress and that the home was set up to house all Julian’s bastards.”
“All twenty of them?” Carenza shook her head. “How ridiculous. Surely no one would believe such a thing.”
