Taming of the Beast (Scandalous Affairs #2) - Christi Caldwell Page 0,103

have had much time to think about and reflect upon my parents’ role in that evil, and through the other stories that have come to light about other children…” She dampened her mouth.

“Other children like me?” Her Grace supplied that unfinished thought with more of her casual calmness.

Faye’s mother would have withered in horror were she to bear witness to Faye speaking so freely to a powerful duchess about something so intimate as what the duchess had endured.

“Yes,” Faye said quietly. “Children who were harmed for nothing more than the whims of those with greater power and influence.”

“And what have you had a chance to think about, Miss Poplar?”

“That it is unfair.” She clenched and unclenched her hands. “That it is wrong that so many should suffer, while those guilty of those dark and evil deeds go unpunished.”

The duchess’ brows came together. “And you want to see the guilty… punished.”

It wasn’t a question. She’d somehow gathered what Faye hadn’t yet spoken aloud. Even so, Faye confirmed her intentions. “I do. Society has focused on the suffering of those children who’ve now grown, and yet nothing is said about the men and women who hurt them.” Disgust brought those words flying from her lips. “Who used them. Who have never paid the price for those most heinous of crimes.” Her mother and all the others like her.

“I’m afraid, I cannot help you,” the duchess murmured, her features impassive. She made to stand.

“There were others,” Faye said on a rush, and the other woman froze, hovering there at the edge of the settee before seating herself once more.

“Others?” the duchess asked cautiously.

Before her courage deserted her, Faye reached into her bag and pulled forth the list of the names she’d compiled with the help of Mr. Oswyn.

“What is this?” the duchess murmured as she accepted the book. The duchess stilled. “Where did you get it?” she asked coolly.

But then, why wouldn’t the other woman be suddenly aloof, given her connection to so many of the names printed there?

“A man by the name of Oswyn.”

The pages fluttered in the duchess’ hands. “He is…”

“Alive,” Faye clarified when the breathless admission remained incomplete. Faye nodded and then went on to explain everything she’d discovered from Oswyn. When she’d finished, Her Grace slowly removed her spectacles, opening and closing the rims several times before returning them to her face. “He was all too happy to provide the names of children who’d been abducted or harmed by a man named Diggory and the identities of lords and ladies who were involved in the… harming.”

“I suspect he was.” The duchess’ mouth tensed. She did not, however, raise her head from looking at the page. Instead, she continued running her gaze over the two columns Faye had made. Among those included was the mother of the duchess’ sister-in-law. Also, the daughter of a duke and a duchess.

At last, Her Grace stopped reading. “The Duchess of Wilkinson has already been imprisoned and is paying the price for her crimes.”

“But what of the others,” Faye persisted.

“It could be a lie,” Her Grace finally said into the quiet. Picking up Faye’s notes, the regal woman peered at the page a long while before setting the notes down again. “Oswyn… He has proved himself unfaithful. A liar.”

“But it might also be true,” Faye rejoined. “And perhaps justice, as you see it, has been done to the Duchess of Wilkinson, but not every other wronged child might say the same.”

The duchess looked to those names once more. “And you think it is so very important that the world knows.”

It wasn’t a question, but Faye answered anyway. “Yes. I rather believe it is.”

The duchess fell silent again and then set the notes on her lap. She proceeded to rub at her temples. “Oswyn was once a friend—”

“I am aware of his relationship with your family.”

“And he told you how he was wronged by my brother Adair who shot him. Did he also tell you his hand in capturing Lady Diana and turning her over to Diggory’s wife?”

“I…”

“Of course he did not. What he gave you was information that would put these people,”—Her Grace picked up the list and held it aloft—“on display for the world, like so many of us have already been.”

The duchess, however, was looking at Faye’s intentions from only one angle. She edged forward in her seat. “But that is only the half of it. There are others who Society knows nothing of, the powerful peers Diggory had dealings with who were