“It wasn’t just the wagering, Emma, though I don’t approve of cards. It was the duel as well. Idespise duels!”
Flora swiped the back of her hand across her eyes, but when she looked up at Emma, her gaze was fierce. “To engage in something so shameful as that, to risk life and limb without the least consideration for me, or his mother or aunt, or indeed for himself, Emma! I just, I couldn’t overlooksuch a thing.”
“Of course, you couldn’t, Flora! Nor should you have done.” Flora was such a tenderhearted lady Emma was rather stunned she’d had the courage to jilt a gentleman she loved.
Because, for all Lovell’s bad behavior, it was plain to see Flora loved him still.
“What was the outcome of the duel? Did they elope?” They must have done. If an aristocrat had been shot in a duel in London, Lady Clifford surely would have heard of it.
Flora took a shaky breath. “No. Lovell was shot in the leg, and it turned…rather bad.”
“Shot! How is it I never heard of this, Flora?” A nobleman being shot in London over a squabble over a wager was not the sort of titillating story thetongenerally ignored.
“You would have, I’m certain, but Lord Lymington returned to England shortly after Lovell’s duel, and he made certain the matter was kept absolutely quiet.”
“Lord Lymington must have kept it quiet, indeed.” If Lady Clifford didn’t know ofit, no one did.
“He did. No one outside the family knew of it, aside from my grandmother and myself, and even we didn’t learn of his illness until months later. My grandmother and I were away when it happened, visiting a dear friend of hers in Herefordshire for the holidays, so I might get away from Kent.”
Away from Lovell, Flora meant, so she might nurse her brokenheart in peace.
“I’ve no idea how Lord Lymington kept it a secret, but he isn’t the sort of gentleman one dismisses, is he? He and Lovell remained in London after Lovell’s injury, then when things became dire, Lady Lovell and Lady Lymington joined them there.”
“Dire? Did the wound become infected, then?”
“Yes. A fever set in, and he…” Lady Flora’s voice broke. “He nearly died, Emma. He was bedridden for weeks.”
Emma’s head jerked up. “Weeks?”
“Yes. He only just recovered in time for the season.”
Emma stared. “What, was the duel so recent asthat?”
Her tone must have been too urgent, because Lady Flora blinked at her in surprise. “It happened near the end of January.”
“That, ah…that’s truly dreadful, Flora. It sounds as if Lord Lovell was fortunate to survive.” Emma hardly knew what she said, as her mind raced to compare Flora’s dates to Caroline Francis’s.
If Lord Lovell had been bedridden from January until the start of the season, how had he managed to seduce, ruin, and abandon Caroline Francis at the Pink Pearl in February? The timeline in which Lovell was meant to have committed all his wicked crimes was falling apart with astonishing rapidity.
Unless Flora had mixed up the dates, but what were the odds she’d have mistaken the dates of both Lovell’s duel, and his being sent down from Oxford? Unlikely, indeed—
“Lovell still walks with a slight limp, but even that’s not the worst of it, Emma.”
Emma shook her head to clear it. “I’d say that’s quite badenough, Flora.”
“It’s dreadful, but the jilting, Emma! I sent Lovell a letter from Herefordshire after I learned of the duel, ending our betrothal. I didn’t know then that his life was in danger. Indeed, I didn’t find it out until much later, after my grandmother and I arrived in London for the season.”
Lady Flora dropped her face into her hands, her shoulders shaking.
Emma pressed a soothing hand to her back. “There now, Flora, it’s all right. You didn’t do a single thing you needbe ashamed of.”
“If I hadn’t jilted Lovell, then perhaps he might nothave suffered—”
“No, that’s not so, Flora.” Emma’s voice was firm. “No one is to blame for Lord Lovell’s behavior but Lord Lovell, himself.”
Lady Flora gripped Emma’s hand. “You don’t think me dreadful?”
Emma’s heart softened at the misery on Lady Flora’s pretty face. “No, I don’t think you’re dreadful, Flora. How could I? Duels are appalling, ghastly things. You did what you must to protect your heart. You couldn’t have known Lord Lovell wouldbecome so ill.”
