Page 92 of A Sight to Behold
For a moment, Carolyn’s gaze darted from one to the other and she remained silent. “Who…how…is that…why?”
“They are my guests.” the Earl of Langley spoke slowly and loudly, for everyone to hear. “Dr. Felix Leafley, my dentist, Mr. Alfie Collins, my apothecary, Dr. Andre Fernando, the orthopedist, Miss Wendy Folsham, the best nurse in Town, and the esteemed Dr. Nicholas Folsham, with his fiancée, Lady Penelope, with whom you’re well acquainted.”
With every word, the witch turned more and more the shade of her green dress.
“And you know us, by reputation at least,” Lance said. “Looks like we’re back.” He gave a lopsided smile and exuded sheer noble prowess. It must have been so long that Lance and Isabel had planned aputschof the Ton.
“And why do you need so many doctors, my lord?” Carolyn’s voice was seeped in venom of the extra dangerous kind, a woman about to be scorned by society.
“Doesn’t everyone?” The earl shrugged.
“The doctors here are rather amazing and Dr. Nick Folsham here operated on me earlier this week.” Lance now turned to the crowd and spoke so grandly it was as if he’d rehearsed it. “I was blind for nearly four years and now, thanks to him, I can see!”
The crowd came to life with appreciative chatter.
“You poisoned my husband,” Carolyn retaliated with an accusation that had already become a moot point before she’d uttered it. The room filled with excited chatter.
“No, you poisoned my father! All week, we’ve been leaching it from his system and being absorbed in his body so that he be sober enough to see you for who you really are!” Pippa brushed a strand out of her face that had fallen from her upswept hair. “He’s in the library now releasing the poison you gave him from his stomach,” she said.
The crowd gasped and a few sounds ofarghandughemerged. “You’ve been poisoning him for years with mushroom cap from your father’s…” Pippa waved at Nick. “What do you call a charlatan’s practice if it’s not a practice at all?” she asked him.
He was speechless and shook his head. “It’s not a practice if he doesn’t have a license. And he doesn’t even have a license of good standing from the local bishop.”
“Youare the charlatans!” Carolyn pointed dramatically and curled her back as if her finger could shoot the doctors with lightning bolts. “You! And you! And you! Andyoupaint people’s teeth with gold for a bloody fortune!” She stopped on Felix.
“Paint?” the earl asked.
“I saw you smiling at your little wife. Your teeth are—”
“Filledwith gold, yes. Not painted. Dr. Felix Leafley, as I said, is my dentist. And if he weren’t as good at his job as he is, I wouldn’t be able to smile at my dear wife. The Countess of Langley, mind you, deserves the best of me.”
“And yet, you are a spare parts warehouse!” Carolyn shouted.
The crowd gasped.
“What did you call me?” The earl stepped forward and towered over her.
“False teeth, false eyes, what else did you need help reconstituting for your young bride,hm?” Carolyn made a showof trailing her eyes down from his face to his chest and she stopped in his middle.
“If he’s a spare parts warehouse, then so am I, by your definition.” Lance joined the earl. Isabel tried to hold him back, but he was unstoppable. “Except that you’re mistaken with one important thing, Lady Pemberton, the sixth, is it? You’ve replaced five other wives and I suspect some of their departures can be traced back to your father’s influence. For years, ‘Sir’ Matthews has used the information he obtained in confidence to blackmail the Ton, hasn’t he?”
“What an absurd accusation!”
“Is it?” Lance spoke clearly for the other guests to hear. “Then why do I know that Viscount Grantham seeks him out? Or Lady Sheridan?” Carolyn’s eyes grew wide. “Isn’t it true that Lady Sheridan’s second daughter was poised to marry the viscount’s oldest son but then that arrangement was unexpectedly dissolved due to an unknown reason?”
Even Nick was impressed. What kind of dirt had Lance dug up on the information Matthews held?
“What if she was?” Her face grew red, and Nick could hear the shaking of fury in her voice.
“Well then why would he pay your father every month?”
She stepped back.
“It’s hush money, that’s why!”
Sheharumphed.
“And if he doesn’t pay the sum that’s equivalent of Lady Sheridan’s daughter’s dowry on the date of their marriage, your father will tell some awful secret, won’t he?”
