"You are disgusting," Sara said furiously as she tried to jerk her hand free. But Charles held her hand and waist too tightly for her to escape without making a major scene. "The fact that you know of a scar is not proof.''
"Proof is hard to come by after so many years," he conceded. "A pity that I didn't keep his love letters, for you would have found them quite convincing. Almost illiterate, of course, but rather touching in their intensity and very explicit about what he wanted me to do to him. Shall I tell you more?"
Without waiting for Sara to reply, he proceeded to recite several examples, using gutter language that she barely understood. Dizzy with agitation, she stumbled on her bad leg and almost fell.
Weldon's cruel grip held her upright. "Don't faint on me, Sara," he said sharply. "Use that fine logical brain of yours. The way he hates me—haven't you ever heard that hell has no fury like a lover scorned? He used to say that I was the love of his life. I thought that was just boyish enthusiasm and would soon be forgotten, but apparently he has spent years stalking me. And now, like a lover scorned, he wants to destroy me."
Thinking of what Mikahl had said about Weldon's first wife, Sara shook her head vehemently. "No, it's not just a personal feud. He has other reasons for hating you."
"Oh? Has he given you any proof of my wickedness?" He smiled as he read her expression. "I didn't think so. So it is my word against his. Have you ever heard anyone besides him impugn my reputation? Yet what is he but an adventurer that your cousin found somewhere in Asia? He used Lord Ross to gain entry to society, and now he is using you."
Not wanting to concede an inch, Sara said stubbornly, "If I must choose between you, I choose to believe my husband."
"Your husband," Charles sneered. "Why do you think he married you, Sara? Certainly not for your looks. Your fortune isn't reason enough for a man of his wealth."
"He married me because he loves me," Sara retorted. Though Mikahl had never said so, it was what she wanted to believe, and he did behave like a man who cared greatly.
"He's very good at telling people what they want to hear." Charles's mouth curled with contempt. "What an innocent you are. Listen closely, you foolish bitch! He married you because he couldn't have me, and you were the closest he could get. He hoped that stealing my future wife would hurt me. He was wrong, of course—losing you wounded only my pride. But, I must give him credit for imagination."
"I knew that you were interested mostly in my birth and fortune," Sara said, trying to keep her voice and mind steady under Charles's stream of vitriol. "But Mikahl is not like you. He did not seduce me, nor did my father force him to marry me. In fact, he had trouble convincing me to accept him."
"So you had doubts even then? You should have listened to them and not tied yourself to a madman." Charles squeezed the fingers of her right hand until they hurt. "Did you know that he and I talked earlier this evening? He made a number of threats about what he would do if I would not become his lover again. When I denied him, he dragged you off into another room and worked his angry frustration off on you. How does it make you feel to know that you are the receptacle of his warped desires?''
Dear God, would the dance never end? Sara felt dizzy from the spinning, almost nauseated. Though she loved Mikahl, she did not feel that she knew him well, nor did she wholly trust him. Much as she wanted to dismiss Charles's charges as pure malice, she could not quite do so.
The fact that Charles knew of the M-shaped scar was hardly proof that they had been lovers, but it was unusual for a man to be so familiar with another man's body. Mikahl's reaction to her discovery of the scar had been anguished and irrational. He had used Sara physically to drown the past on that occasion; he might have done so again tonight.
The very idea made her ill, but it was undeniably true that her husband had been in a strange, wild mood earlier in the evening. An encounter that had been passionate and loving was now unbearably tainted by Charles's accusations.
But what really undermined Sara's faith in her husband was Charles's evil, all-too-convincing explanation for why Mikahl had married her. Mikahl did not need her money, he cared little for her status, and had never said that he loved her. He did desire her, but lust was not love.
Though she did not want to believe it, the way Mikahl had spoken of Charles could have been the obsessive hatred of a lover scorned. If there had once been love between the men, it was horridly possible that Mikahl had married her either for revenge or as a substitute for the person he really wanted. Perhaps both.