No Choice but Seduction (48 page)

“No, Letty only admitted her rudeness to you and your brother.”

All eyes were on Letitia now. The woman didn’t look the least bit embarrassed. In fact, her expression turned mulish when she said in her defense, “You have been in a decline ever since that solicitor you retained in America sent word of Adeline’s death. Three times you’ve been sick enough to summon the doctor since then. This mourning has to stop. It’s killing you! And
she
”—Letitia pointed an accusing finger at Katey—“would have just made it worse. She’s going to bring back all the regrets and recriminations—”

“Stop it,” Sophie cut in. “I’m not the one with regrets. I’m not the one who chased Adeline away. And my mourning began the day she left England.”

Before their arguing got any worse, Katey said, “Why did she leave? She told me you had disowned her, but I’m beginning to think it was the other way around.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Sophie said with a heartfelt sigh. “Adeline’s mistake was in going to her sister for advice about the baby instead of coming to me. With six years’ difference in their ages, they had never been close. And Adeline didn’t know that Letty had already convinced us that Sir Anthony was just amusing himself with her while he was at Haverston for the holidays.”

“I sensed that your husband didn’t think I was serious,” Anthony said. “That he was just humoring me.”

“Indeed, we all thought you’d get bored soon enough and hie yourself back to London. That a baby was the result instead seemed to support Letty’s contention that you were just a rake, and she went straight to my husband, Oliver, with the news. What followed happened so quickly, all in the same day, I never even had a chance to assure Adeline that I would support whatever decision she made. I never dreamed that decision would be to leave home.”

“But why didn’t she come to me?” Anthony demanded.

“Oh, she was going to. Never doubt it. That was her first answer when Oliver gave her
his
heartless solution, that she’d be sent off to have the baby in secrecy, then be forced to give it away. They overwhelmed her with their anger when she protested. My husband, and Letitia especially, placed so much guilt and shame on her shoulders, it was a wonder she was able to make any decision at all that day. When she said she would go to you, my husband locked her in her room. But Letitia, with all the animosity she had for your family, went to her and warned her that you’d never marry her, that you’d only been toying with her. Adeline must have believed her.”

“That isn’t true,” Anthony insisted.

“It doesn’t matter if it was or not if she believed it long enough to decide on the action she took instead.”

“But I wanted to marry her!”

“Did you tell her that?”

“No, I hadn’t yet told her. I was working up to it. I wanted to court her properly first.”

“And seduce her!” Letitia interjected, garnering a flush from Anthony.

Sophie shook her head sadly. “I doubt it would have mattered to my husband that your intentions were honorable. Letitia was Oliver’s favorite, and she managed to fire his anger against your family from the day you first came to call, enough that he wouldn’t consider a match there even if you had asked. She trotted out every scandal associated with your family that she’d been able to dredge up, that the marquis was raising a bastard as his heir, the duels James had been involved in over women, that you had already had numerous scandalous affairs since you moved to London, proving you hadn’t gone there to look for a wife, that you were instead following in the rakish footsteps of your brother James.”

“There was no need for James or I to marry when both of our elder brothers had male heirs by then,” Anthony said in his defense. “I certainly had no plan to do so
before
I met Adeline. Falling in love with her changed that.” Anthony’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Why was that allowed to even happen? If you all thought the worst of me, why didn’t you just show me the door to begin with?”

Sophie admonished him, “You’re a Malory. Do you really need to ask that? Oliver didn’t want to insult your family. And besides, we thought you’d get bored soon enough and return to London.”

“Adeline gave no clue a’tall that any of you had bad feelings toward my family. Why is that?”

“Because she didn’t know, not until that day we learned of the baby. Prior to that, my husband feared that
she
would end up insulting you, she was so young and impulsive back then. So she was merely warned not to put much stock in your attention, that you were merely being neighborly. It was stressed that you weren’t in the market for a wife. And we waited, and hoped, that you would just go away.”

Anthony raked an agitated hand through his hair. “Good God, she should have known I would protect her and our baby from her father’s heartless plans. I still don’t understand why she didn’t take the chance to come to me.”

“Because she believed me that you wouldn’t marry her, and why wouldn’t she?” Letitia said haughtily. “It was the truth as it appeared, that your only interest was in racking up conquests back then. She was devastated, of course, but that was no more than she deserved for shamelessly succumbing to your seduction. And while our reactions may seem heartless to you, you know as well as I that intentions are meaningless if no one knows of them other than you. You had done nothing in your life up to that point to suggest that you weren’t fast on your way to becoming a rakehell, which, as we’re all aware, you more than succeeded at for many a year.”

Even Katey knew that her father couldn’t deny that, but Sophie took pity on him. “That was merely assumed, Sir Anthony, but these are the only facts that tell the story. My husband and Letty were checking on Adeline constantly, several times an hour, to make sure she was still locked in her room. A servant was even dispatched to keep watch on Haverston and put you off from visiting that day, if need be. Adeline knew that. So even if she had faith in you despite what Letty had told her, she obviously thought they could find her quickly if she went to Haverston. And she’d been told that Oliver was going to take her by ship to the Continent the very next morning to get her far away from you, that she wouldn’t be coming home until after her bastard was no longer an embarrassment to our family. He never guessed how desperate she was to keep the child. Despite their close watch on her, she escaped out her window. We never saw her again. I had one letter from her telling me that she’d married and was going to raise her child in America. I never forgave my husband for driving her away from us.”

“You never forgave me either,” Letitia said bitterly, with a glimpse of hurt in her expression.

“Of course I did. You were both my daughters. I didn’t pick favorites like your father did. And you were miserable enough already. You didn’t need me adding to that with recriminations. How many times did I tell you to let it go, to release the past and get on with your life? But you never stopped hating the world for the bad hand you’d been dealt. But what
is
going to stop is your making decisions for me. Did it not occur to you even once that Katey’s presence in our lives might help to heal those old wounds? How could you turn her away without even telling me?”

“You were sick!”

“That doesn’t wash, my girl, and you know it.”

“She’s a Malory,” Letitia snarled. “They’ll never be welcome here!”

“Ah, to the heart of it,” Anthony said, and his expression turned distinctly menacing, as did his tone when he added, “Care to let the Malorys know why we’re so detested? Scandals don’t generate this kind of personal malice.”

Chapter Fifty-Four

T
HE SILENCE IN THE ROOM
was thick with anger as Anthony and Letitia stared at each other balefully. Sophie glanced between them with annoyance. She was still tightly holding Katey’s hand in her lap, almost as if restraining Katey from joining the fray.

“Are you going to tell them, Letty, or must I?” Sophie finally said when no response from her daughter was forthcoming.

Letitia clamped her mouth shut tighter, looking furious. She didn’t want anything said, wanted her secret kept. Sophie obviously disagreed and had the last word on it.

But as if emotions weren’t high, Sophie casually inquired, “How old were you, Letty, when you fell in love with him?”

“Fourteen,” Letty mumbled.

“Too young. It should have faded away. She rarely saw him to foster it. But it hung on and got stronger.”

It wasn’t apparent whom Sophie was speaking to. Herself, the room at large? Her eyes remained sadly on her daughter.

Anthony, glancing between them, burst out, “You can’t be suggesting she was in love with
me
!”

Sophie glanced at him and chuckled. “Goodness, no, you were still a child yourself back then. It was your brother Jason who caught her eye and her heart from the moment she first saw him.”

Incredulous, Anthony said, “Serious, no-nonsense Jason? He’s been the head of our family since he was eighteen. He never had time to socialize, much less think about romance.”

“Well, he was quite the dashing figure back then. And Letty haunted Havers Town with the mere hope that he might make one of his rare appearances in town and give her a chance to speak with him.”

Anthony’s eyes widened. “I think I was with him one of those times. She stopped us to chat. I remember thinking she was wearing her heart on her sleeve, but Jason didn’t notice it.”

At the reminder of how insignificant she’d been in the eyes of her love, Letitia snarled, “He never noticed! Half the times I spoke to him, he had to be reminded who I was!”

“You expected more?” Anthony scoffed. “You weren’t even out of the schoolroom yet. Besides, between raising the rest of us and running the estate, Jason always had too much on his mind.”

“I think you misunderstand, Sir Anthony,” Sophie said in a soothing tone that brought back a degree of calmness to the room. “This went on for years, even beyond her introdction to society. Letty had her come-out in Gloucester when she was eighteen. She tried to get out of it, but Oliver insisted. For two Seasons she ignored all offers. All she wanted was to come home so she could be near Jason again, even if she only managed to see him a few times a year. After two unsuccessful Seasons, Oliver stopped insisting.”

“Why didn’t she just tell Jason how she felt?” Anthony asked.

“It may not seem like it now, but she used to be quite shy. Besides, a lady is never that bold. You know that as well as I.”

“When it’s ruining their life, maybe they should be,” Anthony replied.

“I was going to,” Letitia admitted in a low voice. “I begged mother to invite him to dinner. It was a mistake. All he did was talk about his flowers and crops, which my father wasn’t the least bit interested in, and he swore afterwards that we wouldn’t be doing that again.”

“I take it your parents didn’t know about this great love you harbored?” Anthony asked Letitia.

“Of course not. And I never did manage to speak with him alone that evening.”

“Why didn’t you give up by then?” Anthony asked carefully. “My brother apparently gave you no encouragement a’tall, barely even knew you were alive. Why did you cling to hope that that would change?”