Dear God, how she’d dreaded this moment, even before she’d fallen in love with Samuel. It took every bit of resolve she had to meet his gaze, but Emma forced herself to meet it, and hold it.
“Helena Reeves was never my lady’s maid. I know Helena and Madame Marchand because I spent a year at the Pink Pearl, as a courtesan. I was a courtesan.” Emma wasn’t sure why she felt the need to repeat it a second time, except once you decided to tell the truth, you toldallof it, without flinching.
She was done pretending to be someone she wasn’t.
“I was born in Essex, near Chelmsford. I don’t remember either of my parents. I only ever had my grandmother. When she died, I went off to London to find work, as so many other young girls do. I’d been in the city for less than an hour when Madame Marchand plucked me up. She offered me accommodations, and pretty clothes, and made dozens of empty promises. I thought she did it out of kindness.” Emma gave a bitter laugh. “I soon found out otherwise. I was fourteen years old.”
Emma had dreaded speaking those words, but now they were out she found herself strangely tempted to tell him everything—she, who never talked about that time she’d spent pinned like a broken butterfly under Madame Marchand’s thumb. Noteven to Helena.
But he didn’t care about her story. He wanted to know how Lord Lovell fit into this business, nothing more. “I left the Pink Pearl five years ago, and went to live withLady Clifford.”
Samuel remained silent, but he tensed at mention of Lady Clifford. That was generally how people reacted when they heard her name. Not many people in London knew what Lady Clifford actuallydid, but most of them hadheard of her.
“The other day, you asked me why Lady Clifford suspected Lord Lovell was responsible for your missing housemaids. I couldn’t tell you why at that time without implicating another person, a person I’d sworn to protect, but that…no longer matters.”
Emma thought of Caroline Francis, dying alone in a dark alley, and her stomach lurched. For all the lies Caroline had told, she hadn’t deserved such a fate. “We suspected Lord Lovell because Caroline Francis told Helena he seduced her, ruined her, and then abandoned her, and she accused him of nefarious behavior with Amy andKitty as well.”
Samuel stared at her in astonishment. “What?”
“Here.” Emma reached into the pocket of her skirts, and pulled out the letter she’d asked Caroline to write. “It’s all there.”
He looked at the paper as if it were a viper about to strike, but he took the folded sheets, and leaned closer to the light of the fire to read them.
Emma waited, watching the expressions play over his face. Confusion, incredulity, and, by the time he’d read the last word, righteous fury. “These are lies. Every last word of it.”
“I know that now. I won’t pretend I didn’t believe Caroline’s accusations at first. I did. I had no reason to suspect she was lying, and this past year Lord Lovell has earned himself a reputation as a rake.”
“Arake, yes.” Samuel voice was icy. “Not a murderer.”
“Not a murderer, no. From the start your cousin didn’t appear to me to be a violent man.” Emma didn’t say she’d had enough experience with violent men to know one when she saw one. “But it was Flora who made me suspect Caroline was lying about Lord Lovell, though she didn’t know it.”
“Flora? How?”
“She told me Lord Lovell wasn’t sent down from Oxford until September of last year. Caroline claimed he returned to Lymington House in August, just before Amy Townshend went missing. Both things couldn’t be true, and Flora had noreason to lie.”
Samuel scanned the letter again,nodding slowly.
“Lord Lovell couldn’t be responsible for Amy’s disappearance if he wasn’t at Lymington House when she went missing, and I couldn’t quite credit the idea that Lymington House was cursed with two murderous scoundrels. Then I found out about LordLovell’s duel.”
“From Lady Flora?”
“Yes, on the day of Lady Tremaine’s picnic, when Flora and I were alone together in the parlor. After I learned of the duel, I suspected Lord Lovell was innocent, but I had to be sure. That was why I rushed off to the Pink Pearl that evening, to see Caroline, and ask her—”
“Ask her about the dates.”
“Yes. Whoever tried to implicate Lord Lovell for the crimes didn’t know about the duel, or else they would have known his prolonged recovery made it impossible for him to seduce Caroline, as she claimed he did. Caroline must not have known of theduel, either.”
“What of the second girl,Kitty Yardley?”
“It looks as though Lord Lovellwasat Lymington House when Kitty disappeared, but there’s no reason to suspect he had anything to do with it, aside from Caroline Francis’s word, which has proved to beuntrustworthy.”
“It sounds as if someone went to a great deal of trouble to make Lovell look guilty.”
“Yes, they did. My own belief is the villain murdered Amy Townshend in a fit of passion, then panicked, and started looking about for someone to blame.”
Samuel frowned. “Why should you think that?”
“Because Amy’s disappearance was so sudden. That implies it was an accident, rather than the result of careful planning.”
