Page 56 of The Duchess’ Modiste

“Truly!” Lady Shrewsbury declared with vigor. “Take my carriage and get away from here. I will talk to who I can and dismiss the article as invented rumors, but I fear . . .” She looked around.

“You fear what?” Leo asked, afraid of the sentence’s end.

“I fear that gossip like this is like a fire. It is quick to spread and . . .”

“Hard to put out,” Leo concluded, earning a firm nod from Lady Shrewsbury.

When another laugh came from nearby, Leo had had enough.

“Chloe, we need to go.”

“You’ll find my carriage at the end of this path, by the gate.” Lady Shrewsbury pointed down a path. “Go, now.”

Leo thanked her another time and took Chloe’s arm, aware that Chloe was so frozen with the scandal sheet in her hands she struggled to walk. Leo led her forward, feeling her fingers begin to dig into his arm in her effort to hold onto him.

“Leo . . . I cannot believe it,” she whispered, for only him to hear as he led her down the path. “For someone to write this, it is venomous. There is hate here. True hate! How could I have upset someone so much that they would wish to writethis?”

“Do not think on it, Chloe, I beg you. For now, let us get you out of here.” Leo led her forward another time, but Chloe wasn’t looking where she was going. She was too busy darting her gaze between the scandal sheet in her hands and the people nearby.

There was fear in her expression. Pure fear. Leo could see it in the frantic movement of those glistening eyes, wet with tears, and how her lips trembled.

“Please, Chloe. Come away.” Leo abandoned the link of their arms and shifted to taking her hand. At last, he caught her attention.

Chloe followed him down the path, with one hand hung limp at her side holding the scandal sheet, and the other clutched tightly in Leo’s own. When she tripped on the hem of her gown, clearly not looking where she was going, Leo was there to keep her standing.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, for her ears only. The words seemed to do something to her, for her breath hitched as she fought even harder to hold back her tears.

At the edge of the park, Leo caught sight of more of Chloe’s customers, ladies he had seen wandering her shop just a few days before and admiring it at length. This time, they did not call out to Chloe, longing to speak to her. They turned on their heel and walked away as quickly as they could. As if the gossip that hung about her was contagious.

“The world has gone mad,” Leo muttered in anger, hurrying to find Lady Shrewsbury’s carriage.

They found it within a minute, for Jessica stood outside, gesturing to it. Leo ignored the footman that was moving toward the carriage door and opened it himself, not releasing Chloe’s hand as he helped her inside. Leo gave the orders to his lodgings and then followed Chloe in, releasing her at last when he sat on the carriage bench opposite her.

“Chloe,” he murmured, as the carriage set off, swaying them from side to side.

“It’s all ruined.”

“What?”

“Everything.” Chloe discarded the scandal sheet between them. It hovered in the air for a moment, like a feather, swaying from side to side before it drifted down to their feet. As it rested on the bottom of the carriage, Chloe met Leo’s gaze, revealing that she had clearly lost her fight with the tears.

Seeing her crying urged Leo to move forward, until he was in danger of falling off the carriage bench. Tears trickled down her cheeks fast, and her breathing became stuttered.

“No one will give me their business now, will they? If everyone rescinds their orders, then I will be plunged into debt. Oh, good God, Leo . . . I’ll have to give up the shop. Worse! What if I cannot repay the debt? There is such a thing as debtors’ prison after all!”

“Chloe, you are jumping ahead here.” Leo leaned forward and took her hands in both of his, pulling her to lean toward him. “We are not there yet. I factored in savings for you, remember? If the scandal passes, then the savings should see you through the loss on these materials.”

“If, Leo. You saidif.And you are right!” Her breath hitched another time. “People will not come back now. Look at what it says.” She released one of his hands, so she could reach down and snatch up the scandal sheet another time. She waved it in Leo’s direction, clearly angry at what was written there, so much so that she crinkled the paper.

Leo was angry too. He wanted to snatch that paper away and tear it into pieces, so that they never had to read such hateful words again.

“They accuse me of too many things for the business to possibly survive. They said I scammed my clients. Worse, that I actually exchanged favors . . .” She couldn’t finish the sentence, gulping. “They have painted me as aharlot.” She practically whispered the word, shuddering at it.

“Your friends will discard the rumors. They will not give this a second thought, and you know it. What of Lady Shrewsbury? She was there with you now, protecting you.”

“Yes, but a business cannot survive on Lady Shrewsbury and your sister alone, can it?” Chloe was in despair. She released Leo’s hands and fell back on the carriage seat, flinging her hands to her face to hide her face from him, crying harder.

Leo had never known this feeling before. There was such an urge to protect Chloe, but it was an urge he could not fulfill. He rather imagined the world was at the carriage door, with pitchforks and torches made of fire, and there was no way he could take Chloe away from them.

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