Page 27 of The Ruin of Miss Amelia Burrowes

“Because she is going to help restore Amelia’s reputation.” Nathan handed them into his landau.

Mama’s eyes grew so wide Amelia could see them even in the darkness of the carriage. “She is? How extraordinary.”

“But what are you going to do, my dear?” Amelia addressed her betrothed, still not sure what he had in mind. “How are you going to make her tell the truth? And to whom?” Lady Carrington knew everyone in the ton; however, Amelia doubted she would, at a moment’s notice, send word to every person in London supporting Amelia’s side of the story.

“Just trust me, love.” Nathan’s white teeth gleamed in the moonlight as he smiled broadly. “I have a plan.”

****

The next morning, Nathan and Amelia were ushered into a small reception room, tucked away in the front of Lady Carrington’s family townhouse. Austerely furnished, with one chair and only two pictures on the walls, its obvious purpose was to make unwanted callers ill at ease, but Nathan cared not a jot for the room’s purpose. Lady Carrington would be the uncomfortable one before this interview was over. He looked at Amelia, sitting pale and nervous, her restless hands pulling at the strings of her reticule, a sure sign of her distress.

“Do not be afraid, my love.” He stood beside her and rested what he hoped was a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “We have the proof.” He lifted the letter case in his hand, the precious letters tucked safely inside.

“But what if she refuses to help us, Nathan?” Amelia looked more miserable than he’d ever seen her. “Mama was right. Lady Carrington was never very friendly toward me. And she did nothing all those years ago to support my claims of innocence.”

“She will not refuse.” He pursed his lips, disgusted by the lady’s harmful actions toward Amelia. “Trust me.”

She gazed up at him and sighed. “I do, my dear. More than—”

Lady Carrington sailed into the room, a less than welcoming look on her pinched face. “Good morning, my lord. Miss Burrowes.”

Amelia shot to her feet and wobbled, so that Nathan had to steady her. He then turned his full attention to the matter at hand. “Good morning, my lady. We have come to ask you for your assistance in an urgent matter.”

“So you intimated last evening, Lord Ainsley.” The lady looked as though butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. “But I do not see how I can be of help to you.”

“Please allow me to explain.” Nathan clenched his teeth as he withdrew the sheaf of faded letters from the letter case. “Your son corresponded with Miss Burrowes while they were betrothed. The contents of these letters were of a rather intimate nature, in which he suggests and, in some cases, almost demands that she give herself to him before their marriage is solemnized.”

“I have no knowledge of my son’s personal relationship with Miss Burrowes.” Lady Carrington raised her chin and tried to stare Nathan down. “If she succumbed to his advances—”

He wagged the papers before the lady’s face. “In none of these letters does he admit that the lady did so. Yet Miss Burrowes has been castigated and made an outcast by Polite Society because they believe she did, in fact, give into your son’s demands.”

“I have no doubt there are other letters in which she admits to her fall.”

“No, there are not, my lady,” Amelia spoke up, incensed at the woman’s audacity. “Because I never gave in to him, no matter what he may have said.”

“That is not the opinion of the public, my dear.” Lady Carrington stared witheringly at Amelia. “And where there is smoke, there is always fire.”

“Except in this case, Lady Carrington, the fire was actually hidden far away from the smoke.” Nathan bit back the words he would’ve much preferred to use. “All the way up in Toot Hill, Essex.”

Lady Carrington’s face paled, although she raised her head and tried to play the matter off. “I’m sure I don’t have any idea what you mean, my lord.”

“I’m sure you do, my lady. Because I am speaking of Miss Mary Adams, also known as Mrs. Carr of Toot Hill.”

Lady Carrington’s blue eyes stood out like two China blue saucers. “I have no earthly idea of whom you are speaking.”

“Oh, I believe you do, Lady Carrington, as you have been supporting Mary and her son for the past ten years.” Nathan cocked his head. “I was wondering if you would prefer for Mary and her child’s identities to remain hidden from the ton, at least until your granddaughter makes her brilliant match this Season.” He really did enjoy the look of horror that flitted across the woman’s face. “Or if you think, as I myself do, that the whole scandal needs to be revealed.” He held his hands up as if pointing to a masthead in The Morning Post. “Dead earl’s love child with maid exposed to the ton.”

Narrowing her eyes, Lady Carrington glanced from him to Amelia and back again. “What is it you want me to do, Ainsley?”

“I want you to set the record straight with the ton before our nuptials are solemnized next week.” He spoke lightly, but Nathan’s gaze was so sharp it might’ve pierced the woman’s breast. “I want you to talk to every person with whom you have an acquaintance in the whole of London and tell them you have it on the best authority, your son’s own writings, that he and Miss Burrowes never overstepped the boundaries of good deportment during their betrothal, and therefore Miss Burrowes is completely innocent of all she has been accused of.”

“And you think this declaration will be believed after so long?” The lady looked at them with something akin to pity. “What do you think I can say that will turn the tide of public opinion when it has been so set against her for ten years?”

“I am certain you can be persuasive when you wish to be, my lady. And you will certainly have the motivation to do so.” Nathan stared into her eyes with a cold hatred in his heart. “Because if you are not successful in reversing the ton’s opinion of Miss Burrowes, I will personally bring Mary Adams to London and parade her and her son around Hyde Park at the fashionable hour and see who notices that little Johnny looks the very image of his father.”

For a moment, Nathan believed the lady would swoon. She swayed toward one side until he was certain she would topple onto the floor, but she caught herself, shaking her head and clenching her jaw. “Very well, Lord Ainsley. I will do as much as I can before your wedding on…?”

“Monday next.”