Page 14

‘Goodness,’ said Sabrina placidly, refilling their cups and passing out more cakes. ‘But the poor lady this new Lord Fairmount wed died too, before ever she could become a countess?’

‘Her name was Louise Wyeth, I believe, and she was supposedly a great beauty. I didn’t know her; she was said to dislike Town and did not mix much in society after her first Season. Yes, it was a tragedy. A putrid sore throat, or something of that nature, her only child barely out of petticoats, and her husband was devastated. I don’t think anyone pretends that the young couple loved each other with great passion, but they were said to be content enough, and doted on their son. The present Lord Fairmount, of course, is a very different sort of person from his father and brother. No scandal has ever attached to him. Quite the reverse – he is something of a pattern-card of respectability, and known across the polite world for never having kept a mistress or anything of that nature. I don’t just mean that he was faithful to his wife – though we can all agree that that is commendable enough, and unusual, in the circumstances of an arranged marriage – but that he lives celibate, now that she is gone. Which, one must admit, is highly uncommon.’

‘How do people claim to have knowledge of such things?’ Bianca could not help but ask in exasperation, all the while hoping her face was not as scarlet as Sabrina’s velvet cushions. Xan Challender, celibate – she was in a position to tell them differently, should she choose to do so. ‘Do members of the ton habitually know absolutely everything about each other’s business?’

Viola shrugged. ‘I daresay they think they do, but in reality, how can we say? If someone is entirely discreet, they can keep a secret for years and take it to their grave. No doubt many people do. But gentlemen so rarely are close-mouthed, in my experience. It seems to me excessively unjust that women are always considered the worst gossips, when men – most men, though certainly not Richard or Laurence – do nothing but boast of their conquests and chatter witlessly, especially in their cups. But then, they rarely suffer the full consequences of their actions. Women are obliged to be so much more careful of their precious reputations.’

She gazed thoughtfully into space for a moment, looking at Bianca’s recent portrait of the Da Costa children over the mantel but not appearing to see it, and then said casually, ‘To give Edward some credit, I don’t believe he told the world that my personal maid at Winterflood was his mistress for many years. I’ve never heard any whisper of it, at the time or since.’

Bianca had been drinking tea, and choked on it, to the extent that it came out of her nose in a most unladylike fashion. Sabrina was obliged to thump her back, and it was a little while before she was able to speak. ‘Vee! I had no idea!’

‘You were a child in those days; I was hardly likely to tell you. And honestly, I did not care – except that I think it was very wrong in him to keep her on as my intimate servant. It was not fair to me as a young bride: one humiliation, among many, that I could never forgive him for. He should have set her up with a house of her own on the estate, where he could visit her at his leisure. But he was lazy, and found it suited his convenience to have her close at hand. God forbid he had to go out into the rain and cold to gain his satisfaction! He was a selfish man, you know, selfish to his bones, and always regarded only his own interests.’

Bianca said with a certain amount of feeling, ‘I have often suspected that this family holds all kinds of dark secrets and I am always the last person to know them, because you all think I am still a child. I suppose this is just one example, and there are a great many more!’

Sabrina rose to her feet now, saying in a droll fashion, ‘I have no secrets, dark or otherwise. My life is an open book and always has been; I know I’m the boring oldest sister and I am perfectly reconciled to that. But if you’re going to start telling Bianca all yours, Vee, I will leave you to it. I shall go and talk to Cook about dinner. I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable exchanging confidences in my absence. Take your time!’

The door closed behind her, and the two sisters were left regarding each other; Bianca could not help feeling a little wary. ‘She wants us all to get to know each other better,’ Viola said calmly. ‘And she’s right, of course. We realised while you were away for so long that we don’t know you in particular very well, because of the age gap between us, and that should be set right directly. Now Mama has gone to Italy and may never come back, we must make sure that we all support and trust each other as much as possible. We don’t need our relationships as sisters – any of them – to go through her any more, however powerful a personality she is, because we’re all adult women now, even you, Littlest. I’m sure you agree.’

Bianca was surprised, but not displeased. ‘I certainly do,’ she answered slowly. ‘Enough secrets. I’ve often thought – Cecilia and Bea and I have thought for years – that for some reason we don’t understand, Mama has told Allegra important things that none of the rest of us know and can’t even guess at. But that’s up to Allie, I admit, if she chooses to share any of it with us.’

Viola set down her cup with precision, and her serene demeanour seemed to slip a little. ‘Yes – I have felt the same, in fact, and mean to tax her with it when next I see her alone. She may not choose to tell me, as is her right. But I can be responsible for my own secrets, at least, and here is one. The one, I suppose: Edward was not the boys’ father, and he always knew it. Richard is.’

Bianca became conscious after a second or two that she was gaping, and closed her mouth with a snap. The physical resemblance between stepfather and stepsons had always been apparent, but she’d never thought anything of it, putting it down to the fact that Viola’s first and second husbands had been close cousins, all of them dark-haired, all of them Armstrongs.

In a level voice, the Duchess told her how Edward, knowing he was incapable of fathering children, had manipulated her into Richard’s bed in order to get himself an heir, and how in her hurt and distress she’d chosen to go along with the plan, in the full knowledge that she’d be tied to Edward for life afterwards if it worked. And it had.

‘Oh, Viola… So much more makes sense now. Your second marriage, which shocked everyone so much. Did you always love him, and he you?’

‘Yes,’ said Viola quietly. ‘Always. He is my first love and my last. But we could never risk branding the boys as illegitimate. We’re safe now; Edward accepted them, lived with them as their father for many years. They can’t be disinherited, and we can be together. They are still ignorant of all this, but we’re going to tell them both soon. It will be painful to hear and for us to reveal, but they deserve to know exactly how they came into the world, and the fact that their half-siblings are truly their full siblings. As you say, there have been enough secrets. Secrets are poison.’

Bianca could only marvel at this revelation. ‘You’ve always seemed so adult to me – so calm and in control. I knew your marriage with Edward was not the happiest, but I thought it was just the enormous age gap between you that made you so distant from each other. I could not dream you had suffered so much at his hands, Vee. I am sorry. It makes me question everything I have believed.’

Viola smiled tolerantly. ‘Ah, the worst of it was long ago, when you were tiny. I didn’t even tell Sabrina, my closest sister and one of my two closest friends in all the world, until quite recently. Mama knew in the end – she guessed, in her usual annoying way, when I married Richard. But she has shared it with no one, I believe. And I promise I will follow her example, if you or anyone confides in me and asks me to tell nobody else, even if I think that’s a mistake among sisters. So really, Littlest, if you have anything you want to say… Sabrina tells me that she thinks you do have something preying on your mind since you came back, but worries that she has nothing to give in return to make you trust her. Her life has always been ordered and happy. My own situation, as you now know, has been different. I have done things that many people would find deeply shocking. I was barely eighteen, you know, when I walked into Richard’s bedchamber in my husband’s house and offered myself to him. So I may understand more than you imagine, and judge less.’

‘I had a lover,’ Miss Constantine blurted out. If she did not relieve her feelings now, she might never do so. And it would surely be a relief to share with Viola what she had so far shared with nobody at all. ‘When I was in Italy – in Venice. I had spun a silly tale that I was a widow, so that I could travel without a chaperon… It doesn’t matter now. I left him and I thought I’d never see him again. He was just a gentleman of no particular rank or distinction, as I believed; a nobody like me. But he’s Lord Fairmount now, the new Earl, Adrian’s father, and he hates me.’

Rather to her own surprise, Bianca burst into floods of tears.

21

Viola wasn’t shocked; how could she be, when she’d done something many people would have considered far worse? She’d been unfaithful to her husband and passed off another man’s children as his, to inherit his noble titles and huge estate by deception – but then, that was exactly what he’d plotted and schemed to achieve. It was horribly complicated, just as Bianca’s own situation was. But in the moment, the Duchess rose in a rustle of silk and took her little sister in her arms, holding her as she wept.

Miss Constantine luxuriated in the unaccustomed comfort for a while, sobbing unrestrainedly against her sister’s soft shoulder, and then gradually composed herself and raised her head. Viola offered her a large, clean handkerchief – the kind of useful thing a mother of small children must always keep in her reticule – and she blew her nose on it with some violence. Feeling slightly better, she said in watery tones, ‘He is furious with me, because I lied to him about my identity in Italy. Of course I was lying to everyone, but he doesn’t care about that. So now he thinks I have discovered that he’s an earl and inveigled myself into his home and his son’s affections so I can marry him in some wicked plot. He refuses to believe it’s all just a dreadful coincidence.’

‘That’s ridiculous. You’re an heiress with your choice of men; you have not the least need to entrap a rich and titled husband by such tricks, or any tricks at all.’

‘Well, he doesn’t know that, or if he does, he doesn’t care. He was almost out of control, Vee. He was talking very wildly about keeping me as his mistress and his prisoner; for a while I thought he wasn’t going to let me leave the room, but… but…’ Despite all this new honesty, Bianca could find no easy way to finish this sentence. All the things that Xan had offered to do to her were still seared upon her brain. On the floor, like beasts…

Viola was indignant. ‘The absolute scoundrel! Should I set Richard on him for you? I am sure Richard is far more formidable than he could ever be, and would happily beat him to a pulp, or worse.’ But then the Duchess looked more closely at her sister and seemed to read something new and disquieting in her expression. ‘Unless of course you didn’t want to leave the room. Is that the way of it? In which case, I must say that although I naturally wish to support you in all you do, Bianca, it doesn’t seem very sensible. People are almost bound to find out, because you’re not in Italy now. And you might easily have a child, of course. You aren’t…?’

‘No, I am not!’

‘Good. I’m sorry – I heard myself just then and I sounded exactly like Mama when she used to lecture me about Richard. It was horrible; please tell me if it happens again. But you haven’t properly answered me yet, you know. Which is Mama too – oh, Lord!’

Bianca smiled weakly. ‘Xan, Lord Fairmount, sets my blood on fire till I can think of nothing else. That’s the plain truth of it. He did in Venice when we first met, that was why I… Yes, I’d always wanted to have an adventure, to explore life for myself without having to get married and give up all my freedom. That was partly why I travelled on alone after Miss Macintyre left me. But that was just a theoretical thing, until I met him. A project, like learning German.’ Viola snorted irrepressibly at this, and Bianca ploughed on doggedly, ‘I met him and then I was truly tempted for the first time. So I told myself that it was the perfect opportunity to gain a little experience, in a light-hearted sort of a way, with no harm done on either side.’ The Duchess laughed, not unkindly, and Bianca grinned reluctantly in response.

‘But I didn’t know that I was playing with fire. All I wanted was to be with him, to make love to him. It scared me; I was becoming obsessed with him, and neglecting my work, which was the whole reason I was there in the first place. I started to panic, feeling as though I did not recognise myself, and I decided to move on for my own sake. I ran away, a snap decision – quit Venice one day without telling him; I just left him a note, which was full of more lies. And I hadn’t seen him or heard of him from that day to this.’