What a Spinster Wants - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,28

she panted shamelessly for a moment or two.

“Miss Wright, my lord,” Locke intoned belatedly, his voice stiff with displeasure, his expression resigned.

“So I see,” Ingram replied with a faint smile. “You may commence with listening at the door as you were, Locke.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

Graham stared as the butler left them again, wondering if Ingram were teasing or the butler truly was prone to eavesdropping.

“Charlotte, do you have any idea what time it is?” Lady Ingram inquired with the same expression Lady Edith wore.

“Quite.” Miss Wright looked around and saw Graham, then bobbed a hasty curtesy. “Good evening, Lord Radcliffe. Or does one say ‘good night’ at this hour? I’ve always thought that a farewell or an incantation for bedtime, neither of which this is. Either way, greetings and so on.”

Graham was intrigued and amused, he would freely admit. He knew Miss Wright well enough, as anyone in Society did, but their personal interactions had been limited.

Still, he was in possession of some wit.

“The same to you, I believe,” he replied with a half bow.

Someone in the vicinity of Mr. Vale snorted, and Graham was instantly more comfortable with his surroundings.

“Ch-Charlotte,” Mrs. Vale stammered, her throat working with the effort. “Wh-wh-what… are you…?”

Graham’s attention flicked to the woman with mild concern, though no one else in the room seemed to have noticed anything out of the ordinary. The hand Mr. Vale had on his wife’s shoulder suddenly shifted higher, his fingers brushing against her cheek and neck in an almost absent manner.

“I got Aubrey’s message, of course.” Miss Wright sniffed and sat herself in an open chair as though this were nothing more than an afternoon tea with friends. “I came straight away.”

“From your bed?” Lieutenant Henshaw suggested, a rueful smile appearing.

Miss Wright speared him with the sort of look she might have given a troublesome brother. “Vulgar question, Hensh, but yes, as it happens. My servants are under strict instructions to bring me all messages forthwith upon their arrival, no matter the time. I was not asleep, and this seemed important.” She tossed her long, thick braid over a shoulder and looked around at the room, daring anyone else to have an opinion on the subject.

No one did.

“Right, then,” Ingram murmured, drawing out the words. He shifted his attention to Lady Edith, as did the rest. “Edith, whenever you’re ready.”

Lady Edith looked at Ingram for a long moment. “Tha’ would be three weeks on the long side of never. But I suppose I dinna have much of a choice.” She swallowed and looked down at her hands, exhaling slowly. “It will surprise none of ye to hear that I am almost entirely wi’out means of my own. Archie… Sir Archibald, didna make adjustments to include me in his will before he passed, and there’s no way of knowing if he would have changed it had he lived. When his will became known, it was made verra plain to me that I had no funds and no claim to my dowry, though I had been married one day.”

Graham’s brows shot up at that. One day? He’d heard stories, of course, but he’d thought every one of them an exaggeration.

“How can your dowry not be returned to your family if the will had not been adjusted?” Mr. Vale interrupted without tact. “That seems…”

“The will did not include me,” Lady Edith corrected, overriding the man. “That adjustment had not been made. But there was plenty in the document about the funds brought into a marriage despite having nothing to say on the woman to whom he entered marriage with.” She gave him a soft, bitter smile. “I was permitted to remain in the house in York until the heir to Archie’s fortune and title could be found. It was a glorious time while it lasted.”

Glorious? To be abandoned in an estate one hardly knew, away from family, and with plans all thrown into upheaval? None of it made sense to Graham, but he could not bring himself to question her, or to ask the others present if they were just as ignorant to the meaning of all this as he seemed to be.

Lady Edith cleared her throat and lifted her chin, something in her neck tightening as she did so. “I became acquainted with Sir Reginald some three months after Archie’s death. Much as I disliked my husband, Sir Reginald is far and away the worse of the two. He refused to make reparations to his cousin’s widow, or to permit a