Page 55 of Seducing Sophia (Scholars of Seduction)

“I didn’t know William was your friend,” she said.

“And you expect me to believe that?” he asked. “Is this your ultimate revenge on Will for not marrying you?”

“Of course not…”

“Don’t play me for a fool,” he said. “What is it? You couldn’t foist your brat onto William so you decided to try for his best friend?”

“No!” she cried. “I had no idea who you were. And how dare you speak of my son so! Henry is William’s son, despite what you say, or what he told you.”

“Do not speak of my friend,” he said. “You haven’t the right. You destroyed him, and now you try to sully his memory. Did you laugh at my expense when you fluttered your eyelashes and pretended to imply how much your husband had mistreated you?”

“Adrian, please…”

“You will address me as Colonel FitzRoy, madam,” he said. “You deceived me by making me believe that you were a respectable widow. Does Mrs. Huntington know you’re a liar?”

“This has nothing to do with Lysetta!” she cried. “She doesn’t care about my past, or about the past of any of us. She understands that people can make foolish mistakes and suffer for them, and that we should all be given the security of anonymity, and a second chance.”

“Fine words for a harridan,” he said. “You’ve not exactly suffered for having whored yourself out, have you? After all, you still have your life, whereas my friend is dead.

“You think I wanted him to die?”

“Perhaps not,” he said. “But you wanted his title, didn’t you?”

“I thought I was in love!” she cried. “William courted me and I fell for his charms. When he finally persuaded me to let him…” She broke off, her cheeks flaming with embarrassment.

“To let him fuck you?”

She flinched at his words.

“Oh no, my dear Miss Graham,” he said. “Let us speak the truth now we know it. You spread your legs for him and let him fuck you. I hope he paid you handsomely.”

She drew back her hand and slapped him across the face with full force.

“How dare you!” she cried, curling her hand into a fist, her palm stinging. “Yes, he paid me—is that what you wish to hear? He tossed a coin at me, while telling me that he had no further use for me now he’d taken what he wanted. Then he tossed me a second coin to fund a backstreet doctor to rid me of any child I might have conceived. Is it any wonder, then, why I never told Henry about his father—the man who wanted him dead?”

He flinched at her words, his eyes widening in horror.

“I wish to leave,” she said. “This very moment.”

For a moment she caught a flicker of regret in his expression, then it disappeared.

“Nothing would give me greater pleasure,” he said. “I’ll send for the carriage.”

“Give me twenty minutes,” she said. “I need to wake my son, and pack our trunks.”

He hesitated, a look of sorrow in his expression, then he nodded.

“Very well,” he said. “Your wish is my command. I’ll send for Mrs. Davis to help you.”

“Thank you—Colonel.”

She dipped a curtsey, then strode back to the house, resisting the urge to glance back.

As soon as she entered the building, the tears she’d fought to suppress began to fall.

After William had ruined her, she believed that she had built a fortress around her heart strong enough to withstand any siege. But she had been wrong.

It was all too clear that she had lived her life with no real understanding of the agony of heartbreak.

Until now.

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