Revenge Wears Rubies (34 page)

She sailed out of the room and then past a horrified Bradley, who barely managed to get the door open in time for her stormy departure.

She returned to find Haley, still prostrate with tears across her bed.

“How could anyone be so hateful? So horrible to . . .” She lifted her head to look at her aunt in miserable supplication. “He deliberately set out to ruin me! He never had any intentions of . . . and I was so blind and stupid, I never saw the danger!”

Haley put her head back down, closing her eyes. “No, that’s not true,” she corrected herself in a broken little whisper. “I saw the danger. I just convinced myself that somehow it didn’t matter. That he . . . wouldn’t let me be hurt.”

“Did he promise to marry you, dearest?”

Haley sat up quickly, like a wounded tigress, lashing out at anyone foolish enough to draw near. “I want you to know that I blame you in some small part for this!”

“Me?” Alice sat down, astonished. “What did I have to do with it?”

“You! With your bells and your adventures, telling me to use both hands to reach for my happiness!” Haley lifted up from the bed, her face red from crying.

Alice shook her head slowly. “I thought . . . they say it is better to lose your heart than to not know your own heart, and I . . . I only wanted your happiness.”

“Well, I should have remembered that if you use both hands to reach for what you want, then everything else is dropped, isn’t it?”

“I only wanted the best for you! You’re too young to—”

“And when am I too old, Aunt? When do I put the bells away in time to realize that there are no more adventures and that I have no husband and no future? When did you realize it? When did you realize that you’d held onto the wrong things with both hands and ended up with nothing and no one?”

Alice gasped, the words finding their mark. “I . . .”

Haley’s malice crumbled into regret in a single breath and she threw herself against her dearest aunt, embracing her tightly. “Forgive me! Forgive me for being so monstrous!” Hot tears stained her aunt’s shoulder as she sobbed. “I’m so . . . wrong at every turn that I don’t know what to do or say! Please . . .”

Soft hands reached up to smooth her hair, and Haley was sure she would die with relief. “There now, my dearest girl. There’s nothing to forgive! I’m a fool, and the world’s worst chaperone, but—” She stepped back to lift Haley’s chin and meet her eyes. “I
am
still your greatest ally, and no one can ever convince me that I do not love you the best.”

“I’m ruined.” Haley tasted her own heartache as she spoke the wretched words aloud.

“You are
not
ruined!” Aunt Alice gripped her shoulders, a new strength coming into her face that Haley had never seen before. “I’ve always hated that word! It’s a man’s word to set you back on your heels when you’ve defied them and chosen your own path.”

“Aunt Alice?”

“To hell with
ruined
!” The older woman stamped her foot, her eyes blazing. “And damn any man who tries to say such a thing in my presence!”

Haley’s mouth fell open in shock to hear her precious Aunt Alice curse for the first time in her presence.

“And no one will, Haley. No one will say it, and we will go on as if nothing has happened. You’ve ended an engagement to Mr. Trumble. Nothing more. Not as far as anyone beyond this room need speak of—and as for
him
, he’ll say nothing if he values his life.”

Haley shook her head, managing a weak smile through her tears. “You’d make a terrible assassin, Aunt Alice.”

“Well, I meant it figuratively speaking, but . . . the rest of the sentiment holds true. He made false promises and we shall certainly threaten him with a libel suit if he so much as—”

“He—he never lied to me,” Haley whispered.

“What? Well of course he did! He must have—”

Haley shook her head sadly. “Not a single untrue word. I’ve relived every conversation this morning, and . . . I . . . heard what I wished to hear.”

“Well, that’s no matter! You’ll not miss a single party and there won’t be a ripple of scandal connected to your good name, Haley.”

“I don’t know if I can just pretend that nothing has happened.” Haley sank back down on the bed. “How can I just go on? I . . . love him. I love him with every fiber of my being, and I was so blind and stupid. How is it that I could have been so blind? I’ve spent years fussing at my father about his foolish romantic attachment to mother’s memory and now . . . I swear if someone offered me laudanum, I’d take it!”

“Now you’re truly talking nonsense!” Aunt Alice sat down, more like her usual self as she took command. “And I am an authority on nonsense, as you may have noticed.” She smoothed out her skirts. “But we’ll let you have this afternoon to finish up with these tears, and so I’d recommend that you cry until you cannot cry another drop! It’s a luxury you won’t always have, dearest.”

“A luxury . . .” Haley echoed softly.

“I’ll tell the maids you have a headache and that your rooms are off-limits. I’m sure I can manage a tray with something to tempt you to keep up your strength for it.” Aunt Alice nodded her head. “A good old-fashioned bout of hysteria should do the trick!”

“What trick?”

Aunt Alice ignored the question. “And then we’ll see about picking out just the right dress for Somerset’s dinner party tomorrow night.”

“I can’t—”

“You can and you will!” Aunt Alice stood. “You’ve never been one to break when things become difficult, and I don’t see how that could have changed. Men take only what you allow them to take, Haley. If he has your heart, even now, then it is because you allow him that gift. You can reclaim it whenever you wish. Your pride, your self-confidence, your honor . . . it’s the same. Do you see?”

Chapter
21

Galen left the house within minutes of Mrs. Shaw’s dramatic departure, desperate for advice from a friend after the verbal lashing he’d taken. He’d bungled everything so completely that he wasn’t sure how he could recover even a fraction of Haley’s affections—but he was determined to try. Of all the Jaded, it was Rowan who always seemed to keep a level head and an unshielded heart, and it was because he was the least cynical among them that Galen sought his opinion now.

But when he arrived at the haven of West’s small home, it became clear that Rowan might have other distractions on his mind. The servants showed him in quickly with baleful faces, and Galen froze in the doorway of his friend’s beloved library.

It was in shambles.

Precious books were scattered over the floor, furniture overturned, and cushions torn open, transforming the haven into a room that spoke of violation and violence. Galen was sure that if he’d been punched in the stomach, it would have felt the same. A slight movement caught his eye, and he moved to find Rowan behind the overturned desk carefully gathering up the broken shards of what he’d once joked was the world’s ugliest vase. But now, he was handling it as if it had been a porcelain Ming.

“I think I may be able to have it repaired.” Rowan looked up at Galen, his eyes reflecting relief at the sight of his friend. “I’d offer you a chair, but . . .”

“What the hell happened?” Galen asked.

“Well, it wasn’t burglars. Mr. Cotton may be losing a little of his hearing, but I would never insult him or the staff to even jest about them sleeping through
this
.” Rowan stood slowly, holding a tray level with all the broken bits of pottery on it to set it on the side of his overturned desk. “No, you’re actually looking at the remnants of a legal search.”

“What?”

“The local police received a tip that I was the leader of a vast fencing ring . . . or was it smuggling? I wasn’t here, and frankly, poor Mr. Cotton may have misheard them.” Rowan shrugged. “The result is the same. Though you should see the bedroom! They cut open my feather mattress and I think the entire third floor is covered in down. It looks like it snowed up there.”

“A tip? From whom?”

“I would say an enemy of the Jaded who wanted to see if a thorough toss could uncover anything of interest.” Rowan crossed his arms. “They failed to leave a warrant in the confusion, but I don’t think I’ll be marching down to the authorities to make any claims.”

“I had an encounter with an Indian mugger last night, but now, I think I’ll consider myself lucky. I sent word to Michael but it never occurred to me that there might be more going on. . . .”

“Let’s just hope the storm is over.”

“You’re taking this remarkably well.” Galen bent down to retrieve one of the books and uncovered a small painted gourd that had survived the upheaval.

“They didn’t tear the books apart, so it’s just a matter of sorting. As for my family’s things . . .” His voice trailed off, battling the heartache of seeing the trinkets and treasures of lifetimes reduced to trash beneath his feet. “I’ll recover everything I can.”

“Did they find any of your jewels?”

Rowan shook his head. “I hadn’t hidden them in the house. There’s a bit of irony, eh?”

“Damn!” Galen overturned one of the leather chairs, his rage finally finding a single focus at the sight of the cut and ruined thing. “My favorite chair!”

“Let’s talk about something else, Galen. Ashe tells me that you’ve lost your heart to a debutante after all. And not just any debutante!”

“I don’t think I want to talk about it right now.”

“I need the distraction, Galen, and from the look on your face, I’d say this is definitely a case of misery loving company.” He began to rummage through the bar, discovered a single unbroken glass, and then poured himself a brandy from a bottle still hidden safely inside one of the covered nooks in the wall. He lifted his glass, toasting his friend. “To you and your . . . misery?”

Galen shook his head. “I’m past misery, Rowan.”

Rowan set the glass down and came around the desk. “That was a stupid jest. You came to tell me something, or you wouldn’t be here. Ashe made it sound as if you had gotten into a feminine tangle of some kind, but I didn’t pay too much attention.”

“A feminine tangle”—Galen sighed—“now there’s a phrase you don’t hear every day.”

“Is it true?”

“Rowan.” Galen took a deep breath, wondering how to ask for advice without being forced to reveal too much of his villainy to such a respected friend. “I’ve won and lost her, through my own stupidity.”

“You’re not a stupid man, my friend.”

Galen managed a weak smile. “You’d be surprised.” Galen knelt back down to gather up a few more books, handing them up to Rowan to place on the shelves, the physical act letting him frame his words as he continued. “I pursued her under false pretenses, and for all the wrong reasons. I hated her, Rowan, and I wanted to bring her down.”

“Hated her? Why?”

“Because John Everly had loved her, and she’d repaid him by forgetting that he ever existed.”

“Oh.” Rowan was struck speechless, but he continued to take the books that Galen held out, and for a few moments they worked in silence until Galen continued his tale.

“After I had her, after I knew she was mine, heart and soul—I forgot to hate her, Rowan.”

“It’s no black mark against you, Galen, to forgive someone. To forget to hate them and discover that you love them, instead. John would have understood,” he offered calmly.

“God, I miss him, but I’m not sure what John would say.”

“Is that what’s distressing you? Do you feel guilty at finding happiness with this woman, because of her connection to John?”

Galen closed his eyes, the sharp pang of a hundred emotions stilling him. “I’m distressed because she ended it with me. I’m
distressed
because she found out that I had intended to harm her, and I’m not sure how a man denies a truth, admits he’s a liar, and has any chance of still earning her trust.”