sick feeling overtaking her again and making her feel dizzy and out of sorts.
“Let me go.”
Dominick blinked as if awaking from a dream, following the path of her gaze. His arms dropped from around her when he finally noticed what she had seen, but it was too late. There was no mistaking what they had all witnessed—a lover’s quarrel, a torrid embrace, the secrets Calliope had never wanted anyone to know.
“Fuck,” Dominick uttered in harsh whisper. “Callie …”
She backed away from him, shallow breaths sawing in and out of her lungs. The whispers flying between the guests filled her mind, even though she couldn’t hear them. Calliope knew what was being said, and the realization of it nearly sent her to her knees.
Ruined. Shameful. Scandalous.
Dominick’s lips moved but she couldn’t make out the words, feeling as if the hum of his voice was coming at her through a wall. She gripped her skirts with sweating palms and turned away from him for the second time. She moved as if through a dream, her vision bleary and her limbs heavy.
With every heartbeat, one accusing word reverberated through her mind, damning and excruciating.
Ruined. Ruined. Ruined.
And she had done it to herself.
A hand took hold of her arm and she glanced up to find Diana, her expression grim. Calliope sobbed, and Diana pulled her close, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
“Chin up,” she instructed, though her voice was as unsteady as Calliope’s legs. “Eyes straight. Never let them see you cry. We’ll get through this.”
Diana’s words gave her what she needed to return to the house, entering through a door far removed from where the others had gathered to watch. She took one last look at Dominick, who remained where she’d left him, a forlorn picture from this distance. But, she turned away at Diana’s urging, telling herself there could be no more looking back. She had awakened this morning so happy and filled with hope, and had now been cast into the dark, left with no notion of where to go from here.
With this painful turn of events, a valuable lesson had been learned … one she would not forget ever again.
Chapter 13
“It would seem my wish has been granted, as word has begun to spread of a most riveting scandal. Apparently, a certain heiress was caught behaving inappropriately with one of her suitors, resulting in quite a to-do. It remains to be seen whether a wedding will be in the offing—the only chance there is of saving the sullied reputation of The Hon. Miss B.”
The London Gossip, September 28, 1819
Calliope sat on the edge of her bed, hands folded in her lap as she stared blindly across the room. Ekta moved about, cleaning up behind their morning toilette while giving her the occasional concerned glance. She tried to bring herself to reassure her maid that everything would be all right—that she would survive this setback and go on to live the best life she might salvage for herself. But, she couldn’t say the words when she didn’t even believe them herself.
She had spent the rest of the previous day closeted away, shunning contact with anyone other than her father, Diana, or Ekta. Her family was obviously shocked by what would become a public scandal the moment word spread of her intimate embrace with a man with a most unsavory reputation. It was almost humorous to be damned by something so trivial, when there had been so much more between them. She wondered how scandalized they would be to know of the intimacies they had shared the night before. But, thinking about that only made her want to weep, and she was done weeping. She’d spent yesterday mourning what could never be. If ever there was a time for her to be straight-backed and practical, this was it.
Her father had been concerned about the state of her heart more than her marriage prospects, assuring her that he would protect her from the worst of the gossip, and she could remain in Surrey with him to weather out the storm. He’d even hinted that she might stay forever if it was what she wished. He and the aunts would look after her, turning her—she felt—into the burden she’d never wished to be.
Diana had been all in a lather, revealing that Lady Thrush had been responsible for her exposure, mentioning to Martin that she and Dominick seemed to be in the midst of a spat. The man had come running to investigate, and when