From the moment she jilted him, she’d demanded more of him. More than anyone else ever had, and more than he’d ever thought he was capable of giving.
He’d come to Hadley House forher. Not because he had an obligation to her, or to protect her from Wrexley. He’d told her once there was a difference between a reason and an excuse.
Those were his excuses.
The truth was he’d come here because he wanted her for himself.
She’d told him they didn’t suit, and he’d agreed with her at the time. Maybe it was still true. Maybe they didn’t suit.
But that didn’t mean they weren’t perfect for each other.
“What did you want to tell me, Lord Huntington?”
He raised a hand and brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “Will you…I want you to call me Finn.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “But we didn’t even call each other by our first names when we were betrothed.”
“No, and that was a mistake. Don’t you agree?”
Her gaze caught and held his. “Perhaps it was.”
Some of the anxiety drained from Finn then. If she would just help him a little, he could do this—he could tell her the truth, and make her understand. “There’s something you don’t know about Lord Wrexley, Iris. I want…I need to tell you.”
He half-expected her to refuse to hear him, to pull free and march into the house without letting him speak a word, but she didn’t. She simply stared up at him and waited.
Finn drew in a deep breath. “I’ve known Lord Wrexley for a long time. We went to Eton together, and later to university. We’ve never been friends, but we were never enemies, either—not until the year after we left Oxford.”
“Something happened to turn you into enemies?”
“Yes. There was a lady, Miss Diana Hughes. She was the sister of a schoolmate of ours, Lord Farrington, a viscount. Their father had died years before, and his death had left their mother feeble in both mind and body. Miss Hughes was sweet and lovely, and her brother doted on her. He was fiercely protective, as well, and took great care to keep her safe from the rakes and fortune-hunters attracted by her generous dowry. But Lord Farrington died of a fever the year after we left university, and Miss Hughes and her younger sisters were left quite alone in the world aside from their mother, who, as I said, was feeble.”
“How awful.”
“Yes. Lord Farrington was a good man, and a friend of mine. After he died, I offered for Miss Hughes. Her mother approved my suit, and we became betrothed.”
Something flickered in her eyes. “You, ah…you were betrothed to another lady?”
“Yes. Briefly.”
“But you never married.”
“No, I didn’t, because Lord Wrexley, tempted by her dowry, lured her into a love affair, seduced her, and then tried to force a marriage between them on the grounds he’d ruined her.”
Iris’s face drained of color. “No. No, he wouldn’t do anything so wicked.”
She swayed, and Finn wrapped his fingers more firmly around her arm to steady her. “He did, Iris. If you doubt me, you may ask Lord Derrick. He knows all about it.”
“But Honora…” She looked up at him with a stricken expression. “She would never have suggested I encourage Lord Wrexley if she knew of this.”
“She doesn’t know. Very few people do. Miss Hughes never came out in society, and she was married off quietly. The story hardly does Wrexley credit, so he never speaks of it, and aside from Derrick, I’ve never told a soul. Certainly Wrexley’s family doesn’t know. Do you think Lady Fairchild would allow him in her house, around her unmarried daughter, if she knew the truth?”
“No, I—no. Of course not. What became of Miss Hughes?”
“She confessed the whole thing to her mother, and Lady Farrington came to me. I was Miss Hughes’s betrothed, remember, and Wrexley knew I’d find out, so he was insisting on an immediate marriage by special license. But Miss Hughes was underage, so he needed her mother’s permission. I begged Diana to marry me at once to put her out of Wrexley’s reach for good, but she refused me. I won’t go into her reasons, but by then all she wanted was to leave London and never see Wrexley again, so I arranged a hasty marriage between her and another of our university classmates, a gentleman with a comfortable estate in northern England. He’d been in love with Miss Hughes throughout our entire four years at Oxford, and he was happy enough to get her, despite the circumstances. We put Wrexley off, and by the time he realized what had happened Miss Hughes had been bundled off to Newcastle. I hear she and her husband are very happy together.”
“Dear God.” Iris pressed a hand to her forehead. “So Lord Wrexley—”
“Has despised me ever since, and would be delighted to avenge what he sees as a wrong I’ve done to him.”
