“Hyacinth, dear.” Lady Huntington crossed the room and sank onto the settee next to her sister. “If you’ll only explain to us what happened, perhaps we can help.”
Hyacinth didn’t reply, but continued to sooth her grandmother as if her sister hadn’t spoken.
Damn her. Even now, with Lady Chase’s hysterics and Lord Huntington’s stern eye upon her, she refused to divulge his secret. With every second that ticked by in silence, the deafening howl building in his chest roared closer and closer to the surface.
A roar of rage, because damn it, he was furious with her for endangering herself forhim. That trick with Dixon—Jesus, when he thought of what might have happened, the number of ways she could have been hurt, he went wild with rage and panic.
Most of all, it was a roar of love—a love more profound than any he’d ever believed a hard, ruthless man like him could feel. A love that had burrowed its way under his thick skin and into his veins until she lived in every part of him, as essential to him as his blood, and bred into his very bones.
Maybe he wasn’t a good man, but he wasn’t the sort of man who’d letanyone—especially not his woman—take the blame for something he’d done. Damn it, he wanted to protect her, to keep her safe. Didn’t she understand that?
“I believe I’ll go and lie down now.” Hyacinth rose unsteadily to her feet. “I’m afraid the journey from London has left me fatigued.”
She gave them all an apologetic smile, but before she could take a step toward the door, Lachlan stopped her. “Do you think I’ll let you keep lying for us, Hyacinth? That I’ll let you sacrifice yourself to keep our secret?”
She froze at his words. Her back was to him, but he saw her shoulders stiffen just before she turned to face him. “I don’t know what you mean—”
“Stop it, Hyacinth.” He took two long strides toward her, his entire body trembling with the effort it took not to snatch her into his arms.
Hyacinth and Isla exchanged a single, stricken glance, then Hyacinth’s anxious gaze darted from Finn back to Lachlan. “Mr. Ramsey, I can’t imagine what—”
“Enough.” Lachlan caught her hand in his. “Enough secrets, and enough lies. I came here to tell the truth, and I want you to hear it from my own lips.”
Finn huffed out a breath. “I’d like to hear the truth fromsomeone’slips, if it’s all the same to all of you.”
Lachlan led Hyacinth back over to the settee. “Sit down, please.”
Hyacinth sank back into her seat beside her grandmother, but her face was pale, and she clenched her hands in her lap as if she were holding herself together.
“Hyacinth didn’t lure Lord Dixon into the library on a whim. Her actions were deliberate.” Lachlan turned to Finn. “I never would have let her out of my sight if I’d had any idea she would do something so reckless, so foolish—”
“Foolish!” Hyacinth leapt to her feet, angry color rising in her cheeks. “In case you’ve forgotten, that reckless, foolish plan of mine happened to work!”
“Dumb luck, and nothing more. If a single thing had gone wrong, what do you suppose would have happened, Hyacinth?” The anger and fear Lachlan had been struggling to control rushed back to the surface, making his voice harsh. “What if Isla and Lord Sydney hadn’t reached you in time? What if Dixon discovered what you were about? Damn you, he could have hurt you! Do you think I ever could have forgiven myself if he had, Hyacinth? When I first saw you, standing there in that damn library with your torn gown, I thought—” Lachlan dragged a hand down his face, bleak despair chasing the anger from his voice. “Jesus, I’ve never been more terrified in my life.”
Silence descended on the room. Lady Chase’s weeping came to an abrupt halt. No one moved or even seemed to draw a breath, until at last Lady Huntington’s delicate cough broke the silence. Lachlan came back to himself to find everyone in the room staring at him. Both Ciaran and Isla wore identical knowing grins on their lips, but Lady Chase’s mouth had gone slack with shock, and Finn was gaping at Lachlan and Hyacinth in astonishment.
“My goodness,” Lady Chase croaked at last, raising a bony hand and pointing at Lachlan. “Mr. Ramsey is…why, I don’t know how I didn’t see it before, but I believe Mr. Ramsey is in lo—”
“I still don’t understand this.” Finn shot Lady Chase a warning look, then cleared his throat, and fixed a stern look on Lachlan. “Before I left London, you swore to me you’d protect Hyacinth, but from what I’ve heard so far, it sounds as if you failed to keep your promise.”
Hyacinth had resumed her seat, but now she shot to her feet again. “No, he didn’t! Indeed, you’re wrong, Finn! He—”
“I did fail.” Lachlan met Finn’s gaze without flinching. “I never trusted Lord Dixon. I thought he was a scoundrel from the start, but I didn’t act quickly enough. By the time I did, Hyacinth had already put herself at risk. I should have stopped it long before then. It’s a miracle it didn’t turn out worse.”
Isla made an impatient noise at that, and every head in the room turned toward her. “I’m tired of you taking blame upon yourself you don’t deserve, Lachlan. How could you have stopped Lord Dixon, when only Hyacinth and I knew about his threats? As for his being a card cheat—”
“Threats?Card cheat?” Lady Chase fanned herself with her handkerchief. “Oh, my goodness. Someone fetch my smelling salts!”
Lady Huntington and Hyacinth both hurried to tend to Lady Chase. Ciaran turned to Isla with a sardonic, “Well done,” and Finn, pushed to the last degree of his patience, thundered over the tumult, “For God’s sake, will someone please tell me what thedevilhappened in Lady Entwhistle’s bloody library?”
Lady Huntington was waving smelling salts under Lady Chase’s nose with one hand, and patting Hyacinth’s hand with the other. “I’m certain there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of it.”
“At this point, I’d settle foranyexplanation.” Finn turned his glower on Lachlan. “Well?”
“There is an explanation, but you won’t find it reasonable. It begins with a lie I told you when we arrived in London.”
It was a bald, abrupt confession, but Lachlan was no longer under any illusions about the damage a secret could cause, both to those who kept it, and those it was kept from. He wanted it out.
