Page 133 of Oddity of the Ton
Dunton licked his lips as he glanced at Lady Arabella, who met Monty’s gaze, her eyes narrowing, as if she caught his true meaning.
“So—Reid has gone,” Monty said.
“It’s no wonder, considering the scandal.” Dunton shook his head in mock indignation. “That fool should never have entangled himself with the Howards—to be publicly humiliated by the younger daughter might garner pity, but to be fooled a second time by the elder is to expose oneself to ridicule.”
Monty’s stomach clenched. What had happened? Where was Eleanor?
“A scandal, you say?” he said, his voice rising.
“Involving both Miss Howard and her sister.” He turned to Arabella. “The younger Miss Howard was your particular friend at one point, wasn’t she?”
“I’ve told younotto speak of her,” Arabella said sharply. “She was never a true friend—I always had reservations about her background, and her behavior proved me right.”
“For heaven’s sake, will one of you tell me what’s happened?” Monty cried.
“I say, old boy, there’s no need to speak like that,” Dunton said. “I don’t know rightly what happened, but a few months ago, Miss Howard was revealed to have leanings of a very…sordidnature.”
“Revealed?”
“I believe it happened during a dinner party, where the two Howard girls entered into an altercation about a lover. Something to do with erotic drawings, or so I heard.”
Monty’s gut twisted.Drawings…
“You had a fortunate escape there, Whitcombe,” Dunton continued, “or the scandal could have taintedyourname.”
“And…the lover?”
“It must be Reid,” Dunton said, “given that he fled London the next morning. I should give him credit for his virility—but only a desperate man would shag a daughter of a trader, let alone two of them.”
“Dunton!” Lady Arabella slapped her fiancé’s arm.
He stared at the offending hand, and for a moment, Monty thought he’d forcibly remove it. Then his hoglike eyes creased with a smile of obsequiousness.
“I apologize, my dear. A man shouldn’t speak of whores in front of his betrothed.”
“Miss Howard is no whore,” Monty said.
“Soyouweren’t foolish enough to shag her, then.” Dunton chuckled. “Just as well—you’d likely catch the pox, given how often she’ll have spread her legs by now.”
Lady Arabella gave a sharp huff, her breath misting in the air, and Dunton glanced at her, spite glittering in his expression before he smiled.
The two of them were as bad as each other—and they deserved each other. But Monty would gain no satisfaction from quizzing them. Clearly they knew very little and merely indulged in gossip born of speculation.
But he had to find Eleanor.
And if he had to turn over every house in Cheapside to do so, he’d not stop until he had.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Eleanor dipped herpaintbrush into the jar and swirled it around, releasing a cloud of ultramarine that dissipated like wisps of smoke until it dissolved, rendering the water a pale blue color.
“Are you not cold, Mrs. Riley?”
She turned to see Reverend Staines standing over her shoulder.
“Not particularly,” she replied. “I find I can get so absorbed in my work that I lose all sense of the world around me.”
He glanced at the easel. “Exquisite.”
