The last thing
Serafina
wanted was to share a light supper in the dining room with Charlotte after twelve full hours in her company, but
Serafina
couldn’t refuse without sounding churlish.
They sat silently at the table as platters of cold meats and cheeses were brought,
Serafina
about to fall asleep over her plate. They ate just as silently,
Serafina
picking at her food. She had no appetite. Just as she thought the interminable meal was over, Charlotte wiped her mouth with her napkin and folded her hands primly together the table.
“So,
Serafina.
It is time you and I had a talk.”
“A talk?”
Serafina
said, her heart sinking. “Do you think it might wait until morning, Charlotte? I am dreadfully tired.”
“It will not keep until morning. This is an issue that must be addressed now and the real reason I wanted to come back to Townsend with you alone, for I did not want to put Aiden through the pain of having to speak to you himself. He is distraught enough as it is.”
Serafina
couldn’t think for the life of her what Charlotte was talking about, but she didn’t like the ominous tone of her voice, nor the piety of her expression, always a bad sign. “I’m afraid I don’t understand,” she said, twisting her napkin between her fingers.
“I think you understand well enough, as does Aiden. He and I had a long talk last night, a disturbing talk. I felt it was my Christian duty to inform my brother of the conversation I overheard between you and Raphael.”
“The—the conversation? What conversation?” she said, perplexed.
“The one you wished no one else to hear, the talk you and he had in the garden during the ball. I was sickened,
Serafina.
Sickened.”
Serafina
sat bolt upright, her blood running cold. “You
eavesdropped
on us?” she said, appalled that Charlotte would lurk in the dark, listening to a private conversation without informing them of her presence. “How could you?”
“How could I? It is not I who am on trial here. It is you, you and your whorish ways,” Charlotte said, the bones of her knuckles showing white as she squeezed her hands together, her mouth pursing. “Did you think you could get away with your foul behavior, that no one would ever know of your sin?”
“What sin? What sin have you conjured up for me now?” she asked, her eyes flashing with sudden anger. “I have done nothing wrong, other than keeping a small secret from Aiden, and you know that if you heard us talking.”
“You call it a small secret? Oh, you are a vile woman indeed! When you first came to Townsend I had my doubts about you, severe doubts, and I tried to warn my brother.” Her face twisted into an ugly sneer of hatred. “But he wouldn’t listen to me. He was taken in by your pretty face, by what you might offer him in bed—oh, I know all about it, about how you cast your lures out to him, all so you could have your way. And it worked, didn’t it? You blinded my brother with lust so that he could no longer think straight!”
Serafina
stared at her, wondering if she was listening to the ravings of a madwoman. “It’s late and we’re both tired,” she said, doing her best to sound reasonable. “I’m sure that in the morning you will feel more yourself.”
“Don’t you patronize me, you whore of Babylon! You thought you could take over, didn’t you? You thought you could have it all—Townsend, Aiden, even Raphael. Well, my pretty, you’ve been caught out, and Aiden knows all about how you sinned with his cousin while he was away.”
“Oh dear Lord in Heaven … what did you tell Aiden?”
Serafina
whispered. “
What did you tell him?”
“I told him the truth. I told him about your secret trysts at Southwell. Every afternoon,
Serafina,
for three full weeks. Can you imagine what he had to say about that?” Charlotte smiled at her triumphantly, her eyes glazed.
All the blood drained from Serafina’s face. She thought she might be sick right there at the table. “You—you told Aiden that Raphael and I were lovers?” she managed to say, forcing back her nausea. “And he believed you?”
“Of course he believed me. He knows I wouldn’t lie to him. He never wants to lay eyes on you again,
Serafina,
and I can’t say I blame him.”
“Oh, you despicable woman!”
Serafina
cried, her heart twisting in her chest. She could see Aiden’s face now as Charlotte spun her half-truths into lies, weaving them into a story that Aiden would find impossible to dismiss. Charlotte had twisted the innocent words that she and Raphael had exchanged into a sordid story of lust and treachery. “How could you do such a terrible thing to your brother?”
“I did nothing to my brother,” Charlotte said furiously. “It was you—all you and my whore-mongering cousin. All I did was open Aiden’s eyes. And now he knows what sort of woman he really married.” She placed her palms flat on the table and leaned over them. “I do believe the only course of action left to you is to return to Clwydd first thing in the morning and never darken our door again. This is what Aiden wishes, and I suggest you are long gone before he returns, for if you are still here, Aiden will be sure to make you very sorry.”
Something in
Serafina
snapped. For weeks she had bent over backward trying to be kind to Charlotte, to make her life as happy and comfortable as possible, had put up with Charlotte’s diatribes and religious ravings, and this was how Charlotte repaid her? By trying to destroy Serafina’s marriage with unfounded accusations, accusations designed to dishonor Aiden? She wouldn’t let it happen. She couldn’t. She loved Aiden too much to allow Charlotte to hurt him like this.
“No,” she said.
“No? What do you mean by that?” Charlotte said, her jaw dropping open.
“I mean no, I won’t go,”
Serafina
said, sudden fury surging through her veins, giving her the strength to face down Charlotte. “If Aiden wishes me to leave, he can tell me so himself. I won’t be tossed out of Townsend by you, Charlotte. I certainly won’t be forced away by charges that have no basis in truth.”
Charlotte stared at her. “And you think Aiden will believe you, that he even wants you anymore? Think again, you stupid girl. Where do you think he was all night?” She smirked. “Shall I tell you? He went to his mistress. That’s right, Lady Harriet Munro. From the expression on your face, I see you guessed about her.”
“No, I—I don’t believe it,”
Serafina
stammered, feeling as if Charlotte had just driven a knife into her heart and twisted it.
“Then you’re even more stupid than I thought. The two of them were lovers four years ago before Aiden left the country, and they picked up right where they left off. Apparently the only person who didn’t know of their relationship is you, his wife.” She threw her head back and laughed, a harsh, cruel sound. “He even walked her to her carriage last night, where no doubt they planned their assignation for later.”
Serafina
shook her head back and forth in denial. And yet images of Harriet Munro taunting her came back all too clearly. Harriet, who had bought Serafina’s trousseau at Aiden’s request. Beautiful Harriet, who had looked at her with mocking disdain as if she were a pitiable creature.
She pushed her chair away from the table and stood, her eyes blinded by tears. “That may well be true,” she choked. “But I still will not leave. I will wait for Aiden.”
“Have you no pride?” Charlotte said, toying lazily with her knife.
“Perhaps I have too much. I don’t know. All I do know is that this is between Aiden and myself.”
“Oh, you cuckold your husband with his best friend and you still expect him to take you back, even knowing that he has someone far more desirable than you to indulge his carnal appetites with?”
“I won’t listen to any more of your slander, Charlotte,”
Serafina
said, her legs shaking so badly that she could hardly stand. “I’m going to bed.”
“Very well. Go to your bed. It will be the last night you sleep in it.”
Serafina
stumbled toward the door, unable to bear another second of Charlotte’s viciousness. She thought she had reached the depths of unhappiness last night, but she realized that she had only scratched the surface.
Now she was looking into the true face of hell.
“Where the devil have you been?” Aiden roared as Raphael finally appeared in the library. Aiden had been pacing all day and half the evening, waiting for his black-hearted cousin to appear and his mood, already foul, had only grown worse. He’d had no sleep, and walking the streets of London until ten in the morning had only given him a raging headache.
To return to the news that Charlotte had taken
Serafina
back to Townsend at Serafina’s request hadn’t helped. He’d never been so angry in his life. Charlotte’s note had only enraged him more.
“My, my. You seem to be in a righteous temper,” Raphael said mildly. “The footman gave me fair warning, but he didn’t use the full descriptive power necessary. What’s gotten into you?”
“You damned well know what’s gotten into me. Or perhaps you don’t, given that you’ve been gone since morning.” Aiden clenched his teeth together, trying desperately to control his rage.
“I went to Reading on business,”
Rafe
said, pouring two glasses of cognac and handing one to Aiden. “Did something happen while I was away?”
“Oh, let’s see,” Aiden said, slamming his glass down on the side table.
“Serafina
left. She felt she couldn’t face either of us. I can’t imagine why.”
Raphael took a sip of his cognac. “Then I gather the cat’s out of the bag.”
“You filthy devil!” Aiden spat out. “How can you stand there and look at me as if you’re some innocent in all of this—as if I wouldn’t give a damn what you and my wife got up to while I wasn’t around to notice?” He wanted to choke Raphael. “I should call you out for what you’ve done, and if I didn’t respect your mother so much, I probably would!”
“Duels are more Hugo’s sort of thing, but I do think you’re overreacting to a few tutorials I gave
Serafina,
Aiden.”
“
Tutorials
?
Is that what you call it? By God, Cousin, if you got her with your by-blow during one of your ‘tutorials,’ I swear I’ll kill you!”
Raphael’s hand froze, and he slowly put his glass down. “What did you say?” he asked, his voice very low.
“You heard me, damn you. My God, I always held you in the highest respect,
Rafe.
I believed you to be a man of honor, but that’s a joke, isn’t it?” He glowered at his cousin, so bitter and hurt he could hardly speak.
Raphael picked up a quill from the desk and turned it around in his fingers, then threw it back down. “Do you know,” he said slowly, “if I weren’t a man of honor, I’d probably tear your head off for that remark.” He rubbed a hand over his face, then looked up, his gray eyes dark with anger. “Where the
hell
did you get the cork-brained idea that I seduced your wife?”
Aiden shoved his hands on his hips. “Are you trying to deny it? Don’t bother—Charlotte heard everything you and
Serafina
said last night and she passed it straight along. She told me all about your assignations at Southwell while I was away.”
“Aiden … I don’t know what Charlotte told you, but believe me when I tell you that she got hold of the wrong end of the stick. It’s true that
Serafina
spent three weeks visiting Southwell, but I never laid a hand on her, I swear it, not unless it was to teach her how to dance, or curtsy, or climb in and out of a carriage without her skirts flying up.”
He rested his hands on the desk and regarded Aiden intently, as if willing Aiden to believe him. “She wanted to learn how to behave like a countess, and I took it upon myself to teach her as a favor to you. It was her idea to keep it a secret—something to do with her pride, and also her concern that you might mistake her motives again.”
Aiden’s eyes narrowed. He wanted to believe Raphael more than life itself, but he wasn’t about to accept such a facile explanation, not when Charlotte had damned Raphael so completely. “Do you think
I
’m a complete fool?” he said.
“I’m beginning to think you might be,
yes,” Rafe
agreed, a glimmer of a smile showing around his mouth. “Aiden, I
know
how you feel about your wife. I’ve known since the day before your marriage.”
Aiden stared at him. “What kind of miserable excuse is that supposed to be? I may have thought
Serafina
was a conniving harridan, but that’s no reason to—”
“No, you clod pole,” Raphael said, cutting him off. “I mean that I realized almost immediately that
Serafina
was your wood nymph.”
Aiden’s mouth opened in shock, and he quickly snapped it shut again. “You—you did?”
“Yes, of course I did,”
Rafe
said with exasperation. “Do you see now? I wasn’t going to say anything to you, since you obviously didn’t want me to know, but I’m not quite as stupid as you apparently think me.” He rubbed his cheek with one finger. “What truly galls is that you also think me capable of such an underhanded act. Aiden, I would never betray you. Never, no matter the circumstances.”