Page 16 of Give Him a Chance

“Not now, Mama.” Percy groaned, reaching for the teapot. “Tea, Mr. Dixon? We’re having to help ourselves, Lucy has thrown out the servants—”

“I haven’t—I didn’t,” whispered Lucy, utterly mortified.

“And she has something important to tell us,” said her father, smiling at his guest. “Sit down, please, and you can hear all about it with us. Lucy?”

Lucy smiled helplessly as the entirety of the room looked expectantly at her.

Oh, this was a nightmare. This was a literal nightmare, precisely what she had most dreaded. This was, in fact, moment for moment an exact mirror of what she had dreamed last night when she had finally managed to fall asleep, down to the—

Well, there wasn’t a gaping hole in the floor and fire raining down from the ceiling.

But other than that, it was the same.

“I-I…” she said, her voice breaking. “I…”

“The tea should be left to sit, man, don’t you know that?” interjected Percy with a snort. “I thought everyone knew that!”

Oh, God.Everyone might know that in their circles, but naturally, Dixon was not from their sort of circles. He was not from anyone’s circles. The only circles he knew were handcuffs.

Her voice quavered. “I…have to tell you all something.”

Try as she might, Lucy could not help but catch the eye of Dixon, who was seated opposite her. He had a hunted look in his eye, and with the merest of movements, shook his head.

No.

He did not want her to tell them.

Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t, Lucy thought darkly. The man had managed to escape not only a criminal conviction, but being sent to Australia to work for the rest of his days! The man had gained freedom, and more than that, the freedom to live in an earl’s house and off an earl’s income. Forever, as far as Judge Bonner was evidently concerned.

And that was why she had to say something.

She might have been foolish enough to get involved in the Prison Reform Society and risk her own reputation, Lucy realized wildly, but her family had not.

So she had to protect them from her own reasonably foolish mistake.

“I have to—to tell you about what happened yesterday,” Lucy stammered.

“Lucy,” said Dixon quietly.

Oh, blast the man, did he want her entire family to get the wrong end of the stick? She could see the way her brother’s eyes widened and her mother’s lips immediately start curling into a smile…

“That’sLadyLucy, as I told you yesterday,” she said sharply, trying to give the man a warning glare. “And it is precisely because of that sort of thing that I have to tell them.”

“‘Tell’ us?” echoed her mother. “Tell us what?”

“Lady Lucy, I urge you,” said Dixon in a low voice.

But she would not be urged. She had to tell them.

“And that is why I must tell you,” Lucy said, heart in her mouth and knowing full well she was about to bring shame upon her family, “that I lied yesterday. Mr. Dixon is a…a criminal.”

The earl blinked. Then stared. Then blinked again. “A—A what?”

“A criminal, Papa,” she replied wretchedly, wishing to goodness she had never gone to that courtroom. “Judge Bonner handed him over to my…my personal custody. I find myself responsible for him.”

A moment of silence…then absolute bedlam.

The countess burst into tears. “My precious daughter, reputation ruined—”