“It doesn’t matter.” Verity tried to wrest her limb back but only for a second before slumping. She dropped her face into her hands. “One small move and yet it ruined everything. I never expected to… Blast it, Dominic. It hurt. I didn’t think I would care should something ever happen. But this felt like a knife to my spleen.”
“They had no right to do such a thing,” he growled.
She shook her head. “That’s the worst of it. They do. Lady Elmherst is the stuffiest lady amongst the Ton. She’s cut people like this before, I know, but I didn’t think it could ever happen to me. I just don’t understand what is going on.”
His grip tightened before he forced himself to loosen up on her. The familiar scent of lilacs washed over, calming him. He could breathe. He could think. First, he inhaled deeply and then let go. “I do.”
“You do?”
“Or I have an idea,” Dominic amended. “And you won’t like it.”
A groan escaped her lips. Turning away, Verity crossed the room to the other side and remained facing the wall. “I simply don’t understand. Where did I go wrong?”
“Someone else is talking.”
She whirled around. “What? Who?”
“Worse: they apparently know something. Or more than something.” He raked a hand through his hair in frustration, and sighed. “Whatever we said in the article was enough for a person to come forward and start talking. They have implicated your uncle.”
“But how?”
He gave her a look. “Because they knew your uncle. I believe it may have been Lord Roberts, the Earl of Sunwich. Is he familiar to you or your family?”
“I don’t think… Wait.” Verity paled as she leaned back against the bookcase. He started forward in concern but paused when she didn’t collapse. So he waited. She slowly gathered her thoughts to say, “I did know him. He visited once, I think. I was confused because I thought he was coming to pay respects to my family. It was shortly after the passing of my mother, and… then Uncle Will strode in with a smile, escorting him away.”
“You remembered that?”
“Uncle Will rarely had anyone over. I remember thinking that I hoped it meant he was a friend, but that I didn’t particularly care for the lord. He’s never been part of the gossip or talk of the beau monde. Why, I’ve never written about him. He’s…”
Forcing the truth. And if he knows that her uncle was involved in a devious financial plot, then he could say the word to cause harm to her family.
Pressing fingers to her brow, Verity grumbled. “I must do something. Perhaps another article. Or I could speak with him, perhaps.”
But he shook his head. “That won’t do any of us any good right now.”
“You don’t know that. Clearly, neither of us know Roberts very well. It must be worth the attempt at the very least. Surely he can see reason and keep the facts to himself,” Verity reasoned.
Or use his knowledge for blackmail.
“I doubt it.”
“He must not wish to cause any ire. We’ll ask him politely as friends to stay quiet, it’s worth the attempt.”
“No, it will only cause complications; we are not traveling about town to try and quiet everyone in one household at a time,” Dominic said sternly. “That will in no way achieve anything we have desired.”
She stared at him. “Why would you say that? I don’t understand. How can you just stand there? It’s like you don’t realize how critical every moment is. Gossip is a wildfire waiting to burn down a civilization. We must act quickly.”
“But we will not act foolishly. We’re not telling anyone.”
Verity searched his gaze as her brow furrowed deeper and deeper. He saw the rhythm her fingers made against her forearms, the tension in her body radiating discomfort. Then she started for the day.
“Maybe you don’t wish to act, but I do,” she said.
“We will act as we find necessary.”
“No,” Verity snapped as she whirled back around to face him as he leaned against his desk. Her cheeks were flushed. Eyes flashing, she went on to say, “You only want to act as you see is necessary. You don’t care about what I think.”
“Whatever you think doesn’t mean you are right,” he pointed out.
