Page 66 of Lady Controversial
‘You? When did you get here? He was…was, going to kill me. I couldn’t…I didn’t have enough strength to…I didn’t think he would…’
‘Hush now, it’s all right. He will never hurt you or anyone else ever again.’ He gathered her in his arms. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ he asked anxiously. ‘Let me take you home,’ he said, when she nodded and then allowed her head to loll against his chest.
Chapter Twenty-One
Isolda listened to Jane’s excited chatter with half an ear as the girls journeyed to their aunt’s abode in the carriage she had condescended to send for them. Jane was in alt because Isolda had agreed to her living with their aunt now, immediately, even before she attended her first society affair after the Christmas period. Jane simply assumed that Isolda had given up on Rose Cottage following the debacle at Finchdean Hall and would take up residence at her aunt’s as well.
Isolda had not told her sister that she had a very different reason for visiting their aunt.
Jane’s arrival was fussed over and she was allocated one of the best bedchambers in the opulent house. Jane danced around the room, arms flung wide and then threw those arms around their aunt’s rather saggy neck.
‘Thank you so very much, Aunt! I am the luckiest girl alive.’
‘There there, my dear.’ Their aunt, who disliked displays of affection, disentangled Jane’s arms and patted her shoulder. ‘It is no more than you deserve after your dreadful ordeal. Now we will leave you with Janet,’ she added, indicating the maid who had stood back unobtrusively, ‘to unpack and help you to settle. She is yours to command, my dear.’
‘Oh!’
Finally alone with her aunt in her drawing room, Isolda got straight to the point.
‘This is the last occasion upon which you will be required to endure my company,’ she said, ‘since I am entrusting Jane to your care.’
‘I see.’ Their aunt refused to meet Isolda’s eye and instead concentrated on stirring her tea with unnecessary vigour.
‘But before I leave, I should be grateful for some answers.’
‘To what?’ her aunt asked distantly.
‘I think you know very well, but if you insist upon my spelling it out, then I am more than ready to oblige you.’ Isolda drew in a sharp breath and spoke the words that had remained unarticulated for too long. ‘I am aware that I am not my father’s daughter.’ She fixed her aunt with a steady look. ‘I am also aware of the identity of my real father, and I can understand why the circumstances of my birth might have caused you pain and embarrassment. Even so, I am not responsible for any of it so why did you…whydoyou still hold me to blame?’
Isolda had the satisfaction of seeing her aunt look discomposed, a rare occurrence. She continued to sip at tea which had long since cooled, clearly formulating her response, probably aware that prevarication was no longer an option since Isolda would not hesitate to spread a truth that would embarrass her aunt if she was not transparent.
‘My husband adored you,’ she eventually said disdainfully, ‘and never lost an opportunity to remind me that you were his child.His!The circumstances of your birth are a subject that should never have been referred to. That way I might have been able to…well, to forgive his transgression.’
‘I see,’ Isolda paused, refusing to feel sympathy for a woman who had made her life uncomfortable in so many ways. A woman who did not deserve her compassion. ‘My understanding is that my mother was his preferred choice.’
Lady Bellingham flapped a dismissive hand. ‘She was not out. She had to wait her turn. That is the way these things are done, and she ought not to have flaunted herself in front of my future husband when he called. Her behaviour was frankly quite shocking. Anyway, where would society be if we all married whomsoever took our fancy?’
‘It seems to me that your marriage did not bring you any pleasure, so why latch onto Jane?’
‘None of this is her fault.’
‘Any more than it was mine. Why did you attach yourself to Lord Brooke?’ she asked. ‘You knew that he cheated Papa out of his estate, didn’t you?’
‘Who do you suppose taught him how to cheat at cards?’ she asked with a malevolent grin.
Isolda’s mouth fell open. ‘You!’ she asked, pointing a finger at her aunt for clarification.
Lady Bellingham gave a mirthless chuckle and nodded. ‘You are hardly in a position to cast stones, given the way you have been flaunting yourself in front of Lord Finchdean.’
‘How did you learn to cheat at cards?’ Isolda asked, curious about this most unexpected aspect of her socially superior aunt’s character.
‘A wayward governess.’ The woman grinned in a superior manner. ‘She was much better at that sort of thing than she was at conjugating French verbs, and her alternative lessons were far more useful too. No one assumes that a lady will stoop so low, which of course I did not. Well, not personally, but I saw in Brooke, your father’s friend, a means of gaining the ultimate revenge.’
‘I see.’ Isolda swallowed, taking a moment to digest what she had just learned. ‘But I still fail to see why any of what went on in the past can be blamed on me.’
‘Why do you think it was necessary for me to resort to cheating?’
Isolda shook her head as she glanced around the opulently appointed room. ‘I cannot begin to imagine.’
