sheep’s clothing like her, but there’s people who always want to believe the worst.”
Cecilia couldn’t help but agree. The Edenbridge villagers must be more foolish than most, to believe the word of a servant who’d been dismissed for theft.
“You’ll hear any number of other wild stories,” Amy went on. “The villagers like their gossip, you know, and every rumor is more outlandish than the one before. Like, some say as Lady Darlington’s buried in the castle walls, but others claim she’s at the bottom of the moat. Then there’s that bit of foolishness about Lord Darlington being in love with Lady Leanora.”
“In love with Lady Leanora?” Cecilia gripped the edge of the mattress to stop herself from falling face first into the bed. “In love with his brother’s wife?”
Amy snorted. “Yes. The way they tell it, Lady Leanora fled the castle when he tried to make her marry him after Lady Cassandra died.”
Cecilia gasped. “Marry his brother’s widow!”
“Hush!” Amy shot a wary glance at the open door. “They say as he always loved her, and after his brother and wife both died, he saw his chance to have her, and he took it.”
“If he always loved Lady Leanora, why would he have married Lady Cassandra? Any man scoundrel enough to pursue his dead brother’s wife is scoundrel enough to do it before that brother has turned cold in his grave.” Lady Leanora was already a widow when Gideon returned to Darlington Castle. If he’d wanted her, he might have chased her. Instead, he’d courted Cassandra.
“Well, it’s nonsense, isn’t it?” Amy made a disgusted noise. “Mind, these are the same people who think there’s a white ghost drifting about in the woods. I don’t believe a word of any of it, myself.”
Cecilia fell heavily into the chair beside the bed. No, it couldn’t be true. She’d seen for herself the grief on Gideon’s face as he’d stood by his late wife’s grave. That kind of despair couldn’t be feigned. Amy was right. These were the same villagers who claimed the late Lady Darlington had been buried inside the castle walls.
No. It was impossible, unthinkable, unbearable. Everything inside her recoiled at the thought, or…was it just her heart that recoiled? She imagined Gideon caressing Lady Leanora’s flawless white skin, running his long fingers through her silky, midnight tresses, and gazing into her beautiful blue eyes.
Her stomach churned with nausea, but she choked back the bile crawling into her throat. Lady Clifford had sent her here to discover the truth, but she’d never get to it if she insisted on letting her emotions overrule her logic.
Very well, then. Logic. Logically speaking, it was difficult to imagine any man who’d seen Lady Leanora’s face hadn’t fallen in love with her.
Logically speaking, I never should have kissed Gideon—
“If you ask me, that nonsense about Lord Darlington being in love with Lady Leanora is partly to blame for the rumor he’d murdered his wife. They say he did away with Lady Cassandra so he could be with t’other one, but Mrs. Briggs says it’s all nonsense, and I—are you all right, Cecilia? You’re whiter than the sheets.”
“Yes, I’m…quite well.” Cecilia’s legs were quivering like a jelly still, but she rose from the chair and gave Amy a weak smile. “Pure nonsense, I’m sure, just as you said. Come on, then. Let’s finish up these beds, shall we?”
Much to Cecilia’s relief, the topic of Gideon and Lady Leanora didn’t come up again, but she couldn’t put it out of her mind for the rest of the day. By the time she climbed the stairs to her bedchamber that evening, Amy’s words felt as if they’d been carved into her skull.
Cecilia wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or ashamed at having avoided Gideon for the entire day, but either way, her luck ran out when she reached the landing on the second floor. He was in the small picture gallery, his body unnaturally still, staring up as if mesmerized at one of the portraits. At first Cecilia thought it must be his brother’s, but when she got closer, she saw it was the portrait of Lady Leanora that held all his attention.
He didn’t seem to notice Cecilia, not even when she crossed from the stairway to the end of the corridor and paused beside him. She studied his profile, wondering at the strange look on his face as he stared up at the beautiful woman on the canvas. His jaw was so tight it looked as if it