“For God’s sake, Wrexley. Don’t you know when you’re beaten?” Captain West’s voice was heavy with disgust. “Lady Chase won’t let you within ten paces of her granddaughter when she finds out what you are, and you can be quite sure shewillfind out. I’ll make certain of it.”
“Lady Chase will do whatever it takes to make her granddaughter happy, and it’s not as if Miss Somerset is still the belle of her season with an array of suitors kneeling at her feet. Now she’s just the foolish chit who jilted a marquess.” Wrexley swept a disparaging look over Finn. “She has few options left to her, and besides, the lady loves me.”
Finn’s mouth went dry as crippling doubt threatened. Perhaps Iris really did love him. She wouldn’t be the first lady to succumb to Wrexley’s practiced charm.
Wrexley must have seen the uneasiness on his face, because his lips stretched in a triumphant smile. “Don’t tell me you actually thought she lovedyou, Huntington.”
“Enough,” Lord Derrick growled, before Wrexley could say another word. “Let’s go. We’ll see you on the road toward Alton, just to be polite, of course.”
“My things—”
“Don’t worry, Wrexley. I’ll send a servant with them.” Captain West’s tone was clipped. “I’d just as soon you never set foot in my house again.”
Chapter Eighteen
Iris didn’t go look for Charlotte, as Lord Huntington had bade her. She didn’t enter the breakfast parlor either, though she could hear the low murmur of feminine voices and knew she’d find Violet and Honora there.
She couldn’t confide in her friends without first offering some sort of explanation for the snarled web of secrets she’d become enmeshed in, and she couldn’t do that. Not yet. She’d only just begun to untangle the fragile threads of the truth from the lies, and she couldn’t explain to them what she didn’t understand herself.
Only one thing was clear in her head.
She’d been wrong about Lord Wrexley.
A part of her wanted to believe Lord Huntington was lying—about the wager, and the reason Lady Beaumont was in Lady Fairchild’s garden that day, and now about Miss Hughes—but she knew he wasn’t. Perhaps he could hide some secrets behind the shifting colors of his eyes, but he wasn’t a liar. There’d been nothing but naked truth in those hazel depths just now.
She’d been wrong about Lord Huntington, too.
About Finn.
“Good morning, Iris. Where have you been off to so early?”
Iris was standing at the bottom of the stairs, staring at them without seeing them, but she turned at the sound of Lady Annabel’s voice.
“I wondered why I didn’t see you in the breakfast parlor—” Lady Annabel began, but as soon as she saw the look on Iris’s face, she took her arm and hurried her down the hallway. “Come with me.”
Iris didn’t resist, but let Lady Annabel tug her along toward Charlotte’s private sitting room.
“Sit.” Lady Annabel turned to ring the bell as Iris sank into one of the plump chairs in front of the fireplace.
“Tea, please, if you would, Mary,” Lady Annabel said, when the maid appeared. Once the servant had gone again, Lady Annabel took the seat opposite Iris, but she didn’t say a word until Mary had returned with the tea tray and disappeared again, closing the door behind her.
“I gather from the expression on your face this isn’t aboutSchool of Venus.”
Iris shook her head.
“Pity. I have a suspicion it would be much easier if it were.” Lady Annabel fetched a teacup from the tray, poured Iris some tea, and then set the cup down in front of her. “Drink some tea, Iris. You need a restorative.”
Iris took an obedient sip of her tea. “I was wrong, Lady Annabel.”
Lady Annabel didn’t look in the least surprised to hear it. “Yes, I imagined that would happen at some point. Love affairs are complicated enough with one gentleman, and you’ve had to manage two of them. Your rate of error rises accordingly, I’m afraid. Who were you wrong about? Lord Wrexley, or Lord Huntington?”
Iris opened her mouth to say Lord Wrexley, but she bit the words back before his name could leave her lips. She’d been wrong about him, yes, but Lord Huntington was the man she’d truly wronged.
Shame made her avoid Lady Annabel’s eyes. “Both of them.”
Lady Annabel sighed. “Look at me, Iris.”
Iris looked up to find Lady Annabel’s steady, calm gaze on her face. “If you recall, I did warn you this could become complicated.”
