Page 48 of Married to a Scandalous Spinster
Gemma let out a breath. “I had an… interesting afternoon.”
Wyatt raised his eyebrows.
“Veronica tells me you have been giving my family money.”
Wyatt faltered, a look of uncertainty passing over his features. “I have, yes. I… I am sorry if that was?—”
Impulsively, Gemma threw her arms around him. “Thank you,” she gushed. “Thank you so much.” For a moment, Wyatt was caught off guard, then his arms slid around her waist, pulling her close. His lips found the bare skin at the base of her neck. Gemma let herself sink against him. She realized how achinglysecure she felt in his arms. As though all the hurtful words she had heard that day no longer had the power to reach her.
“I am sorry I did not tell you,” he said, his voice muffled by her hair. “I did want you to think I saw your family as charity or anything like that. The last thing I wished to do was shame you.”
Gemma pulled back, suddenly embarrassed by her impulsive show of affection. Unable to relinquish her hold on him entirely, she kept her hands in his. “I know. And I am so grateful. Veronica says Father has been getting worse. They say he got into a fight at White's. I don't know what?—”
The door flew open suddenly and the Duchess stormed into the room.
Wyatt released Gemma's hands. “Mother. Gemma and I were speaking.” His voice was crisp and cold. “I'll thank you not to come charging in here like?—”
“I don't care what the two of you were doing.” Gemma realized her mother-in-law was brandishing something in her hand—a newspaper of sorts. She charged up to them and waved it in Wyatt's face. “Just look at this. Look at it!” Her voice rose to an alarmingly high pitch.
Wyatt took the paper. A gossip sheet, Gemma realized sickly. She dared a glance at the Duchess, but the woman's gaze was so fierce that she turned away at once.
Wyatt raised his eyebrows. “The gossip pages, Mother? Do you not have more class than that?”
His mother jabbed a long finger against the paper, ignoring her son's jibe. “Just look at this,” she demanded again. “Look at what yourwifehas been doing.”
Gemma's stomach roiled. Her name was in the gossip pages? How was that possible? She had barely left Larsen Manor since she had arrived.
Wyatt scanned the page, his dark brows knitting in a deep frown. “Gemma. This says you have been caught having an affair.”
Gemma's eyes widened. “An affair?” Her throat was suddenly dry, and she could barely get the words out. “But I?—”
“Can you truly claim to be surprised?” hissed his mother. “You know the kind of family she comes from. I told you not to marry her! I always knew she would be nothing but trouble!” She turned her blazing eyes on Gemma. “You are justdeterminedto ruin our good name, aren't you? Is it not enough that your own family is an utter disgrace to high society? You will not be happy until the lot of us are begging on the street!” She shook her head furiously, pacing back and forth across the room. She whacked at the page again as she passed Wyatt. “This never would have happened if you had married Miss Henford.”
Gemma felt tears welling behind her eyes. “This is a lie,” she managed. “I swear it. I never… I would never…” She drew in her breath, forcing herself to regain the composure on which she prided herself. “You know this is not true. I have hardly left Larsen Manor in a fortnight.”
“So you claim,” his mother snapped. “But according to this report, numerous people saw you climbing into a carriage alone with an unidentified man in Covent Garden on Tuesday night.” Her eyes narrowed. “Outside the Theatre Royal.”
Gemma's stomach churned. The Theatre Royal? The very place Wyatt had asked to take her, and she had declined…
Wyatt's glance darted between Gemma and his mother. What would he do now, Gemma wondered sickly? If she were thrown out of Larsen in disgrace, the ruin of her family would be complete. They may as well pack up and disappear from London for good. Veronica and Jane would never marry, and her father would?—
“Of course, I know this is not true.” Wyatt screwed up the page angrily and flung it into the unlit grate. “How dare you even suggest such things, Mother?”
The door flew open again and the Dowager Duchess strode into the room. She was in her stockinged feet and a garishly patterned purple robe, her gray hair in a messy cloud around her face. “What on earth is going on in here?” she demanded. “Some of us are trying to have a nap.”
“TheDuchesshas been caught having an affair,” Gemma's mother-in-law hissed, spitting the word out as though it were poison.
The Dowager Duchess snorted. “Oh please. An affair. I've never heard such rubbish in my life. Where in Heaven's name did you hear such a thing?”
His mother's cheeks were close to turning purple. “It was reported by the newspapers.”
“Rubbish,” Wyatt snapped. “It was reported in the gossip pages, Mother. I thought you would have the sense to know the difference.”
“Hardly,” the Dowager Duchess snorted before Wyatt shot her a warning look and she fell silent.
Wyatt's voice began to rise. “Gemma would never lower herself to such levels. She is a far better person than that. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Mother.”
His mother opened her mouth to speak, then fell silent, but she gathered herself quickly. “Do you not think you ought to at least make inquiries?” A little of the brassiness was gone from her voice.
