"He would have ruined my brother as he ruined our father," Judith said, a quaver in her voice. There was no point in denying the truth with this woman, who seemed somehow to know everything anyway. Unconsciously her hands passed through the air as if she could thus dispel the enveloping evil miasma.
Agnes laughed, a shocking crack of amusement. "Unlike you and your brother, your father was a weak fool. He had no idea how to stand up for himself… or to hold onto what he owned."
Judith stared at the woman. Even through her fear and outrage, she recognized the truth of what Agnes had said. But she had always assumed exile and poverty had destroyed George's stability and willpower. Agnes was implying that it had an earlier genesis. "What do you know of my father?" she demanded. "What could you possibly know of the life he led?"
Agnes laughed again and abruptly Judith turned from her. "Get out of my house, Lady Barret."
"I'll leave when I've said what I came here to say, Judith." Her voice dropped to barely a whisper, but each word had bell-like clarity in the still room. "You will pay for what you did… you and your brother."
"Oh, I am paying," Judith said softly, almost to herself. "You don't know how much." Then her voice strengthened. "But my brother will now enjoy his birthright. Sebastian will take his happiness with both hands now. His happiness and place in the world is assured."
"He will pay," Agnes reiterated with a cold certainty that sent renewed chills up Judith's spine.
She could think of nothing to say to combat the menace in the room and, when Gregson opened the door, turned with blind relief toward the distraction.
"Lady Devlin, Lady Isobel Henley, and Mrs. Forsythe."
"Judith, it's the talk of the town," Isobel exclaimed, swirling into the room in a cloud of muslin. "Your brother exposed the Earl of Gracemere as a cheat!"
"I left before midnight," Cornelia put in. She tripped on the edge of the rug and caught herself just in time. "But Forsythe was full of it over the breakfast table. He says Gracemere will never be able to show his face in Society again… Oh, I beg your pardon, Lady Barret. I didn't see you standing there."
Under Judith's incredulous stare, a complete change came over Agnes. The ice left her eyes, a tinge of normal color returned to her cheeks. Her voice was as light and nonchalant as ever. "As Lady Isobel says, it's the talk of the town. I'm sure everyone will be beating a path to your door, Lady Carrington, to talk of your brother."
"I wonder how long the earl has been cheating," Sally commented, sitting down beside the fire. "It couldn't be that he only began last night, could it?"
"Unlikely," Judith said, trying to respond normally. If Agnes Barret could behave as if there were no history and the things that had been said in this room had never been spoken, then so could she. She drew on a lifetime's experience with a masquerade and showed her own mask of insouciance.
"But how did Sebastian know?"
"He's been playing with the earl for the last two months," Judith said, shrugging, averting her eyes from Agnes. "I imagine he realized something wasn't quite right before."
"Miss Moreton, my lady." The door again opened and an excited Harriet bounced in.
"Oh, Judith, I could barely contain myself… such extraordinary news. Is it true that Sebastian discovered the Earl of Gracemere cheating? Oh, how I wish I could have been there." Then Harriet saw Agnes and subsided, blushing furiously.
"You have, of course, never cared for Gracemere, have you, my dear?" Agnes remarked. "Nevertheless, one shouldn't gloat over another's misfortune."
"I find it hard to call it misfortune, ma'am," Isobel said, scrutinizing the plate of sweet biscuits on the coffee tray. "When a man deliberately sets out to injure another man and is unmasked, misfortune seems a misnomer." She selected a piece of shortbread.
Agnes bowed coldly and began to leaf through a periodical on a console table. Cornelia kicked Isobel's ankle with lamentable lack of delicacy and an uneasy silence fell for a minute. Then Sally spoke with customary good nature. "It's quite shocking news, of course. But one can only assume that the earl had a compelling reason to play in that manner. Debts of unmanageable magnitude… what other explanation could there be?"
"You're right," Cornelia said. "We shouldn't be the first to throw stones."
"No," Sally agreed, thinking of four thousand pounds' worth of pawned rubies.
In the next half hour, it seemed that half London was indeed beating a path to Judith's door, agog to learn any details that might not be generally known. Judith dispensed hospitality, asserted she had no inside snippets of gossip since she hadn't seen her brother since the previous evening, and all the while her head spun with conjecture. What possible revenge could Agnes and Gracemere have in mind? The speculation took her mind off her trouble with Marcus to some extent, but did nothing to restore her equilibrium. She waited impatiently for her guests to take their leave, so that she could go to Sebastian.
"Judith, I must go home, Annie has the croup." Sally appeared at Judith's elbow. "Nurse is quite good with her, but the poor little love frets if I'm away too long."^
"I'm sorry." Judith received this information with less than her usual attention. "It's not serious, I hope."
"No… Judith, is something the matter?" Sally regarded her friend closely. "You seem distrait."
"It's hardly surprising," Judith said, trying to pass it off, gesturing around the crowded room. "After last night."
"I suppose not. What did Marcus have to say?" It was a shrewd guess, but Sally was good at guessing games when it came to Devlins.
Judith shook her head. "Not now, Sally."
Sally accepted this with a nod and a compassionate kiss. "Oh, I was forgetting, Harriet had to leave… some errand she has to run for her mother. You were deep in conversation and she didn't want to interrupt, so I said I'd say good-bye for her."
"Thanks. I expect Sebastian will be able to answer all her questions later." Judith smiled, but the strain in the smile was obvious. Sally pressed her hand briefly and left.
Judith looked around the room and realized that Agnes Barret had also made a discreet departure. But then she wouldn't have expected her to make any farewells.
Judith walked to Albemarle Street as soon as the last visitor had left. Sebastian had been watching for her from his front window and came to open the door himself. "I've been hiding," he confessed. "I saw Harry Middleton this morning, but I've had Broughton deny me to everyone else."
"Wise of you," she said. "My drawing room's been full since midmorning with people trying to pry some additional tidbit out of me." She unpinned her hat and drew off her gloves.
Sebastian poured sherry. "You look the very devil," he said frankly. "What happened to you last night? I looked up and you'd gone."
"Marcus took me away just as you were exposing Gracemere."
Sebastian whistled soundlessly. "He saw." She nodded. "All of it." "Bad?"
She nodded again. "Very. As bad as we knew it would be if he found out."
"I'm sorry, love." Sebastian took his sister in his arms and she wept quietly for a few moments while he stroked her hair. "When he's had time to calm down, to look at it clearly, he'll understand. He knows you love him. He'd have to be a blind man not to know it."
"I hoped he loved me," she said drearily. "But love is easily killed, it seems. He despises me." She heard again his voice telling her to go away… to get out of his sight. Such furious contempt.
"Stuff," her brother said. "Of course he doesn't despise you."
"Yes, he does. Anyway, let's not talk of it anymore now. Agnes Barret paid me a visit this morning."