"Now that you mention it," she said with a smirk, "I think so."
Arabella stared at her, wondering what was so strange about her appearance. She looked at the pearls she was wearing. They were a mirror image of her own. Surely Blake hadn't...
"I came here to warn you, if you consummate the relationship-"
Arabella was the one who smirked now. "Is that why you're here? You're too late on that score. Far too late."
Rosalie sucked in a furious breath. She could see from Arabella's expression that she wasn't lying. She opened her pearl-encrusted reticule and put down the pocket watch and cravat pin and signet ring that Molly had taken out of his jewellery box to lend credence to Rosalie's story.
"In that case, I wish you joy of the philandering swine. You can give him these things that he left the last time he came to visit."
She swept out of the room, leaving Arabella staring in horror at the small pile. She snatched them up and stuffed them in her little pearl reticule, and went in search of her husband. Husband… Liar more like. She was so distraught that Philip's warning had flown right out of her head. The library…. Molly had said the library.
Leonore had memorised her instructions carefully. She was to keep him chatting until Arabella came to find him. The news Arabella got from Rosalie would be enough to have her seek out Blake for a confrontation, and then she would overhear the intended devastating lie. She managed a minute of small talk before delivering her coup de grace.
"Well, if you as a doctor and my lover don't know what's wrong with me, you don't deserve to practise medicine. I'm pregnant, of course."
He laughed loudly. "Please, I've had enough of the games and jokes. The last I saw of you, you made me waste my time taking you to your house and arguing with you. That alone could have cost a young girl her life. So just get out of my way."
He tried to side-step her, but she snatched his arm and held him in place. "You can take that view now, but as soon as your wife hears what I have to say-"
"Arabella loves and trusts me."
"Hah. Do you think she will believe you, when she saw us leave the ball together, has seen our cozy tete a tetes?"
Blake looked at her coldly. "My wife and I have absolute confidence in one another. She knows all about you. I have nothing to hide. Moreover, Arabella and I have been inseparable for months. You cannot possibly think she would ever believe that I'm the father of your child."
Arabella, about to enter the room, froze at the last few words her husband had uttered. Her throat constricted, and her stomach heaved.
She could see the person being addressed quite clearly, for the woman was in her husband's arms. Leonore.
He had lied! Been lying all along! About Rosalie too! And if he had lied about this, how many other things had he lied about to her?
He had said he had not seen Leonore in months except as casual acquaintances. Now he was the father of her child! And they were having an assignation right under her own roof, in the middle of their wedding festivities! Did the man have no shame?
Apparently not, for he had married her, even though he could not possibly love or esteem her if he had been sneaking behind her back. Had he been a rake all along at the inn, and after her fortune right from the start once he had become her guardian?
Her stomach churning, she stepped away from the door, listening for any further conversation. But the only thing she heard was a groan from her husband. The kind of groan he uttered when--
Leonore had reached up to plant a kiss on his lips, and his groan was one of exasperated disgust as he tried to pull her arms from around his neck.
But Arabella's final peek inside the room and view of them kissing was the last straw. Hoisting her train and skirts, she fled.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Adam stood outside on the terrace, grimly plotting his revenge. It was a dish best eaten cold, as his French friends were fond of saying.
Thus far, though, he had done nothing but set up the two women to lie, and burn with fury over the way the little rabbit had escaped his snares. It wasn't enough…. He wanted them to both suffer.
He took a last drag on his cheroot and ground it underfoot. He turned to go back inside the drawing room when he saw a bright streak crossing the lawn amid the darkness.
He started. Then he laughed to himself. For a moment he had thought it a ghost. But the only thing that haunted the woods hereabouts was him.
The long train in white and gold… It could only be one person. When he saw Arabella was alone, he began to run after her. Maybe the goddess of fortune was smiling down upon him at last.
He caught up with her as she lay sobbing against a tree trunk as though her heart would break.