rivals to her beauty or position with possessing either the cunning or the means to create so intricate a plan.
A rejected suitor seemed more probable. Which left her quite a list. Might there be among them some arrogant man, more twisted in character than sheâd ever guessed, whoâd decided if he couldnât possess her, heâd make sure no honest gentleman ever would?
She sighed. Except for satisfying her curiosity, discovering who had fashioned the trap no longer made any difference. The perpetrator had done his or her work well. Regardless of the excuse that had brought her to the arbour, as Marc acidly pointed out, only a fast young piece would have agreed to meet a man, even a fiancé, alone and unchaperoned in a midnight garden. To be discovered there by a party of gentlemen in the arms of a notorious womanizer, regardless of how fiercely she was struggling, only sealed her fate.
The architect of this scheme had been diabolically clever, using her reputation to trap her. For she had skirted the rules hemming in young ladies, earning the dubious distinction of being a dashing miss teetering on the edge of respectability, a reputation for which her brother, mother and chaperone had all chided her.
Sheâd never meant to become a byword. But sheâd found the rules so silly and restrictive! Why such a fuss that sheâd once escaped Miss Priceâs care and slipped down Bond Street to get a view of Whiteâs famous bow window? âTwas morning, sheâd explained when she rejoined Verity and her furious and chagrined chaperone, with no club members going in or outâ¦though someone must have recognized her, Marcus later grimly informed her, for the news of her unauthorized visit had become the latest gossip in the menâs clubs by nightfall.
Nor had she foreseen the furore that would result from heragreeing to race her curricle in the park early one morning against a famous Corinthian who also happened to be a friend of Halâs sheâd known since childhood. So, theyâd scattered a few ducks and attracted a following of amused gentlemen and excited urchins. What harm was there in that?
Frowning, one by one she ticked off the series of small misadventures which had led to exasperated remonstrances from Miss Price about the deleterious example she was setting for Verity and increasingly irritated lectures from Marc about compromising her respectability.
Taken all together, she could see how the sum had been enough to position her like an apple ripe for the falling when her unknown enemy had struck. After hearing her angrily declare before the ball that if Anthony didnât care about pleasing her, sheâd show him that other men did, Marcus wouldnât believe she hadnât knowingly gone to meet Lord Barwick in a foolish and disastrous attempt to inspire her fiancé with jealousy. And with Hal far away, only Marc had possessed the power and the means to track down the true mastermind behind the scheme.
Anthonyâs scornful words about not taking to wife a woman other men now looked upon as a common doxy still made her skin crawl with humiliationâand bruised the heart that had believed in the affection heâd avowed.
Even during his angry tirade after the event, Marc had not threatened to banish her forever. But with her character ruined beyond redemptionâfor even if she eventually convinced her brother to prove her innocence, the Carlow family was powerful enough that there would always be those whoâd whisper the earl had simply paid well to redeem his wild daughterâs reputation. No, Honoria had decided the day she quit London that whatever her future might hold, she would never return to London Society.
What would she do with herself? Helping the Methodist-leaning vicar with his school for girls might do for nowâbut what of the future? That unresolved question still filled her with a sickening uncertainty.
Quickly she
A rejected suitor seemed more probable. Which left her quite a list. Might there be among them some arrogant man, more twisted in character than sheâd ever guessed, whoâd decided if he couldnât possess her, heâd make sure no honest gentleman ever would?
She sighed. Except for satisfying her curiosity, discovering who had fashioned the trap no longer made any difference. The perpetrator had done his or her work well. Regardless of the excuse that had brought her to the arbour, as Marc acidly pointed out, only a fast young piece would have agreed to meet a man, even a fiancé, alone and unchaperoned in a midnight garden. To be discovered there by a party of gentlemen in the arms of a notorious womanizer, regardless of how fiercely she was struggling, only sealed her fate.
The architect of this scheme had been diabolically clever, using her reputation to trap her. For she had skirted the rules hemming in young ladies, earning the dubious distinction of being a dashing miss teetering on the edge of respectability, a reputation for which her brother, mother and chaperone had all chided her.
Sheâd never meant to become a byword. But sheâd found the rules so silly and restrictive! Why such a fuss that sheâd once escaped Miss Priceâs care and slipped down Bond Street to get a view of Whiteâs famous bow window? âTwas morning, sheâd explained when she rejoined Verity and her furious and chagrined chaperone, with no club members going in or outâ¦though someone must have recognized her, Marcus later grimly informed her, for the news of her unauthorized visit had become the latest gossip in the menâs clubs by nightfall.
Nor had she foreseen the furore that would result from heragreeing to race her curricle in the park early one morning against a famous Corinthian who also happened to be a friend of Halâs sheâd known since childhood. So, theyâd scattered a few ducks and attracted a following of amused gentlemen and excited urchins. What harm was there in that?
Frowning, one by one she ticked off the series of small misadventures which had led to exasperated remonstrances from Miss Price about the deleterious example she was setting for Verity and increasingly irritated lectures from Marc about compromising her respectability.
Taken all together, she could see how the sum had been enough to position her like an apple ripe for the falling when her unknown enemy had struck. After hearing her angrily declare before the ball that if Anthony didnât care about pleasing her, sheâd show him that other men did, Marcus wouldnât believe she hadnât knowingly gone to meet Lord Barwick in a foolish and disastrous attempt to inspire her fiancé with jealousy. And with Hal far away, only Marc had possessed the power and the means to track down the true mastermind behind the scheme.
Anthonyâs scornful words about not taking to wife a woman other men now looked upon as a common doxy still made her skin crawl with humiliationâand bruised the heart that had believed in the affection heâd avowed.
Even during his angry tirade after the event, Marc had not threatened to banish her forever. But with her character ruined beyond redemptionâfor even if she eventually convinced her brother to prove her innocence, the Carlow family was powerful enough that there would always be those whoâd whisper the earl had simply paid well to redeem his wild daughterâs reputation. No, Honoria had decided the day she quit London that whatever her future might hold, she would never return to London Society.
What would she do with herself? Helping the Methodist-leaning vicar with his school for girls might do for nowâbut what of the future? That unresolved question still filled her with a sickening uncertainty.
Quickly she
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