Javenia searched her memories, trying to think what she might have divulged to Livy without thinking. Perhaps she referred to their courtship only, which most of Society knew about, but her pointed looks and inflections led Javenia to think she knew more than she wanted to say in front of Melior.
Out of the corner of her eye, Melior shifted, her brow furrowed and her gaze flitting between the two of them. “Are you keeping secrets?”
Javenia swallowed hard. What did it matter now? Even without divulging her past, she was ruined.
“What do you know, Livy?” Javenia pinned her with a stare.
Livy tucked her chin and fidgeted with her gloves. “Do you really want to discuss this right now?”
Javenia sucked in a deep breath. Her friend knew everything. How, she did not know. Had Algenon really broken her trust and told Eddie? The one person who had twitted them for years? Her skin prickled and her hands fisted. She’d trusted him, but it seemed her secret wasn’t so secret after all.
She turned to Melior. “Lord Penwick took advantage of my naivety and tried to—” She couldn’t complete the sentence. A vibration started in her chest growing ever stronger the longer she tried. She shivered like the room around her was freezing cold, but it wasn’t. No matter how many times she repeated the story, she didn’t think she could ever say the words outright.
“Force you?” Melior said softly.
Javenia ducked her head. “Yes.” Then she speared Livy with a look. “But I am not sure how you found out. I swore Algenon to secrecy after he saved me. Did he tell Eddie?”
Livy fiercely shook her head. “No, no. Penwick himself was the culprit. He bragged about deflowering ladies and said if it weren’t for Al he’d have had one more to add to his collection. It was not hard to decipher who that one more might be.”
Javenia’s stomach turned over. Swiftly she retrieved a linen and gagged into it, her body trembling. When the nausea had passed, she pinched her gown between her fingers and rubbed the cloth.
“Why would he say…” She paused and stared at Livy, her eyes growing wide as the truth sank in. “Did he try…?” She couldn’t say it. It was too terrible to think about.
“Several times.” Livy quirked an eyebrow. “Poor man. He should know better than to cross a heavily armed female.”
Melior guffawed. “You did not threaten a lord.”
“I did, and I would do it again if the abominable man was still alive. Only this time, I would make certain he could never threaten another woman again. Thankfully, he had the decency to die and leave the rest of us to live our lives in peace.”
Javenia’s fingers relaxed. She was safe. Duncan was gone, but so was Lord Roberts. The turn in her thoughts brought back the pain.
“Either way, I am still ruined. Lord Roberts himself apparently stumbled onto the situation and then used it to keep Algenon from ever offering for me.”
“The selfish widgeon,” Livy muttered.
Melior leaned back and rubbed a hand over her slightly protruding belly. “I agree. Algenon could have easily married you years ago and no one would have been the wiser. As a married woman, the damage to your reputation would have been minimal.”
“Yes, but it would have still caused harm to Lord Roberts’s connections, and by extension Algenon’s. He might have received the cut direct for marrying a fallen woman.”
A snort from Livy surprised them. “Which no one would know if Lord Roberts kept his mouth shut. If he really didn’t want you to marry his son, why not divulge the truth and be done with it? Algenon had already threatened Lord Penwick with ruin if he told anyone, so he was not a threat. It seems strange that he would keep a secret that could remove you from Society and his son’s life completely.”
Javenia ran a hand over the back of her neck, catching a stray curl and winding it about her finger. Lord Roberts could have exposed her at any time, but he hadn’t. Why not?
Melior spoke up. “I don’t think he ever intended to use it. He is too much a gentleman.” She cleared her throat and dropped her gaze to her lap. “Or was. It is going to be strange thinking of him in the past tense. But look at the way he cared for his daughters. Why would a man who doted upon them, allowed them any interaction they wish, even with his enemies’ daughters, stoop to ruin a woman’s reputation? It goes against everything in his nature.”
“So it was an empty threat?” Javenia asked, but she knew the answer for herself.
Lord Roberts had never intended to ruin her. He only wished to protect his son.
Algenon slipped the black armband around his sleeve and stared at it. It had been a week since his father’s death and he still could not believe it.
He paused.
Not his father. His uncle.
The man who had raised him and had given him every chance at life was not his father. The realization stung.
He’d spent the last few days reading his journals, hardly sleeping and eating only enough to sustain himself. His mother had been infatuated with Mr. Solomon Roberts since girlhood, so when he’d promised to take her to Scotland and marry her at the house party in Westmoreland, she’d believed him. Weeks later, Solomon had died, and she was left to fend for herself.
