Ravishing in Red by Madeline Hunter Page B

over, isn’t she? Of her father’s negligence, and now of these rumors.”
    “All criminals have families who become victims of their acts.”
    “That is what our mother said. I did not answer her, because she never hears anyway. I will tell you, however, that I do not like that this criminal, if he was one, had a family who now must suffer more because your enemies make sport of this . . . misunderstanding.”
    Morgan leveled his gaze on Sebastian. Sebastian looked straight back. The rest of the conversation passed without words. Then they returned to their coffee and mail.
    “I will put out the true story of what transpired at the Two Swords,” Sebastian said when he rose to leave. “For everyone’s sake, that might be best.”
    “The truth is always best, Sebastian.”
    The hell it was.
     
     
     
     
    S candal created the oddest excitement, Audrianna thought the next afternoon. The household became both funereal and charged with purpose at the same time.
    Lizzie and Celia had debated long into the night just how Audrianna might be salvaged. They came to the problem from very different perspectives. Lizzie believed that at best a few decades of impeccable living and significant charitable work would be needed to redeem a fall that involved the loss of virtue. Celia opined that a confident demeanor, superb style, and one important lover could get a woman back in society faster, and at a more elevated position.
    Neither asked which Audrianna preferred. She just sat there on her bed while they picked apart the disaster her life had become.
    The next morning both of them walked to Cumberworth to post a letter that Audrianna had finally written to her mother. A half hour after they left, it became clear that the letter had been unnecessary. A hired carriage rolled up the lane and stopped in front of Daphne’s house. Audrianna recognized its occupants from where she spied from a window.
    Daphne materialized at her side and together they watched her mother and sister approach the door.
    “She is distraught, of course,” Daphne said. She referred to the expression on the face of Audrianna’s mother.
    Audrianna had never seen her mother look so weary. Even after her father’s death, even during the relentless hounding by Lord Sebastian and others, Mama had not broken completely. Now she walked like it pained her to be alive. She still dressed all in black, even though her remaining friends argued that the period of deep mourning should be shortened if a husband takes his own life.
    “Your sister Sarah appears angry,” Daphne said. “For you, I trust.”
    “Not for me. She knows what this will cost her.” There had been a chance, a small one, that Sarah might escape the worst of their father’s disgrace. With a modest settlement and a few years passing, she might marry decently even if not as well as she wanted. It was one reason Audrianna had left and come to live with Daphne—to allow her mother to spend what little she had on the one daughter for whom a respectable future might still be attained.
    Audrianna followed Daphne to the door. When it opened, both Mama and Sarah had replaced their real feelings with masks of sympathy.
    “Dear Aunt Meg,” Daphne greeted, leaning in for a kiss. “It is fortunate that you have come. There is much that we must discuss.”
     
     
     
     
    “ T he most preposterous tale came to my ears, Lord Sebastian.” Mr. John Pond, Astronomer Royal, peered into the observatory’s new ten-foot transit telescope while he spoke. He tipped the mechanism a fraction of an inch and peered again. Above them a panel in the Greenwich Meridian Building had been opened to the stars.
    “It was about that business at the Two Swords outside Brighton. A long, elaborate, fantastical tale is now being told. Something about a mysterious intruder and a coincidental meeting. Your friends should devise a more plausible explanation if they seek to absolve you.”
    Sebastian had known Pond for over