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Though he applauded Mrs. Wynecott getting her comeuppance, the woman was malicious beyond measure. “She is a known rumormonger. She will, without a doubt, shred your reputation.”

“Let her. We know the truth, as do those I care the most about, and that is enough for me.” Georgine shrugged. “It sounds like her good name is about to become smudged, though she deserves what is coming to her.”

“No, Georgine. I fear you do not understand the full scope of the situation.” Robyn shook his head. Because Georgine didn’t have an evil mind, she couldn’t grasp how despicable another person could be. “It’s far more complicated than that. Mrs. Wynecott will fabricate…things.”

“What could she possibly say, Robyn, and who would believe her if she is the gossip, you say she is?”

Disgusting, abhorrent things he was not about to voice to Georgine.

“Even a whiff of a scandal could ruin all of you.” He had to make her understand how grave their predicament had become. “You and Regina will be shunned. Ostracized. Matilda, too.”

Women always bore the brunt of rumors.

Georgine chuckled, and at another time, Robyn would have relished her throaty laugh. “Because of a mean-spirited gossip? Surely you exaggerate.”

Robyn sucked in a long breath.

Who could have guessed when he got out of bed this morning how sharply the day would veer off course?

Bloody hell.

How had everything gone to rack and ruin faster than a debutante’s virtue at Vauxhall?

He’d considered courting Georgine to test the waters, so to speak. Now, however, in the suds up to his cravat, he would have to skip the wooing piece and leap straight into a marriage proposal.

God help him.

And Georgine.

“There’s no help for it, Georgine.

“We shall have to get married.

“Immediately.”