Page 72 of A Stolen Heart

The other man smiled faintly. Alexandra, watching him, wondered what it was about him that made her instinctively dislike him. He was an attractive man—tall, with well-molded features and a slash of silver at each temple that gave him a rather dashing look. Perhaps it was the thinness of his mouth or the way his smile never reached his eyes. Whatever it was, he reminded her of a predatory animal, the sort that she would never do business with, no matter how attractive the offer might seem.

“You wound me,” Exmoor said lightly. “But you are correct, of course. There was a matter I wished to broach with you. I have heard some rather, ah, alarming rumors about our mutual friend, the Countess.”

Sebastian said nothing, merely raised his brows.

“I have heard—well, there is no other way to say it, I suppose, except baldly—I have heard that the Countess believes Miss Ward is her long-lost granddaughter, returned from the dead.”

“I scarcely see how that is any of your business,” Sebastian retorted tightly.

“Not my business that my cousin’s child is said to have miraculously returned from the grave?” Exmoor asked in an amused tone.

“What the Countess thinks or does is not your concern.”

“I am the head of the family. I think it concerns me deeply if the Countess is suffering from senile delusions. She is a lovely old woman, of course, but if she is no longer right in the head, I should—”

“There is nothing wrong with the Countess’s mind,” Thorpe retorted coldly, his eyes level on the other man’s. “I would take it as a grievous insult if anyone were to suggest otherwise.”

“My dear Thorpe, don’t tell me you are hinting at calling me out?”

“I am hinting at nothing. I am telling you that no one says anything against the Countess in my presence. She has ample reason for suspecting that Miss Ward is Lord Chilton’s daughter. I can assure you that the Countess has a great deal more wit than many who are younger than she.”

Exmoor looked at him shrewdly. “Don’t tell me that you believe this fairy tale, as well.”

“I believe that the Countess is of perfectly sound mind,” Thorpe replied. “And I would dispute anyone who tried to claim otherwise.”

“I would never dream of it,” Exmoor said smoothly. He glanced from Sebastian to Alexandra, and Alexandra felt a little shiver run through her, as if a snake had slithered across her path. “However, as the head of the Montford family, I do have an interest in anything that touches on it, however true…or false. I will do whatever it takes to keep the family name from being tainted.”

“I am sure the Countess will be pleased that you are such a watchdog of the family honor,” Thorpe said dryly. “Now, if you will excuse us, I believe the opera is about to begin again.”

He whisked Alexandra away from Exmoor and strode down the hall toward the Countess’s box. Alexandra cast a glance at him. His face was taut and furious.

“The head of the Montford family!” he spluttered. “It’s a blow to the Countess every time she looks at him and knows that he occupies the place where her son should be.”

“I hope you don’t expect me to believe that there is no bad blood between the two of you,” Alexandra said.

“Nicola despises him,” he said obliquely. “Bucky doesn’t know the full story, only that Richard was responsible for breaking Nicola’s heart.”

“What?” Alexandra looked at him, astonished. “Nicola was in love with him?”

Sebastian shook his head. “No. Nicola and her mother were staying at the Buckminster estate in the country after her father’s death. They are cousins, you know. Buckminster is not far from Tidings, the Exmoor estate where Richard lived. Richard, apparently, was quite enamored of Nicola. He is older than she, but still, it would have been considered a good match. But Nicola did not love him. The rumor is that she loved another.”

“Who?”

Sebastian shrugged. “Bucky doesn’t know, and Nicola won’t talk about it. Apparently she didn’t tell even her sister. I assume it must have been someone unsuitable, for her to have kept it secret. Most of what Bucky knows is surmise on his mother’s part. Nicola seemed suspiciously happy, then, suddenly, she was grief-stricken. She wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t talk to anyone, went around looking like a wraith. And she refused to be around the Earl. If he came to call, she left. She would not accompany the family if they went to his house. After a week or two, she left to stay with her grandmother in London. Her mother and sister remained, and about a year later, Exmoor married her sister, Deborah. Nicola rarely sees her. She won’t step foot inside Tidings, Bucky says.”

“Poor Nicola.” She paused and looked at Sebastian. “Is it because of her that there is ill will between you and the Earl?”

Sebastian looked at her, and a reluctant smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Persistent, aren’t you? No, that is not the reason for it, though it certainly does not endear him to me. However, my dislike for the Earl goes back farther. He was—let us say that he was part of an episode that destroyed my naïve illusions in a particularly painful way.” He grimaced. “Part of a past that I would as soon forget.”

“I see.” Alexandra thought she did. Somehow the Earl must have been tangled up in the scandal Nicola and Penelope had told her about, the affair that had driven Sebastian to leave the country when he was young. Impulsively she laid her other hand on Sebastian’s arm. “I’m sorry.”

He looked into her eyes, surprised, and smiled. “Don’t be. It was long ago and is no longer painful.”

“It’s not?”

He chuckled. “No. Looking back on it now, it seems merely the indiscretions of a callow youth. Hardly the tragedy it appeared to me at the time.”

Alexandra smiled, finding herself curiously pleased by his words.