Mary Balogh - Anthology 01 by Luciana

Author:Luciana [Luciana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-02-05T11:59:33+00:00

But knowing you-"

"If the Marquess of Ashendon does become particular in his attentions," Aunt Hetty said, "you have a choice of two courses, Kate. You can discourage him, or you can tell him the full truth.

You must not try to hide it from him."

"But-" Aunt Martha began.

"No," Aunt Hetty said, holding up a staying hand. "It is the only course, Kate. You must see that. There is only heartbreak and humiliation for you in trying to hide the truth, only to have it come out later. It will come out, whatever it is. The ton does not forget. Your mama always used to tell us that. They never forgot that your papa married beneath him. They had a way of looking at her, she told us, a way of holding their heads, a way of smiling."

Kate had not known that of her mother.

"Perhaps," she said, "it is time you knew something of what happened."

"We would never pry, Kate," Aunt Hetty said.

"We love you as you are, dear," Aunt Martha said. "It really does not matter to us what you did to cause your papa to send you to us.

For our own sakes we are glad he did."

Kate was not usually a watering pot. But, for the second time that afternoon she felt tears well into her eyes. "And I bless the day he punished me by sending me to you," she said. "I have a previous acquaintance with the Marquess of Ashendon."

They both looked at her in some surprise.

"I was unwise enough to encourage a half-pay officer whose ambition was to marry a fortune," she said. "I was young and very silly and even more headstrong, and when Papa and Ernest and Algie forbade me to have anything to do with him and when the Marquess of Ashendon warned me against him, I flirted with him all the more. I was exhilarated by a feeling of power over him. Then I... I eloped with him." She did not feel inclined to give them anything but the official version of what had happened. The truth was just too shameful. "We were two days on the way to Scotland by the time the Marquess of Ashendon caught up to us. He paid off my faithful officer and then took me back to London. We were two days and two nights together and of course we were seen. He offered for me the day after we returned. I would not have him."

"Oh, my dear." Aunt Martha broke the silence that followed, her hands clasped to her bosom in a characteristic gesture. "Why? He is so very handsome. And he must have loved you dearly."

"No," Kate said. "He has no feelings at all. He merely did what was right, for which I should honor him, I know. I can only hate him."

"Hatred, Kate," Aunt Hetty said, "is a sin."

"But what a strange coincidence," Aunt Martha said, "that he has rented Ty Mawr, Kate dear, when you live so close."

"Oh, Aunt Martha," Kate said, "it is no coincidence.

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