Queen of my Hart - Emily Royal Page 0,92
cried, “a disgrace to our name! I couldn’t have her tainting our reputation. Papa was a fool, spending time and money, which was mine and my brother’s!”
“Your brother left for the army as soon as he was of age,” Dexter said. “I doubt he’d care.”
“But I do!” she cried. “And I’ll do anything to get what I want. Just like you.”
“I don’t set out to destroy lives,” Dexter said, “nor cheat my way into getting what I want. Was the ruination of an innocent worth it for a few extra jewels?”
“Of course it was!” she cried. “It’s a small price to pay if I get what I want.”
Dear God—Daisy!
“And my sister?” Dexter asked. “Was she in your way also?”
Hanson shuffled on his feet, the guilt in the air so thick, Dexter could almost taste it.
“Why the devil would you be jealous of Daisy?” Dexter asked. “What was she to you?”
“She was your sister,” Elizabeth said. “You were inseparable. You wouldn’t look twice at anyone else with her around, and I wanted you for myself. When you rejected me, I had to do something.”
“Rejected you?”
“At the harvest festival,” she said. “Don’t you remember? I asked you to dance, and you rejected me in favor of your sister.”
Dexter shook his head. He’d rejected the advances of countless women almost as soon as he’d left boyhood. Had one long-forgotten rejection given rise to such catastrophic revenge?
“Is it true?” a voice said.
Alderley stood in the hall, accompanied by a woman in a plain gray dress with a white apron and a bunch of keys hanging from her waist.
“Elizabeth?” Alderley shook his head. “Dear God, girl, I gave you everything you wanted, and more! Why the devil would you do such a thing?”
“Because I was always second best,” she said, “your second daughter…” She pointed at Dexter, “his second choice.”
“It’s time I left,” Dexter said. “Alderley, you have enough trouble on your hands without me adding to them.”
“Dexter…” Elizabeth pleaded.
“No,” Dexter said. “You’ve no right to call me by my name, Miss Alderley. I daresay Hanson here will accommodate your wishes. I hear he’s willing to do anything for a price. But have a care—your father’s funds are unlikely to run to a seventh season.”
He turned to Alderley. “I pity you, sir. Your problems are considerably greater than mine. I shall leave you to resolve them.”
“Mrs. Gordon,” Alderley addressed the woman next to him. “Please see our guest out. He’ll not be returning.”
“There’s no need,” Dexter said. He turned his back on them and exited the building. As he stepped onto the drive outside, the gravel crunching under his feet, he breathed in the fresh air as if to dissipate the evil from the atmosphere. Footsteps crunched behind him as the housekeeper followed him to the carriage.
“There’s no need to see me off,” Dexter said. “I’m going.”
“I must speak with you,” the housekeeper said. She lowered her voice. “It’s about the child.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“About wee Billy,” she said, “the child the master took.”
“How do you know about the child?” Dexter asked.
“From Mrs. Dawkins—the cook,” she said. “She passed last winter, God rest her soul, but in her final days, she told me about a child her sister took in and the secret she kept. She felt that sorry for that poor girl, but she was too frightened of the master to tell anyone the truth until she knew she had nothing to lose—not even her life.”
“I don’t understand, woman,” Dexter said. “What are you saying?”
“I dared not ask who the child was, but I knew it was something to do with the young woman the master brought onto the estate—the woman who married you, sir. I’d seen her with Mr. Arnold years before, then she disappeared. But then, she returned last winter, and I wondered who she was and why the master had hidden her away again. But then, he gave instructions for a party, and I saw her again when she came into the house. That was with you, sir, and I told Betty that I’d seen her before, but Betty said I couldn’t have because Mistress Elizabeth had told her that…”
“Have mercy!” Dexter cried. “Spare my ears. Can you not cease your prattle and speak plain English? What do you know of the child?”
“That he’s alive.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
No matter how many times Meggie read the note in her hand, she couldn’t will it to say more.
Meggie Dearest,
Forgive me, I must remain absent for a while longer. I shall return as soon as I